Akshar Foundation

About Our Founder

Dr. Alaka Sarma is a distinguished educator, activist, and social leader with a legacy of academic excellence and public service. She founded Akshar Foundation in 2013 and serves as its Executive Director, pioneering sustainable educational models for underprivileged children. She was elected twice as an MLA, representing Nalbari in Assam, and served as Commissioner of PRANAM under the Assam government, promoting governance reforms. Dr. Sarma completed her doctoral dissertation on the economy of Nagaland at the University of Bombay and has over 20 years of experience as a lecturer in colleges across Maharashtra and Northeast India. She was the Honorary Director of the Center for Gandhian Studies and Pro-Vice Chancellor at the University of Science and Technology, Meghalaya. Deeply involved in people’s movements in Bihar and Assam, she has passionately advocated for social justice throughout her career, inspiring transformative change through education and empowerment.

The Origin Story

Our journey began in 2016, inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s Nai Talim – a philosophy that emphasises learning through hands-on experience, self-reliance, and community service. Building on this vision, we established kshar Forum, our model school in Assam, to serve children from some of the most underprivileged communities, especially those living around the Boragaon landfill area many of whom were previously engaged in child labour and survival work instead of attending school.

The Akshar Model: Education That Goes Beyond Classrooms

The Akshar Model has evolved into a replicable framework that integrates Foundational Literacy & Numeracy (FLN), peer learning, vocational training, digital literacy, and environmental stewardship, ensuring that education is not only accessible but also transformative. Peer learning is one of the model’s defining features, with every student trained as a tutor. Older students teach younger ones daily, gaining leadership and empathy while  becoming stronger learners themselves. Our interventions focus on strong monitoring of progress, improved enrolment, and the integration of skill-based training, so that children from marginalised sections gain both academic foundations and practical life skills.

Impact: From Students to Communities

In Sivasagar, at Bogidole High School, there is a Class 7 student named Krishna Hazarika. His family of four lives below the poverty line. His father is a carpenter, and the household runs largely on what those daily wages bring in. Krishna came to school regularly, but like most children in his community, he had grown up without any real exposure to practical livelihood skills. Between November 2025 and January 2026, Krishna attended three vocational training sessions on mushroom cultivation run by Akshar Foundation. Something about it stayed with him. He went home and told his parents he wanted to try it himself. They encouraged him, and with an investment of around ₹500, he prepared 40 mushroom cylinders and set to work. Over the next few months, the cylinders began to yield. By March 2026, Krishna had harvested close to 12 kg of mushrooms and sold them in the local market for ₹3,000. For a household living on a carpenter’s daily wages, that was not a small thing. His parents were proud, and they are now helping him expand what he started. For us, Krishna’s journey is exactly why we built Akshar. With three training sessions and a modest investment, a Class 7 student learned a skill, earned from it, and contributed to his own family’s income. This is what education can do when it reaches beyond the classroom: it turns a child into someone who can change the circumstances she/he was born into, and gives her/his whole family a reason to keep her/him in school.

Future Goals: Reimagining the Government School:

Our ultimate goal is to help children break free from the cycle of poverty by equipping them with quality education and vocational skills that prepare them for real-world challenges. We aim to empower them to become self-reliant individuals who can build secure livelihoods, and equally to grow into responsible, engaged citizens who care for their communities and their environment. Our larger vision is to nurture students as agents of change: young people who not only escape poverty themselves, but stay to lead, to care, and to give back, creating positive and lasting change within their own communities.