Manav Teerth

Much of contemporary education focuses on academic success, career preparation and economic advancement. These goals are valuable, but they may not fully address the deeper questions young people face.

Students often complete formal education without clarity about relationships, responsibility, emotional wellbeing or the purpose of work. They may be professionally capable but uncertain about how to live with balance and fulfilment.

Manav Teerth seeks to respond to this gap. The project recognises that education should support both competence and understanding. A learner should be able to develop practical skills while also gaining clarity about human values, family relationships and responsible participation.

A major part of Manav Teerth is its three-year residential youth programme for individuals between the ages of 18 and 30.

The programme is designed to help young people develop clarity, responsibility and the capacity to participate meaningfully in society. Participants study Jeevan Vidya–Sah-Astitva while also taking part in practical campus activities. This combination allows them to connect understanding with conduct.

The target is to prepare approximately 15 young people each year, with the longer-term ambition of expanding the programme to accommodate around 100 students. The aim is to support young adults who can contribute constructively to education, agriculture, social initiatives, and community life.

Prerna Vidyalay is the school component of Manav Teerth. The school follows a CBSE-patterned academic framework while also incorporating Jeevan Vidya–Sah-Astitva, values and personality development into the educational environment.

The school seeks to create a balance between academic learning and human development. Students are encouraged to develop intellectual capability without losing sight of relationships, responsibility and cooperation.

The presence of Prerna Vidyalay within a larger residential campus gives students access to a broader learning environment where they can observe farming, animal care, resource management and shared responsibility as part of everyday life.

This makes education more connected with reality and helps students understand that knowledge has meaning when it is applied responsibly.

Manav Teerth is not designed only as an institution. It functions as a living campus. The daily environment becomes part of the educational process. Students and residents are able to participate in activities that connect understanding with action.

The campus grows part of its own food and maintains a Gaushala for milk and animal care. It also uses solar energy and water-cycling systems. These practices help students understand the relationship between consumption, production and responsibility.

Sustainability is therefore not taught only as an environmental subject. It is experienced as part of daily living.

Manav Teerth aims to demonstrate how education, livelihood, relationships and ecology can be connected.

The campus’s sustainable practices are rooted in the idea that human beings should use physical resources responsibly while ensuring mutual prosperity.

Manav Teerth currently accommodates more than 300 students through its school, youth programme and wider campus activities.

The project’s deeper impact lies in its effort to humanise education. Rather than measuring success only through examination results, Manav Teerth also looks at responsibility, participation, relationships and the learner’s ability to live with greater clarity.

SHAPE Foundation supports Manav Teerth through financial assistance for infrastructure, programme development and operational needs.

The total cost of the wider building and campus development has been estimated at approximately ₹3 crore to ₹4 crore.

Annual support associated with SHAPE Foundation has ranged between ₹20 lakh and ₹25 lakh, with funding used for construction, programme development and campus operations. SHAPE Foundation has supported important infrastructure priorities, including the development of a new kitchen block.

The partnership reflects SHAPE Foundation’s commitment to education that supports human understanding, responsible living and long-term social transformation.

Manav Teerth has developed partnerships with educational and government-linked institutions to support teacher development, educational dialogue and wider institutional engagement.

Partnerships are important because they allow the learning developed at Manav Teerth to reach beyond the campus.

Manav Teerth seeks to become a model that other institutions and communities can learn from. The project suggests that education can prepare individuals not only for careers but also for a more harmonious way of living.

By documenting its methods, strengthening its programmes and developing partnerships, Manav Teerth can contribute to wider conversations around the humanisation of education.