This ex-investment banker is helping tribal children in Madhya Pradesh secure better career opportunities

In a remote village in the district of Mandla in Madhya Pradesh—about three hours away from Jabalpur—stands Riverside Natural School. 

The residential school, started by Priya Nadkarni and Digvijay Singh in 2016, is home to over 300 tribal students. It offers education, shelter, and nutrition and trains the students in football, farming, and technology.

According to Nadkarni, these remote villages don’t have proper access to education or any role models to encourage kids to pursue learning. Further, a dearth of good teachers, limited access to technology, and rampant malnutrition have made learning more challenging.

“Most people do not trust the education system, and they believe that after 12 years of education, the child will go back to working on the farm. This belief needs to be changed,” Nadkarni says.

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A conscious choice

Growing up in Mumbai, Nadkarni completed her graduation in economics from St. Xaviers College. She pursued journalism in Chennai and worked as a finance journalist for two years. 

As her interest piqued in finance and marketing, in 2009, she decided to do an MBA from ISB Hyderabad and become an investment banker. She worked at Unitus Capital for three and a half years before realising she wanted to work at the grassroots level.

In 2012, Nadkarni joined Pradan (Professional Assistance for Development Action)—which coordinates with the Madhya Pradesh government to introduce programmes to train women and youth in the state. 

It was here that Nadkarni met Singh, and the duo started working on a consultancy project. While providing skill training to over 1,000 tribal youth in the Mandla district, she observed these youth to be poorly educated and ill-equipped to handle urban life.

“We realised that the youth wanted jobs but weren't seeking private jobs. Those who went for private jobs used to come back and continue with manual jobs, while girls would get married,” she adds.

These existing problems in the education system motivated her to work fundamentally on education, and she established the Riverside Natural School under the Mrida Education and Welfare Society.

Nadkarni says her decision to work in the social development sector did not happen overnight. “Social development is not just about achieving numbers, but it is about reaching out to as many people as possible and doing the most an individual can for anyone,” she explains.

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Building a better future 

Besides the usual subjects like Maths, Hindi, Science, etc., the Riverside Natural School focuses on three key areas—football, farming, and technology—and students from Class 6 onwards can specialise in them.

Nadkarni explains that the residential school, which follows the curriculum set by the Madhya Pradesh Board of Secondary Education, aims to foster all-round development and help the students in securing better career opportunities. 

In terms of technology education, the school has partnered with platforms like Coursera and other online and offline training providers to teach basic programming, Python, Java and AI tools.

For farming, the Riverside Natural School takes students on farm visits so they can gain additional hands-on knowledge about farming and different aspects of agriculture.

Moreover, it has a football head and six other coaches who train the students in the sport. “Our U-17 girls teams have been the Madhya Pradesh champions for two consecutive years and have represented MP at the Subroto Cup in 2022-23 and 2023-24. They are also currently top of the table at the Khelo India U-17 league in Delhi,” Nadkarni adds.

“The main goal is that 80% of the students who finish class 12 should be employed, pursuing higher education, or engaged in farming entrepreneurship in the coming years," she says. She adds that the school has definite plans for each programme.

Starting with 30 students, the school now has over 300 students, and the hostel houses nearly 147 students. Students attending the school within a 25 km radius are usually day scholars, while it offers hostel facilities to those from far-off areas.

She says that through the hostel, they ensure students get a conducive learning environment and good nutrition. The school has tied up with Zomato’s Feeding India meal programme for the same.

With 14 teachers, the school holds classes from pre-primary to class 12, and each class has 25 to 30 students. These teachers earn around Rs 15,000 per month and come from nearby areas.

Explaining the fee structure, Nadkarni says the school conducts a socio-economic survey of the children and their families. For children from underprivileged backgrounds, it provides free hostel stay and education.

Some students are also given tuition scholarships, where they are charged any tuition fee. However, they have to take care of books, stationery, and travel costs. Lastly, the ones from better-off backgrounds pay a sum of Rs 9,000 a year.

According to Nadkarni, Riverside Natural School has received funds from the likes of Ador Foundation, Innoven, Simply Sports Foundation, and other wealthy individuals.

A majority of students who come from underserved communities wish to start earning as soon as possible. For that, the school helps them fetch internship opportunities in Zoho, etc.