Chapter — Our story
Established 1999. Twenty-five years of work that started with one question.
Nirvanavan Foundation has spent twenty-five years transforming lives through education, community empowerment and sustainable development in the remote areas of Alwar, Rajasthan.
3000+
Students educated
50+
Communities served
3,000+
Trees planted
25+
Years of service
Children from backward communities deserve more than what they are told.
There are children from backward communities that are devoid of simple basics. We thrive to give them an opportunity towards a better life through holistic education.
We work in the remote areas of Alwar district of Rajasthan on educational, social and cultural issues. We work with communities belonging to diverse cultural identities with a vision of peaceful coexistence. We work for child rights and advocacy, and also for preservation of historical, natural and cultural heritage.
Chapter — Our purpose
Six commitments guide our work
Primary education
Providing basic primary education so that children have a tool to explore alternatives in life other than the trade of sex.
Engaging the community
Engaging the community, particularly sex-workers, to form a School Development Committee that supports the community-based schools run by the foundation.
Curriculum development
Establishing a Curriculum Development and Research Wing to create an activity-based curriculum with a holistic approach.
World peace and harmony
Designing events for world peace and harmony that engage men, women and children.
Community service and mindfulness
Introducing community service and mindfulness as integrated subjects in formal education through activity-based learning.
Sustainability
Creating awareness about sustainable living and preservation of cultural and natural heritage.
For children
Bodhivriksha Education Project
Founded in 2001 at Advaita Garden School and Hostel, the foundation's field office and site for its proposed home for abandoned children. The school began with 25 children and now teaches 350, from Nursery to Eighth, drawn from Dadikar, Dhani, Hajipur, Hajipur Bas, Lapada and Mach villages.
Nat-Kanjar community schools
Ten villages had no government school, so the foundation opened single-teacher schools one by one until ten community-based schools existed. Each was slowly upgraded to two teachers, and classes still run on verandahs, under trees or on temple premises.
Vimukta Vihar — Pipalgarh Nat Basti School and Hostel
Sixty nomadic families in Pipalgarh, just outside Sariska National Park, travel nine months of the year across Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, and their children once wandered and begged with them. A school opened under a banyan tree, and a hostel now lets children stay and study while their families travel.
For community
Bus service for high-school girls
A daily bus carries about 25–30 girls from Dadikar, Dhani, Hajipur, Hajipur Bas, Lapada, Kiron Ki Dhani and Mach Ka Tiraya to high school in Alwar city — villages that between them send 350 children to the foundation's schools.
Schools and sewing centres for drop-out girls
In the agrarian Virat Nagar block of Jaipur district, child marriage and farm labour push girls out of school early. The foundation runs two community-based schools for drop-out girls, in Ban-ganga and Kheda, alongside two sewing centres where women train for a livelihood.
Interfaith Project
In Kairana block, Shamli district, Uttar Pradesh, the foundation works with a madarsa to introduce a regular syllabus alongside Urdu, Arabic and the Koran, and runs three sewing centres for women in the area.
Childline Alwar
As Alwar's district partner in Childline — India's toll-free helpline for children in distress — the foundation's team fields around 25 calls a day and roughly 30 interventions a month, part of a national network of 415 partner organisations across 30 states.
Government school accountability
Since 2012 the foundation has pushed a second strategy alongside its own schools: partnering with public schools to integrate marginalised children, strengthening their libraries, and helping communities act as monitoring watchdogs who hold officials to account.
Migrant children's hostel
A hostel in a Nat village, run in partnership with a government scheme, houses and feeds children whose parents migrate seasonally for work — so a family's travel no longer has to mean a child's schooling stops.
For environment
Gaushala
Thirty-five once-abandoned cows now live in the foundation's gaushala, built around a sustainable model where cow dung is converted into bio-gas and manure.
Shramdaan
On the 22nd of every month, volunteers, staff and children take part in a hands-on shramdaan — digging holes to plant trees and building check dams and ponds.
Rain water harvesting & reforestation
Two large ponds and several check dams now hold monsoon run-off for the dry months ahead. Over 3,000 trees have been planted since, with more going in each year the rains allow.
Environmental education
Children near the Sariska Tiger Reserve learn conservation first-hand through tree planting, clean-up drives and wildlife awareness, while Advaita Garden trials alternative-energy ideas as part of everyday school life.
75+
Children moved on to government schools
300+
Children reached by Childline Alwar each year
415
Partner organisations in the Childline network, nationwide
2001
Year the foundation was formally registered
Our founder
Nirvana Bodhisattva
Founder and Honorary Chairperson of Nirvanavan Foundation, Nirvana Bodhisattva started the foundation in 1999 — registered in 2001 — and has worked hands-on in the affected areas for more than twenty years, alongside serving as Director of Childline, Alwar.
Basic education is a human right of every child in India, and not a privilege of a chosen few.
We are a small charity but we know that what we do is important. Thank you for your support.
Governance
Committee members & advisory board
A working committee governs the foundation day to day; an advisory board brings outside expertise in law, research, art and enterprise.
Shri Nirvana Bodhisattva
Chairperson
Honorary Chairperson, Nirvanavan Foundation · Director, Childline Alwar
Dr. Swami Shivpoojanand Saraswati
Vice-Chairperson
Smt. Anusuiya Roy Verma
General Secretary
Business
Smt. Sunita Mittal
Secretary
Business
Shri Jaisingh Shekhawat
Treasurer
Business
Smt. Shanta Gupta
Member
Yoga teacher
Shri Shyamlal Gupta
Member
Business
Dr. Meena Singh Roy
Member
Service
Shri Sandeep Narang
Member
Service
Ganesh Khedkar
Vice President, Tata Technologies Ltd.
A mechanical engineering graduate with over 30 years of experience, Ganesh has headed Tata Technologies' global Manufacturing Vertical and now serves as Vice President, working with global OEMs and Tier-1 suppliers across automotive, aerospace and other engineering sectors. He has worked on automotive manufacturing projects since his graduation in 1982.
Priya Mann
Educator, Awake and Shine School
A geography graduate of Miranda House, Delhi University, and a human resources professional turned certified Sivananda yoga teacher, Priya taught yoga and led yogic-food workshops in New York City before an experiential-learning school in Kalimpong drew her toward education. She now volunteers regularly at Awake and Shine School.
Ketaki Pimpalkhare
Artist
A Master of Art (Painting) graduate of S.N.D.T. Women's University, Pune, Ketaki has shown work at Art Basel Miami, the Kosovo Art Colony, and galleries in Marrakech, Istanbul, Salzburg, London and Mumbai. She received the Woman Achievers Award in Art (2017) from Naaz Foundation Delhi and the Times Power Woman Award in Art (2017).
Dr. Surbhi Dayal
Area Chair, Humanities & Social Sciences, IIM Indore
An ethnographer whose research covers marginalised communities, sex-workers, dance-bar girls and denotified tribes, Surbhi held a Commonwealth Academic Fellowship at King's College, London, and holds a doctorate from Jawaharlal Nehru University for her multi-sited study of the Kanjar community. She has applied that research directly to developing the foundation's schools for denotified tribes.
Rajinder Sharma
Co-Founder & Mentor, SOL@Shoolini
Retired General Counsel and Board Director at Flipkart, with 35+ years across companies including Punjab Tractors, Tata Steel, IBM, Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel, Coca-Cola, DuPont, JSW and Samsung, Rajinder set up the first legal and corporate affairs departments at several of them. He features in India's list of 100 Legal Luminaries and ranks second on the Top GC Power List of India.
Dr. Meena Singh Roy
Research Fellow, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses
Dr. Roy heads IDSA's West Asia Centre, specialising in Central and West Asia. She has held research positions at Delhi University's Department of African Studies, the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, SOAS and LSE, and was a visiting Research Fellow at the German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA) in 2014.
Our vision
A world where all children have equal rights and opportunities to lead dignified, productive and healthy lives — regardless of class, caste, religion, race or ability.