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Highlights Of The #RangDe Telethon: An Initiative To Provide Interest Free Loans To Students From Low Income Households
New Delhi Television Limited (NDTV) and Rang De India, a peer-to-peer lending platform have come together to initiate a campaign to prevent children from dropping out of school by providing interest-free loans to young students from low-income households across the country and create awareness about the crisis brewing in the education space.
Here are the highlights of the #RangDe Telethon:
The future of our country depends on the education of our children: Dr. Prannoy Roy on #RangDe Telethon
If the future of our country depends on one thing, it is the education of our children. Almost 50 per cent of our schools are private and just over 50 per cent are government schools. By private we mean even small schools in villages which are increasingly in demand. Parents all across are focused on sending children to school. Parents are sending children to unaided private schools and that has seen biggest growth. Gone up by 25 per cent and sending to government schools has fallen by 18 per cent. The major shift from government to private is due to the general reputation and people prefer private schools.
Parents are focused on educating children so they borrow money from moneylenders. Often they have to pay 75 per cent in interest to moneylenders. What Rang De does is, is to give education loan to parents for sending children to school. Rang De loans will be Zero interest. This could have huge impact on children. Rang De is not asking for donation. If you help, that money sent to Rang De and it will be returned to you. You are giving loan and you will get back the principal amount. With interest free loan you will help so many children.
Schools are beginning to reopen amidst a lot of chaos. Teachers have had to undergo salary cuts, many parents have not been able to pay the school fees due to job losses. For low income households, the challenge is accentuated further. With classes going online, thousands of children have had to scramble for gadgets to get online. The digital divide has never been more obvious, resulting in several kids dropping out of school.
To address the brewing crisis in the education space, Rang De along with NDTV hopes to intervene by providing interest free loans to low income households. The campaign aims to create awareness about the problem and raise interest free loans for student communities across India.
Rang De is a peer-to-peer lending platform that enables individuals to invest in fellow Indians. Started in 2008 as a non-profit, Rang De is now an RBI regulated peer-to-peer lending platform (NBFC-P2P).
Rang De's mission is to provide access to low cost, collateral-free loans with respect and dignity. Since inception, Rang De has been supporting farmers, artisans and small businesses and individuals who have been denied credit or cannot afford high-interest loans.