Breaking the cycle of poverty where poor children grow into poor adults by providing life skill trainings from games and workshops

Neelam Pol

Being an Indian girl who has gone on to pursue prestigious education at Indian Institute of Technology and a successful career in IT, Neelam realized she was lucky to have support of her parents and teachers while growing up. Believing that “luck” should not be the deciding factor in children’s right to quality education, she quitted a corporate job to join a non-profit and worked in rural India to develop the leadership programme for school principals. The opportunity to study Master’s Degree in Education at Harvard allowed Neelam to dig deeper into her passion and founded Khel Planet in 2014.

 

Neelam took part in SE Forum’s SE Outreach Accelerator in 2015.

Khel Planet

Khel Planet

Khel Planet believes that every child, regardless of parents’ income, has the right to play and to create a happy life for themselves and community. Education in India has so far focused on cramming in textbook knowledge and less on life skills. Started as a toy library and game workshop, Khel Planet has graduated to designing their own games backed by research and these are complementing school education with life skills knowledge. Khel Planet wants to provide all children an access to stimulating games that teach them team-work, creativity and problem-solving abilities just as Monopoly has taught many about business strategy and money-making. Khel Planet is also driving a movement to promote the Right to Play (UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 31) in India through Project Khel India.