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Andhra man works to protect childhoods of 90,000 kids across 110 villages

By · Via Times of India · Published by Everything Blog

In short

Bethala Veera Swami partnered with childhood peers in 2011 to launch PARD India, aiming to counter the financial pressures that drive rural children into manual labor. The initiative began with an after-school program for 50 primary students at a local government school, offering six days of weekly instruction in subjects like science and mathematics. To bridge educational gaps further, Swami contributed ₹8 lakh in 2012 to establish a 15-computer learning hub in Yernagudem that provided free digital training for nearly eight years. Instructors continue to work directly with parents and local volunteers to track student attendance and prevent dropouts.

Key points

  • PARD India relies on after-school academic programs and community engagement to keep at-r…: PARD India relies on after-school academic programs and community engagement to keep at-risk children enrolled in school.
  • Self-reported figures show the nonprofit has reached over 90,000 children across 110 vill…: Self-reported figures show the nonprofit has reached over 90,000 children across 110 villages and 550 communities.
  • Community interventions combine direct classroom instruction with digital literacy and pa…: Community interventions combine direct classroom instruction with digital literacy and parent outreach to reduce rural dropout rates.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

Born to daily-wage agricultural labourers, Bethala Veera Swami grew up seeing how poverty could stand between children and education. Today, the mechanical engineer, who continues to work in Abu Dhabi, is helping rural children access learning opportunities through PARD India, the nonprofit he founded with childhood friends. Growing up in the rural village of Yernagudem, Bethala Veera Swami saw how a family's financial circumstances could determine a child's future. Children with dreams of continuing their education sometimes had to leave school and work to support their families; some children entered the workforce. Others left school because there was little support at home or because they had fewer opportunities to learn beyond the classroom. For a child growing up in a household dependent on daily-wage agricultural labour, the consequences of poverty were not an abstract problem. They were visible in the lives of people around him.

Years later, those experiences would help shape an initiative aimed at ensuring that fewer children face the same choices. Swami founded Pragathi Association for Rural Development (PARD India) in 2011 with childhood friends from Yernagudem…

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