Atul and Prajakta

One of the most important support in an entrepreneurial journey is the one that is there when choices are hardest. In 2022, Learning Companions found itself at one such moment. A new Government Resolution in Maharashtra made engagement with schools far more complex for NGOs. What earlier required coordination at the district level now demanded permissions from the state. Many organisations responded in familiar ways—moving their work to before- or after-school centres, or aligning tightly with bureaucratic pathways that only a few large NGOs could navigate.
We felt the same pull. The pull to choose what wouldn’t scare people around us, our donors, team, ground staff. What would feel safe, legible, and predictable. But we also knew that these choices, repeated over decades, are how genuine efforts to change education quietly lose their soul.
We decided to choose a more uncertain path. We would neither wait indefinitely for state permissions, nor retreat into parallel systems. Instead, we chose to work at the level of the Gram Sabha—engaging schools locally, rooted in community trust—and remain prepared for friction with the system if it came to that.
Atul and Prajakta have been the source of ideas, and a firm support system in countless moments like these. Their support did not ask for guarantees. It offered trust. It gave us the courage to stay aligned when dilution would have been easier. In a journey where uncertainty is unavoidable, that kind of backing truly matters.