EkaLavya: Education When the World Went Offline

In 6th grade, I attended school from the corner of my dining room table like most of my friends squinting at a screen that froze more often than not, scribbling notes between power cuts and WiFi drops. It was 2020, and what began as an extended summer vacation slowly morphed into the longest year of our lives.

But as frustrating as my experience was, I realized it was a luxury. I had a device. I had internet. I had teachers trying to make the best of an impossible situation. Thousands of students across India had none of that no laptops, no stable connections, no online classes, and in many cases, no continued access to education at all.

That’s when the idea for EkaLavya first took root.

At the time, it was a sketchy list in a notebook “free lessons for students with no internet?” “community-based learning?” “offline content that updates when connected?” I didn’t have the vocabulary or the experience to build anything yet. But I knew what I wanted it to be: a way to make education accessible, especially when the system failed to keep up.

Years later, with the help of my uncle (a software developer who’s always supported even my most unrealistic ideas), EkaLavya became a reality.

---

What is EkaLavya?

EkaLavya is an educational app designed to bridge the digital divide. It allows students particularly in rural and under-resourced areas to access curriculum-aligned lessons in local languages, even without consistent internet access. Content can be downloaded in advance, shared offline through peer-to-peer transfer, and updated periodically when connected.

We built EkaLavya with the idea that no student should be excluded from learning because of where they live or what they can afford. The app is completely free to use. It’s built to be lightweight, intuitive, and inclusive we consulted teachers, field educators, and students themselves to make sure it met actual needs, not just theoretical ones.

---

Why this matters

India’s digital divide isn’t just about internet speeds it’s about opportunity. During the pandemic, millions of students fell behind or dropped out entirely. And even now, with schools reopened, access to quality learning materials remains uneven.

EkaLavya isn’t a silver bullet. But it’s a step. A reminder that solutions don’t always need to be massive to matter sometimes they just need to be thoughtful, localized, and rooted in empathy.

---

What’s next

We’re currently piloting EkaLavya in a few schools and community centers. We’re working on expanding regional language support, refining content quality, and onboarding more educators. The goal is to scale responsibly to listen, revise, and grow based on real feedback, not assumptions.

For me, EkaLavya is more than just a project. It’s a small attempt to make the classroom whether virtual, physical, or somewhere in between a little more equitable. It’s also a reminder that ideas can grow, even if they start on the margins of a school notebook during a lockdown.

---