How a Londoner keeps Bihar NGO going

AN NGO (non-government organisation) which provides vocational skills to underprivileged students in India’s Bihar state, has described how it continued to provide services in the community despite the pandemic.

The Kusum Foundation, set up in 2008 by London-based banking professional Dr Anand Kumar, focuses on empowering the youth who live within a 20-mile radius of Katesar village in the state. It offers vocational skills in IT, sewing, embroidery and art. More than 5,000 students, of which 60 per cent were girls, have attended its courses.

“During the lockdown, training was suspended. Now classes have resumed around government guidelines,” said Kumar.

Bihar, India’s third-largest state by population, has an unemployment rate of 12.7 per cent, greater than the national unemployment rate of 9.1 per cent.

“The Bihar government has provided bicycles to all girls attending school and there are a new desire and optimism among girls to excel and be self-reliant,” he added.

Kumar, who lives in Harrow, London, is a non-executive director and board member of Union Bank of India (UK) and First Microfinance Bank, Afghanistan. He also worked as a visiting fellow at the University of Greenwich’s Business School for 12 years.

“I learned the primary school I had attended in Katesar was struggling to accommodate the growing number of pupils. I became involved in constructing an extra building for the school, accommodating an additional 600 pupils,” said Kumar.

“I discovered that the IT literacy skills of students were extremely low. I asked one student to forward me his CV and discovered that he didn’t know how to write an email address. This was the moment I knew I had to set up the foundation.”