This weblog submit is being visitor written by Shreya Arora on Cisco’s India Money Grant group, the place she helps the rollout and governance of CSR packages throughout India. Drawing on seven years of expertise in program improvement and fundraising, Shreya brings a holistic view of the nonprofit world and a powerful need to translate native wants into real-world options.
Shreya’s dedication to inclusive, community-driven change is fueled by the inspiration she finds in collaborating with Cisco’s various community of companions.
Within the bustling lanes of India’s villages and cities, desires typically collide with limitations. For hundreds of thousands of households, social welfare packages maintain the promise of a brighter future; nevertheless, the pathways to those advantages are sometimes managed by older, lower-tech programs that may be advanced to navigate. In 2018, Cisco partnered with Indus Motion, an India-based non-profit, to handle this problem, digitally reworking important social safety programs to be extra citizen-friendly and efficient.
By our ever-evolving partnership, Cisco and Indus Motion have helped numerous weak residents rework their lives for the higher by rising their entry to training, maternal well being, labor welfare, and extra. Learn on to learn the way Indus Motion is utilizing inventive digital options to drive ecosystem innovation, constructing extra resilient and thriving communities within the course of.
Bridging the hole: Training for each youngster
Training might be transformational for anybody—but, for a lot of low-income households in India, it stays elusive. Recognizing this problem, Cisco and Indus Motion joined collectively to help the implementation of Part 12(1)(c) of India’s Proper to Training (RTE) Act. This coverage mandates that 25% of seats in non-public, unaided faculties be reserved for youngsters from economically deprived sections and teams.
With Cisco’s help, Indus Motion developed an Training-Administration Info System (EdMIS), an modern expertise platform designed to streamline the RTE admissions course of. The work spanned three states full-time and supported 4 others, making certain admissions for about 2.15lakh (215,000) college students. From college and scholar registrations to software lotteries, reimbursements, and scholar monitoring, EdMIS has simplified advanced administrative workflows and ensured transparency throughout the ecosystem.
Households like Somesh’s, whose son gained admission to a non-public college beneath RTE, live proof of the transformative energy of this initiative. “With out this provision, enrolling our youngster in a non-public college would have been practically unimaginable,” Somesh’s mom shared. “This coverage helps households like ours. We hope it continues to help others like us sooner or later.”
Indus Motion’s flagship challenge wasn’t nearly speedy outcomes—it was about constructing scalable, replicable, sustainable options for the long term. By launching the EdMIS platform in states like Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, and Haryana, whereas supporting others in Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh, the partnership laid the groundwork for lasting systemic change.
Supporting pregnant and first-time moms
In 2020, Cisco and Indus Motion expanded their attain to help pregnant and first-time moms beneath the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY), a welfare program for maternal well being. The target of PMMVY is to offer partial compensation to pregnant ladies and lactating moms who had been working and needed to expertise a wage loss as a result of being pregnant.
Impressed by the EdMIS use case, a dashboard and hotline had been developed to streamline operational efficiencies and information monitoring for the state of Uttar Pradesh, whereas offering a discussion board for the recipients to hunt help. Over 18,000 ladies acquired all three instalments of the money profit, and the challenge witnessed over 60,000 new registrations.
Money advantages are delivered in a well timed method, with further enhancements in service supply. Past this, this system has resulted in a rise in health-seeking conduct—reminiscent of antenatal and prenatal check-ups.
Safeguarding labor welfare
In 2025, Cisco and Indus Motion renewed their partnership with a daring new focus: enhancing welfare for employees registered beneath the Constructing and Different Building Employees Welfare Board (BOCWWB). Leveraging the teachings discovered from RTE implementation, the companions purpose to deploy expertise to simplify entry to advantages, deal with grievances, and improve governance for employees and their households.
Cisco’s funding in grievance redressal mechanisms has already confirmed invaluable, serving to households efficiently navigate the often-confusing welfare panorama. By listening to residents’ considerations, Indus Motion has not solely resolved particular person circumstances but additionally used these insights to strengthen insurance policies and processes on the state degree.
Working in the direction of a future the place good training is for everybody
Our partnership with Indus Motion is greater than only a program; it’s a motion—an illustration of how expertise, when paired with Objective, can dismantle limitations, construct bridges, and enhance essential ecosystems. As Cisco and Indus Motion proceed their journey, the teachings discovered and milestones achieved will function a playbook for driving scalable, sustainable change throughout India.
To be taught extra about Indus Motion’s initiatives and discover methods to become involved, go to their web site at indusaction.org. Collectively, we are able to create higher social safety programs that work for everybody.
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