At BrilliantRead Media, we always strive to bring to our community some of the finest stories from the entrepreneurship world. As part of this endeavour, we invited yet another passionate women entrepreneur – Gayatri Narasimhan for an exclusive interview with us. She is a Trainer, Mentor, Leader, POSH – IC Specialist and Founder Director at Prakramika Institute. Let’s learn more about her inspiring journey, background and advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Gayatri:
We are aware of your contribution to the ecosystem, talk us through your background and your journey as a women entrepreneur, please;
My journey into the special education field started around 12 years back when I met a girl with Autism who was studying in grade 12. Being a software engineer and freelance journalist, I had no clue about people with special needs. Since my daughter was shadowing this girl, I also had to teach her academics (Social).
I just couldn’t teach her at all as I was not equipped and qualified professional. I started questioning myself about the purpose of my education when I could not teach a simple social to a 9th-grade student with special needs. This is where my journey began, quest to learn began, exploring various opportunities began and a beautiful journey began.
As I was exploring my ways to help children with special needs, my academic qualification widened. Completed my post-graduation in psychology, teachers training in special education and many more. Every time I encountered a challenge, I used to explore and learn before helping the children. In this way, I became a yoga therapist, Braingym specialist for children with special needs, sensory therapist, handwriting specialist, behavioural therapist and many more. With all the acquired knowledge I could help a child in a holistic manner.
These techniques helped the children to achieve greater goals and some of my students were toppers in schools. This was a very proud moment for me when children who were considered failures started topping the exams. I have got many awards but the best award I consider was when children started calling me ‘mom’ instead of ‘mam’.
When I was working in a special school, I had to choreograph a dance where children with special needs were performing. When we were all set for the final performance, just a few days prior, a child got a major seizure and he had to be withdrawn from the program. As I had no time to train another child, I made my daughter to perform along with other children.
This program became an inclusive program and a memorable event for both my daughter and myself. That day my daughter asked me a question that after 12th all the students go to colleges to continue their higher education but where do special children go? This question kept lingering in my mind and I came back to India and visited many NGOs. I was extremely happy to notice that all the NGOs were trying their best to empower children with special needs in various vocations. This motivated me to explore different vocations and how each child experienced those vocations.
With many years of experience, now I have developed a proper framework for both inclusive education in normal schools and vocational centres. Since I wished to make these more affordable, I started my own organization in 2015 with the name Prakramika Institute.
Under this banner, I have visited many organizations and have trained thousands of teachers, parents and children with special needs. I have helped schools to set up best practices of inclusive education and a professional vocational centre. All these I have done free of cost as I felt the money should not be the criteria for helping children.
Presently I have started training young adults with special needs in various skill development like front office management, teacher assistant, graphic designing, library assistant to empower them and include them in the workplace. Again this I am doing it completely free as I wish to see them employed.
Our next project is empowering Transgenders. We are now working on the possibilities to empower transgenders and include them at the workplace by giving them the required knowledge.
What attracts you towards entrepreneurship instead of a corporate career?
While working for children with special needs, I understood that we need to work out of the box by exploring various ways. Being in an institution puts us within the boundaries and doesn’t allow us to explore. Moreover, I found parents of children with special needs had to spend a lot of money on therapies and medications.
Hence to reduce their burden and to contribute to the society, I started this social entrepreneurship path which gave me the complete freedom to work and to reach more people. My husband had been the backbone for all my ventures and he has been supporting me financially also. When children achieve their best, the happiness we get motivates us to do more.
‘Prakramika Institute’ is such a unique name; talk us through more about it, please. Our audience would also love to know what kind of problem you are solving with the help of your startup?
Prakramika means Progressive. We wish to see the progress in every person. Be it a child with special needs or an orphan or a transgender, we want to equip them and see them progress in life. Our method of equipping them is to give them the necessary knowledge and exposure.
While we give training, we invite the corporate world to our platform as an awareness program. In this way, they understand the capability of the deprived sector and job opportunities increase. While we give them training in various courses, we also handle their emotional issues also.
My startup is aimed at sharing the knowledge to everyone who wishes to progress in life. Hence we do not charge for any of our services.
During this COVID-19 crisis, what are the measures you have undertaken to continue your business without disruption?
The Covid period was a big challenge. Children with special needs were deprived totally of their therapies and skill development. Children having learning disabilities found it hard to cope up with online classes. Another big challenge we faced was children going through emotional trauma being confined within the house.
~ When we knew the schools were going online for the regular classes, much before they started, we gave ample training to children to learn through computers. We also gave them extra one on one classes to help them with academics
~ To cater to their emotional issues, we conducted online fitness programs and invited many eminent people to interact with children which kept them motivated.
~ For children studying in special schools, we conducted mega online vocational training sessions. We collaborated with ‘Shashwat Jigyasa’, an NGO based in Lucknow to reach more people across India and Oman. In this series, we taught them many vocations to parents and caregivers and helped them to continue the training from home.
~ We also got one more opportunity to collaborate with Atmanirbhar Bharat for vocational learning, to help rural people across India.
Though the Covid period had challenges initially, we could switch seamlessly to online methods through the above-mentioned strategies which helped us to reach more people. I was so happy that I could serve the larger community.
What are the business mantras you have embraced as you sought to establish your success story?
Being innovative and keep broadening the institute with new ideas has made all my ventures a big success. It’s always the “What Next” strategy I have used
What are the three most important lessons you have learned building your startup?
a) Never give up on an idea in which you believe. Keep working to make it a success.
b) Be open to suggestions. Learn from everyone who comes into your life.
c) Don’t get scared of failures. They teach us a new path to progress.
How do you manage yourself and keep on going despite the challenges? What drives you?
Basically, I love challenges. Challenges keep me going and growing. The ultimate satisfaction I get after solving the biggest challenge makes me accept the next challenge with a smile. The happiness I see in children when they achieve and succeed, keeps me moving ahead.
Given the rapid pace at which the world is changing, what are the leadership traits that are necessary for success?
(I) Appreciate others work which acts as motivation.
(II) Create a good workplace culture and a strong team. This makes the work smoother.
(III) Train the people to achieve their success.
(IV) Take feedback as a tool to improve the work.
(V) I prefer to be a Leader driven by passion and guided by values.
In your opinion, what is more necessary: An idea or a good team for a successful startup?
Both are important according to me. A startup needs a creative idea and a dedication to the team to make it successful. For developing a creative idea, I keep myself open to suggestions and analyzing the market.
Since Prakramika Institute is more towards the service side, we have associated with many like-minded people to make the creative ideas a success.
You are always positive and motivated, what keeps you going?
Serving the community is my passion. Making others happy gives me the ultimate happiness. I also love challenging task, making impossible to possible gives me utmost satisfaction.
Hence I take the challenge of making people with special needs succeed in life. The happiness I see in them keeps me motivated and to stay positive always.
We would love to know your advice for all those starting out as an aspiring women entrepreneur?
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
