Journalist Turns Brick Kilns Into Schools for 3,000 Kids

Children who should be holding pencils were making bricks instead. Anshu Jaiswal, a journalist from Jharkhand, saw families from the Musahar community migrating to Bihar's brick kilns, where even a decent meal was hard to find and education seemed impossible.

The children's schooling stopped every time their families moved for work. Many were forced into the kilns themselves, earning extra money instead of learning to read.

Jaiswal decided these kids deserved better. Through his Neev Ki Eent Foundation, he created Akshar Learning Centres right at the brick kilns where families work.

The approach is brilliant in its simplicity. Instead of asking families to choose between work and school, the schools come to them. Children can attend classes at the same sites where their parents earn a living.

The centers focus on math and Hindi to build foundational skills. The goal is preparing kids to enter or return to mainstream schools, giving them a real shot at education despite their families' migrations.

But Jaiswal's vision goes beyond basic literacy. Students receive career guidance and skill development support. The foundation wants to show these children that life can offer more than the brick kilns their parents know.

The foundation works on three pillars: awareness, education, and empowerment. It's not just about teaching kids to read but about restoring dignity to entire families.

Teach For India's TFIx incubation program supported Jaiswal's educational entrepreneurship. The backing helped him scale his impact across Bihar's brick kiln communities.

The Ripple Effect

Last year alone, over 400 children enrolled in the Akshar Learning Centres. That's 400 childhoods reclaimed, 400 futures rewritten.

The foundation also helped more than 250 families obtain identity documents and access social security schemes. These papers unlock rights and benefits that families didn't know they could claim.

For the Musahar community, long pushed to society's margins, Jaiswal's work represents something profound. It's recognition that their children matter, that education is a right, not a privilege for others.

The foundation promises every child education, every worker dignity, and every family freedom. In brick kilns across Bihar, that promise is becoming reality, one classroom at a time.