Building a New Foundation for Education: Anshu Kumar’s Neev Ki Eent Foundation for Children of Bihar’s Brick Kiln Workers

Neev Ki Eent Foundation is an NGO established by Anshu Kumar in 2023. It supports children of migrant brick kiln workers whose education is disrupted when families move for employment. The foundation treats schooling as part of a wider family challenge, not as an isolated school issue.

Its main programme, Project Swabhimaan, combines education with documentation, government welfare access, community mobilisation, and local leadership. The work responds to practical barriers. These include distant schools, missing birth certificates or Aadhaar cards, and limited awareness of welfare schemes. The foundation’s approach is to take learning closer to where children live and work, while helping families secure essential services.

The initiative began from Anshu’s experience in Sheikhpura and now operates across the district under Project Swabhimaan. It aims to help children continue learning despite seasonal movement and help families gain stronger links with public systems. Its broader lesson is that education becomes more reachable when family needs are addressed together.

Anshu Kumar Jaiswal is a development professional from Bihar and the founder of Neev Ki Eent Foundation. He studied mass communication and later completed a master’s degree in social work, specialising in youth and community development. He also worked with government and development institutions, including the Aspirational Districts Programme, Parliament, and the Ministry of Labour and Employment.

His decisive experience came between 2019 and 2021. As a Gandhi Fellow with the Piramal Foundation, he worked in Sheikhpura. There, he met families living and working at brick kilns and saw how migration affected children’s education and access to services. He learned that school enrolment alone could not solve the problem.

Anshu concluded that documents, welfare schemes, and community participation mattered too. After 2022, he spent more time with migrant workers and kiln families. In 2023, he established the foundation to develop a practical response combining education, documentation, and local support.

Seasonal migration is widespread among families in Bihar who move in search of employment. The article states that thousands of families travel from one place to another each year. A significant number find work at brick kilns, where families may remain for a few months before moving again.

This movement changes both the family’s home and workplace. Children usually travel with their parents rather than staying behind. The article does not give an exact number of brick kiln families or migrant children, so the scale cannot be measured more precisely from the available information.

The broad scale matters because the challenge is repeated and shared by many families, not limited to one household. It creates a need for education and welfare systems that can work across locations. Project Swabhimaan was implemented across Sheikhpura district to respond to these linked needs.

Moving between brick kilns interrupts education because children often travel with their families. When a family leaves its village for several months, the child may be far from the usual school. A new worksite may not have a nearby school, and the family’s next move can create another break.

The problem is not only distance. The article notes that families may lack birth certificates, Aadhaar cards, ration cards, or bank accounts. These gaps can make it harder to access government services and connect children with education. Limited awareness of welfare schemes adds another barrier. As a result, simply asking a child to attend school does not address the full situation.

The foundation’s response is to make education more accessible to children where their families work. It also helps families obtain documents and connect with schemes. This combined approach could support more continuous learning during migration, although the article does not provide outcome figures.

The provided article does not describe Akshar Learning Centres, so their specific design, teaching methods, staffing, or schedule cannot be established from this text. It also does not state whether these centres operate inside brick kiln sites, nearby communities, or another location.

The article does present the wider idea behind bringing education closer to migrant children. Families may stay at brick kilns for a period, and children usually move with them. Schools can be far away, while frequent movement makes regular attendance difficult. Project Swabhimaan therefore asks how education can be made accessible where children are staying.

This suggests that location and family circumstances must shape the education response, but the excerpt gives no concrete details about Akshar Learning Centres themselves. More information would be needed to explain their activities accurately. The article does identify education, documentation, welfare access, and community mobilisation as the project’s focus areas.

Documents matter because they help families prove identity and eligibility when seeking public services. The article names birth certificates, Aadhaar cards, ration cards, and bank accounts as essential records. Without them, migrant families can struggle to access education and government support, especially when they move between locations.

The consequences are practical. Missing documents can affect access to ration supplies, healthcare, and social security services. They can also make it harder to connect children with schools. Limited awareness of welfare schemes adds to the difficulty, so having a document alone may not be enough without guidance on how to use it.

Project Swabhimaan responds by helping families obtain essential documents and connect with government welfare schemes. This expands the education response beyond classrooms. When documentation and welfare barriers are addressed, children may have a stronger chance of continuing studies while families receive broader social protection.

Seasonal migration is the temporary movement of families from their village to another place for employment. In the article, many Bihar families move to brick kilns for a few months. Their home and workplace change together, and children usually move with them.

This pattern can place children far from their regular schools. A child may also face missing documents, unfamiliar systems, and limited information about welfare schemes. These problems show why education cannot be treated only as a matter of sending children to a fixed school. The family’s movement affects whether attendance and enrolment are possible.

Education systems may therefore need responses adapted to mobile families’ circumstances. The article describes a model that takes education closer to where children are and combines it with documentation, welfare access, and community participation. Project Swabhimaan reflects this approach across Sheikhpura district, though the article provides no measured results yet.