I-Saksham (www.i-saksham.org) develops local young women in Bihar as 'Leaders of Change' through education (edu-leaders) to promote the vision of 'Voice and Choice for Every Woman' in their communities.
The women leaders participate in a comprehensive two-year leadership development program, followed by ongoing alumni engagement, where they achieve several key milestones. First, they gain self-belief in the significance of their identity and develop the confidence to nurture their aspirations. They then demonstrate leadership by impacting girls in government schools and their communities through initiatives that enhance educational inclusion, deliver life skills, and counsel parents. As part of a peer-driven cluster, they find a safe space to discuss and address personal and community challenges. Additionally, they establish connections with various stakeholders, including academia, government, and civil society organizations, to pursue their chosen life paths, ultimately becoming role models. Finally, they gain acceptance from their families and communities, thereby reshaping the perception of women's roles.
i-Saksham currently has a network of 800+ leaders in 5 districts of Bihar - Begusarai, Gaya, Jamui, Munger, Muzaffarpur. A recent third-party impact assessment shows that these young women leaders have had a massive multiplier effect on gender, equity, and education in their communities.
- Districts: 5
- Gram Panchayats: 50
- Government Schools: 158 Participants
- Edu Leaders: 600
- Parents Reached: 10,000
- Children Reached: 12,000
Mobile and Tablet-Based Edu-Leader Assessment:
- 43% reduction in selection time, from the BAU pen-paper-based process. Saving 1,600 person-hours per 500 candidate selection.
- Eliminated travel for candidates, saving 8,000 hours and INR 1.6 lakh in costs in 2024-25 cycle.
- Improved accessibility enabled more marginalized candidates to participate in the selection process, within their village.
- Streamlined process freed I-Saksham staff for higher-value tasks.
The Edu-Leader Fellowship Program at i-Saksham empowers young women committed to education and gender equity, building their skills to lead within their communities and drive meaningful change. Through a rigorous selection process, these leaders gain the confidence to pursue impactful roles and help others grow.
The traditional program required extensive manual effort for recruiting edu-leaders, with multiple steps from scouting to on-site testing, making the process lengthy and resource-intensive. Candidates and field teams faced challenges, including long travel distances and increased time and costs for all involved.
Koita Foundation supported i-Saksham in selecting and customizing a digital platform, making the program more accessible and scalable. This empowers more young women to participate in the selection process within their village, while simplifying processes for i-Saksham coordinators, assessors, and interviewers.
- The i-Saksham team faced significant challenges in candidate selection due to a cumbersome, manual process. This paper-based system required candidates to travel long distances for on-site written assessments and return for interviews, resulting in a lengthy and resource-intensive process that increased time and travel costs for both candidates and i-Saksham.
- The Eduvantage Assessment Platform now provides a mobile-based system that allows candidates to register and complete assessments on-site, ease of scheduling interviews, significantly streamlining the selection process and eliminating the need for long-distance travel.
- The platform enables real-time data collection and analysis, allowing i-Saksham coordinators to swiftly evaluate candidates and streamline the onboarding process, significantly boosting efficiency.