Lakshya Foundation x Tata STRIVE | A New Bridge from Lavhali to Livelihood
When Education Began Moving Toward Employability
On 06 October 2025, Lakshya Foundation took an important step in the next chapter of its journey—moving from education access toward skill development, employability, and dignified livelihoods for tribal youth.
For years, Lakshya Foundation has worked across the Badlapur–Murbad–Mhasa tribal belt to ensure that tribal children do not drop out of education. What began in 2009–2010 as a fight against school dropouts has now matured into a larger mission: ensuring that the youth who remain educated also become skilled, confident, and employable.
This day marked one such beginning.
Lakshya Foundation’s Trustee Shirish Patil, along with the team, visited the Tata STRIVE Centre at Turbhe with three youth from the tribal village of Lavhali, Taluka Murbad:
- Asmita Chirate
- Manoj Khandvi
- Tushar Punjara
The purpose was clear:
to enrol them into skill training programs that could open a real pathway toward professional employment.
From Dropout Recovery to Skill Readiness
This moment carried the weight of Lakshya Foundation’s long journey.
In the early years, tribal youth in these villages often dropped out before completing basic education. Many children were pulled into farm work, brick kilns, cattle grazing, or daily wage labour. Education was seen as uncertain. Work, however difficult, felt immediate.
Lakshya Foundation challenged that pattern.
Through years of counselling, Form No. 17 support, exam preparation, school infrastructure work, digital education, bicycles, libraries, and constant village-level engagement, the Foundation helped normalize something that was once rare:
Tribal children completing 10th and 12th standard.
Today, that change is visible.
The average youth in these villages is more educated than before. Families now understand the value of schooling. Students speak with more confidence. Parents who once hesitated now encourage education.
This is a victory Lakshya Foundation is deeply proud of.
But education alone is no longer enough.
The world outside the village now demands skills—technical skills, communication skills, workplace discipline, digital familiarity, and confidence to navigate cities, companies, and formal employment systems.
That is where this new chapter begins.
The Tata STRIVE Opportunity
Lakshya Foundation had been interacting with the team at Tata STRIVE, especially Mr. Roshan Randive from the Turbhe Centre, to explore how tribal youth could be connected with industry-aligned training and placement opportunities.
The model was promising and powerful.
Tata STRIVE would provide:
- skill training,
- workplace exposure,
- professional grooming,
- and placement assistance in reputed companies—free of cost.
Lakshya Foundation would act as the grassroots bridge:
- identifying youth,
- convincing families,
- building confidence,
- supporting logistics,
- bearing travel costs,
- and walking with the students through the process.
This collaboration aligned strongly with Lakshya Foundation’s larger Nirmaangram vision—to create a permanent skill and personal development ecosystem for tribal youth, close to their villages.
Until Nirmaangram becomes fully operational, opportunities like Tata STRIVE are crucial stepping stones.
Three Students, Three First Steps
On this day, the three students from Lavhali took their first formal step.
Tushar Punjara and Manoj Khandvi opted for the Mechanic Training Course.
For both of them, the course represented a pathway into technical work—hands-on, practical, industry-relevant, and capable of leading to stable employment.
Asmita Chirate opted for Front Desk Management.
For her, this was not merely a course. It was a chance to enter a professional environment, build communication skills, learn workplace etiquette, and imagine herself in a role that many rural girls are rarely encouraged to visualize.
Their admissions were completed with hope and seriousness.
Lakshya Foundation committed to bearing their travel expenses for the duration of the training.
The course duration was approximately 45 days.
Forty-five days of effort.
Forty-five days of travel.
Forty-five days of discipline.
And beyond that, possibly a transformed life.
The Journey They Were About to Take
The excitement of admission was real, but so was the challenge ahead.
These students were not travelling from a city suburb to another city suburb.
They were travelling from Lavhali, a remote tribal village near Murbad.
Their daily route would be demanding:
First, they would need to travel nearly 50 minutes by road through forest stretches to reach Badlapur Railway Station. Their dependence would largely be on irregular government state transport buses running on remote village routes.
From Badlapur, they would have to board a crowded local train during peak hours and travel toward Thane.
At Thane, they would need to change trains and continue toward Turbhe Railway Station.
From Turbhe, they would walk further to reach the Tata STRIVE Centre.
For urban youth, this may sound like a routine commute.
For tribal youth stepping into such travel for the first time, it is a major psychological leap.
The crowd, the speed, the platforms, the train changes, the fear of missing connections, the uncertainty of return—all of it forms an invisible barrier.
But on 06 October 2025, the students stood ready to try.
A Day of Hope
When the admissions were confirmed, there was a quiet happiness in the team.
Lakshya Foundation had seen this kind of moment before.
Years ago, when the first tribal dropouts appeared for board exams, people doubted whether they could succeed.
They did.
When girls were encouraged to continue education, people wondered whether families would support them.
They did.
When Lavhali’s school transformation began, people wondered whether a remote tribal school could truly become a model.
It did.
So on this day, we believed again.
Not blindly.
But with the confidence earned from years of difficult work.
Why This Pilot Matters
This pilot batch may have started with only three students, but its significance is much larger.
It represents a shift from:
- literacy to livelihood,
- schooling to skilling,
- village confidence to workplace readiness,
- and aspiration to actual opportunity.
If successful, this model can help many more youth from Lavhali and surrounding villages access structured training and dignified jobs.
It can show parents that education does not end at certificates.
It can show students that their village background is not a limitation.
It can show the community that the next step after schooling is not uncertainty, but skill.
Closing Reflection
As the team returned from Turbhe, the feeling was one of cautious joy.
The first step had been taken.
Three students from Lavhali had entered a professional skill training pathway. Lakshya Foundation had committed to standing with them. Tata STRIVE had opened its doors. A new bridge had begun to form.
This day did not complete a mission.
It began one.
For Lakshya Foundation, 06 October 2025 marked the start of a new question:
Can tribal youth who were once kept away from schooling now be guided into skilled, dignified employment?
Our answer is clear.
Yes.
And we will keep walking with them until that answer becomes normal.