Grade 6 Girls From Government School, Mumbai, Solve Community Problems Through Innovation

L&T, in association with FUEL, implemented an experiential learning program that nurtures the spirit of “innovation & entrepreneurship” in young minds. This transformational program impacted 3 Mumbai-based government schools. Over 800 students from grades 6th to 10th witnessed it. Grade 6 students Shalu, Yurani, Vaishnavi, Kajal, and Shivani attended the ‘ L&T -Innovation & Entrepreneurship Program’ at school.

The early steps of the program helped students identify problems in their surroundings and build innovative solutions to solve them. During these sessions, Shalu, Yurani, Vaishnavi, Kajal, and Shivani, jointly identified a serious problem. They discovered that the girls who come to school rarely get a home-cooked healthy meal. There are limited meal options at school and most students find these options very expensive. They devised a simple yet impactful solution - a home-cooked meal service for school girls. The girls initially decided to learn basic cooking skills and create simple yet healthy meal boxes of Roti, Bhaji, Dal, and Rice.

Later, the students underwent sessions where they learned how to build sustainable venture models that can thrive in the real world. To make it a sustainable venture the girls decided to approach women in their locality who are homemakers or unemployed to cook these meals. This way they would generate employment while building the capacity to cater to a growing demand for meal boxes.

The girls are determined to take healthy home-cooked meals to every girl child in the school. This idea by Shalu, Yurani, Vaishnavi, Kajal, and Shivani, was awarded as the 'Most Implementable Idea' in the ‘L&T -Innovation & Entrepreneurship Program’.