“Do something for girls, as a lot is done for the Boys” – the words echoed in the thoughts of a young man from India, for years, while he was building his entrepreneurial career in the USA riding on his IIT education. Vinod Gupta, a name known for his philanthropic work in India and USA, osmosed those words of his late mother Smt. Ramrati Gupta ji, in his very spirit. Years later it created a new chapter in the lives of hundreds of women, in the Saharanpur region of Uttar Pradesh, under a socio-economic empowerment drive named Ramrati Education Complex.
Vinod Gupta is synonymous with pioneering changes in the IIT education system through the introduction of management and legal education. In addition, he is viewed as the Magi who created an alternate reality for eager learners in higher education, fulfilling their aspirations and metamorphosing their life views. But Vinod’s developmental work follows a plenitudinous path of touching human lives at deeper levels of the society, especially women. The story of Ramrati Education Complex is one such.
Ramrati Education Complex, a unit of Vinod Gupta Charitable Foundation, is located in a remote rural area of Rampur Maniharan in district Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh and has been the hub of social uplifting activities since its inception in July 2000. REC strives for imparting better educational and professional skill facilities to girls of rural as well as urban areas. The Ramrati Institute of Technology, Bill Clinton School and Hillary Clinton Nursing School are hosted at the sprawling campus of REC with state-of-the-art facilities and a total strength of 1510 students.
From school education to professional development the Complex has been a beacon of hope for women of all ages, their families and society. The Bill Clinton School which offers an international standard of school education to students hailing from villages in and around Rampur-Maniharan empowers young girls by subsidizing their education in addition to facilitating their educational journey by providing them with bi-cyles, counseling and grooming. The Hillary Clinton Nursing School established in 2012 has been changing the lives of women from the villages by not only making them financially independent but reconstructing their lives where they become guiding lights for other women in the region.
When former student and nurse Varsha Bansal working in a government hospital leaves for her duty each day, she shimmers hope in the eager eyes of young girls in her neighborhood who dream to embrace an identity of their own. The success story of Priyanka Verma, Anju Devi and Neetu Singh, working as nurses, reaffirms the confidence of women who get married at very young ages and are bound with family duties. When Aarti Sharma applies the COVID-19 vaccine doses, she amplifies the career aspirations of the rural youth, and not only women, towards aiming for glorious achievements. Bhawna Sachdeva, a former student of Smt. Ramrati Gupta Women’s polytechnic is now preparing the next generations of independent women in the same college.
REC’s impact has drawn appreciation not only from its beneficiaries but from administrators and knowledge experts as well.
Shri Alok Kumar Pandey JI, IAS, Director –Training & Employment, Managing Director, Skill Development Mission, Gujarat says “The achievements of Students of Bill Clinton School and Hillary Clinton Nursing School are remarkable examples of the transformation that the institution brings about their students’ life.”
Dr. Ajay Kumar, Director, MEDIGRAM super specialty hospital opines “To me, no country can grow without the growth of women. In Western UP we have seen students from North East, Sikkim and different parts of the country come and study at Ramrati Education Complex and become independent in life.”
The stories and testimonials go on with the ceremony of waking up the power of women even among those who do not have higher education. The Hillary Clinton Women’s Center at REC trains 400 members, especially rural home-makers, from various villages around Rampur Maniharan in different activities like Computers, Yoga, Stitching and English conversation. Lalita Verma, the first trainee who joined the Hillary Clinton Women’s Center in December 2011, now runs her own stitching center and boutique. A former student of Nursery Teacher Training Shaheen Praveen has set up her own school and currently working as a teacher in Basic Shiksha Parishad, U.P.
Vinod Gupta, who has recently been awarded D.Sc. (Honoris Causa) by his alma mater, IIT Kharagpur for his life-long work of transforming lives has been resonating a message across the society through the live testimonials of these women – sometimes women can do better than men. Ramrati Education Complex has not only been the fulfillment of his mother’s longing to give women a better life, but he has ably empowered the women to be part of India’s socio-economic progress, emphatically contributing to India’s march in global platforms.
