Rightwalk Foundation

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Rightwalk Foundation

RightWalk Foundation closely works with the government to drive institutional-level changes and translate them into action on the ground.

Rightwalk Foundation is a non for profit organization solving for socio-economic inequality by co-shaping and co-designing Public Policies in the core areas of Education, Livelihood and Health. The organization intends to make social welfare schemes accessible to the public by collaborating with multiple stakeholders such as policymakers, system leadership and media.

11/08/2026

On 15 May 2025, at Panhala Fort, in Kolhapur, Maharashtra a plumbing instructor spent his day going door to door, fixing water leaks and servicing meters for free. No fee, no fuss, just a teacher showing his students what service looks like in practice.

Meet Naeem Adam Nadaf, our latest RightWalk Champion. He teaches the Plumbing trade at Veer Shiva Kashid Government ITI, Panhala, and has spent eleven years turning a technical trade into a lesson in dignity and self-reliance.

His work with water goes back years. A rainwater harvesting filter in 2016. A "Pit System" project in 2019 that helped save around 1.5 million litres of drinking water a year at ITI Solapur. Trenches built with the Aamir Khan Water Foundation that now hold over a lakh litres in rural areas.

But his real legacy is in his students. Of the 220-plus he has trained, 120 went into apprenticeships, over 100 work at established companies, and over 100 run their own plumbing businesses today. One now ranks second in Maharashtra and serves as a Plumber Technician with the state health department. Another is heading to Germany for an international plumbing role.

As he puts it: "A person who acquires skills can never remain unemployed, and when those skills are combined with social responsibility, they become a powerful force for positive social change."

Who is the teacher who shaped the way you see your own work?

#𝖲𝗄𝗂𝗅𝗅𝖣𝖾𝗏𝖾𝗅𝗈𝗉𝗆𝖾𝗇𝗍

National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (PM-NAPS) Skill Development, Employment & Entrepreneurship Department Directorate of Vocational Education & Training, Maharashtra State

04/08/2026

16 candidates got ready for a job on 30 July 2026. Their disability was never the problem. The real question is whether an employer will look past it and give them a chance.

At the Centre for Life Skills Learning (CLSL) in Kochi, Adithyasree M T from RightWalk Foundation Kerala held a NAPS registration session for these 16 PwD candidates from the Retail Management batch. They have hearing loss, low vision, intellectual disability and lower body disability. This was the second consecutive session at CLSL. The first visit was at a similar time last year.

NAPS lets companies hire apprentices with government support behind them. Many companies already use this scheme. Very few think to look at a candidate with a disability when they do.

A billing counter does not need perfect hearing. Managing stock does not need perfect eyesight. Disability does not mean inability. It just means doing the same job in a different way.

To every company hiring apprentices this year: sixteen candidates in Kochi are ready to work hard and learn fast. All they are waiting for is one employer willing to say yes. Will it be you?

23/07/2026

Registering as an apprenticeship establishment is free and it only takes a few steps online.

But most small business owners have never tried it. Many don't even know it applies to a business like theirs, not just manufacturing units or factories.

That is the gap we try to close with our awareness sessions.

A month back, we held one such session in Pune, for more than 30 women entrepreneurs at MCCIA (Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture). One of them, Smt. Shruti Joshi ji, runs an export-import advisory firm in Kothrud an upmarket residential and commercial hub in west central Pune. Before that morning, she had never even heard of the scheme.

Forty one days and two conversations later, her company, EximTrade Consulting Services Private Limited, was registered on the NAPS portal, with four positions open for apprentices.

What changed wasn't the scheme. The scheme already existed. What changed was that someone sat down with her HR team, led by Smt. Aditi Pavtekar ji, explained the process in plain words and answered the questions the portals take time. That, we think, is where most schemes lose people. Not in the policy, but in the everyday confusion around using it.

Four positions from one business is a small number on its own. But repeat this conversation enough times and it stops being small.

If a simple conversation is often the missing piece, not the policy, what would it take to have more of these conversations happen?

Samina Bano | SBI Foundation | Skill India | Skill Development, Employment & Entrepreneurship Department | National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (PM-NAPS) |

15/07/2026

The talent was never missing. The access was.

Every World Youth Skills Day, we talk about preparing young people for jobs. Maybe the real work is the opposite: preparing jobs to reach young people. India already has the frameworks, the schemes, and the will. The last mile is where most journeys quietly end, and that is exactly where the work matters most.

We have spent years on that last mile, walking alongside government to connect youth with apprenticeships. Around 4,50,000 young people have started earning and learning through these pathways so far. This short film is our tribute to every one of them.

The seats exist. The talent exists. Our job is simply to help them find each other.

So tell us: who opened the first door for you?

| National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (PM-NAPS) | Skill Development, Employment & Entrepreneurship Department | Directorate of Vocational Education & Training, Maharashtra State | Gujarat Skill Development Mission | Samina Bano | Skill India

14/07/2026

The most useful part of a meeting is usually not the presentation. It's what people say after it ends.

Last week, our Kerala team joined the Kerala State Small Industries Association (KSSIA) district meeting in Thrissur, where nearly 30 industry representatives sat down to talk about apprenticeships. Manjusha PP and Adithyasree M T walked them through the NAPS portal, what apprentices bring to a shop floor and how we support employers through the process.

Then the real conversation began.

Industry members spoke openly about what holds them back. No ESI coverage for trainees. Liability worries when minor accidents happen. DBT payments arriving late. Apprentices leaving midway through training.

These are not small concerns. They are the exact reasons many employers hesitate, and they rarely get said out loud in formal settings.

So we listened, clarified what we could and took the rest back as homework. Because an apprenticeship ecosystem is not built by convincing employers. It is built by solving the problems they already know they have.

If you run a business, what has stopped you from taking on an apprentice?

National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (PM-NAPS) | Directorate of Vocational Education & Training, Maharashtra State | Skill Development, Employment & Entrepreneurship Department | Kerala Development and Innovation Strategic Council | Kerala Government |

03/07/2026

Meet the RightWalker: Manav Jinger, our Tech Lead

Some people spend years learning a craft just so they can finally use it on problems that matter to them. Manav is one of them.

He studied at 𝗜𝗜𝗧-𝗗𝗲𝗹𝗵𝗶 (𝗕.𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗠.𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵), then spent six years as a software engineer at Innoplexus and Synopsys Inc. Along the way he picked up a patent, ran an NGO and set up an MSME. But he wanted to practice on the problems he found interesting. That search brought him to RightWalk.

We asked him why he said yes.? The "𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲, 𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗱 and 𝗺𝗮𝗱𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀" of the place, as he puts it. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲: working on issues that attack poverty. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗱: fixing what already exists in public systems and solving the access problem. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗱𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀: getting it implemented, made easier by a leadership team with a 10-year track record.

His favourite part of the work isn't the code. It's operations, talking to users and the ground team.

One moment stuck with him. While building Chatur RTE, he spent about 15 days in Gujarat and the admission season was already live. Through all of it, one user stayed with him the whole time. 𝗠𝗿𝘀 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗶 knew nothing about technology, but she coordinated through the entire build and the whole project came out of her requirements. It felt, he says, like he was building it just for her. At the end, she filed her son's RTE application and got him a seat in a school she had chosen.

He is kept that application saved. For keeps.

That's Manav. Quietly building things that change how a family's day, and sometimes a child's future, turns out.

| Gujarat Skill Development Mission

01/07/2026

Pramod from Nanded, has never filled a government form online before in his life.

Not because his English was weak. But because nobody had told him that if the login fails, he doesn't lose his one shot at an apprenticeship.

That's the real barrier. Not the technology.

On 27th April, we partnered with the Maharashtra Government to launch MahaChatur AI. Not just to make a registration easier, but to close the gap between a government welfare scheme and the students it was actually meant for. Because a good scheme sitting on a portal means nothing if the right student never reaches it.

So our Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar team did what most tech rollouts skip. They went and sat with people, in person.

Krishna Sobha Dnyaneshwar Tandale, our Divisional Coordinator, trained every newly appointed taluka coordinator across Latur and Nanded with support of Pravin Autade ji, District Vocational Education & Training Officer, Latur and Sachin Suryavanshi ji, DVETO, Nanded. Then went to the ITIs himself. Sat with students. Cleared their doubts. Stood next to them for their first login.

In just two districts, 748 students got registered on the NAPS Portal. 329 from Latur and 419 from Nanded.

But the number we are prouder of, the taluka coordinators can now do this on their own. We don't need to be in the room anymore. That's the difference between a pilot and a system that stays.

Krishna said it best: "𝘔𝘢𝘩𝘢 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳 𝘈𝘐 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘣𝘰𝘵, 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘢 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘨𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘐𝘛𝘐 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘫𝘰𝘣𝘴."

We are taking this to every district in Maharashtra now.

We think most government schemes don't fail on paper, they fail at the last mile, where no one stood next to the citizen to explain it. Agree or disagree? Would love to hear from anyone who has run a tech rollout in the field.

| Directorate of Vocational Education & Training, Maharashtra State | Skill Development, Employment & Entrepreneurship Department | National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (PM-NAPS) | NSDC National Skill Development Corporation | Skill India

29/06/2026

"This isn't for us."

That's what Kiran Kashyap from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh thought when she was told about the Right to Education Act. She would have heard big promises before. None of them ever reached her door.

Then one day her son walked into a classroom she always thought was meant for other people's kids.

And what she did after that is the part we can't stop thinking about...

Read her full story in our RightWalk Champions series here:

https://shorturl.at/4PSD6

| Ministry of Education

26/06/2026

A farmer's son in Gadchiroli wanted to work in IT.

His family earned ₹𝟲,𝟬𝟬𝟬 a month. That had to cover food, the farm, everything.

So you can imagine how that dream sounded loud. A boy from a village, no money, no connections, saying he wants to build networks for a living. But 𝗩𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗹 𝗙𝗮𝗹𝗴𝘂𝗻 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝗸𝗿𝗲 didn't let it go.

He finished a two-year course in IT system maintenance at 𝗚𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗜𝗧𝗜 𝗚𝗮𝗱𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗶. He had the skill. He had the certificate. And then nothing happened. Because a certificate isn't a job. In a remote district like Gadchiroli, IT apprenticeships barely exist and that's usually the only way in. So Vitthal sat at home. Skilled. Ready. Going nowhere.

That's where most stories quietly end. His didn't.

One day, at an apprenticeship camp run by us, he met our coordinator, Kapil Bambole. Kapil sat with him, explained how the whole thing works, and connected him to an apprenticeship at a local company, ANK Marketing and Services, through NAPS, a government scheme made for exactly this.

That one connection moved everything. He earned ₹𝟭𝟭,𝟱𝟱𝟬 a month during the apprenticeship. For the first time, he was sending money home instead of asking for it.

Vitthal finished in 𝗢𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱, and the company hired him full-time as an NOC Engineer, keeping networks running across the district. He works alongside the 𝗚𝗮𝗱𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗶 𝗣𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗲 now, earns ₹𝟮𝟱,𝟬𝟬𝟬 𝗮 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵, and is studying for a computer science degree on the side.
But here's what stayed with me.

𝘞𝘦 𝘢𝘴𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵. 𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘢 𝘣𝘪𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘤𝘢𝘳. 𝘏𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘶𝘺 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘢 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘪𝘨 𝘢 𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭, 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘧𝘢𝘳𝘮 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘶𝘯.

The boy the village doubted is now the one taking care of everyone.
So what actually changed?

Not his talent. Not his hunger. He always had those. What changed was that someone finally helped him cross the gap between a certificate and a job. That gap is invisible until you're stuck in it, and it's exactly where most village youth get left behind.

That bridging the gap is the work we do. No freebie, No charity. Just Access.

If you are somewhere far from all the action, thinking the door is shut for people like Vitthal, read this twice. It isn't shut. You just haven't found the handle yet.

| National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (PM-NAPS) | Skill Development, Employment & Entrepreneurship Department | Directorate of Vocational Education & Training, Maharashtra State

24/06/2026

713 people showed up that morning. For many of them, it was the first time anyone had offered them an opportunity.

This was in second week of June, at the Pradhan Mantri National Apprenticeship Mela in Palakkad and Alappuzha dist. of Kerala.

Picture being one of them. You have finished your training at an ITI. You can and want to work. But nobody has given you the chance to show your skill. And then you walk into a hall where 45 employers are right there, waiting to meet you.

That's the quiet thing a mela does. The long wait for a first job becomes a conversation you can have today.

And to bridge the exact gap we as partners work alongside the Government of Kerala, helping the youth get the right opportunity:

→ 713 candidates across both venues
→ 45 employers came to hire
→ 495 apprenticeship openings on the table
→ Chatur Career played it's role by registering them on the NAPS portal
→ And the matchmaking, connecting the right candidate to the right employer

That last part is really our job. The government gets everyone into the room. We make sure no candidate walks out without a connection, and no opening goes unnoticed.

At Government ITI, Malampuzha, the mela was inaugurated by Shri. Sreejith, President, Malampuzha Panchayat, in the presence of Shri. Yuvaraj C, Regional Director, RDSDE, Shri. M. Nitish Kumar, Assistant Director, RDSDE, ITI and RI Centre officers, establishments, and RightWalk's Prabeen C.

At Jubilee Memorial Private ITI, Alappuzha, the event was attended by Shri. A. M. Noufal, Standing Committee Chairperson for Health, Alappuzha Municipal Corporation, Shri. Rajesh A V, Training Officer, Shri. K Santhoshkumar, Inspector of Training, Kottayam, ITI and RI Centre officials, establishments, and RightWalk's Adityasree M T.

It's easy to see a day like this as just numbers. But for a lot of these 713 people, it was the first time work felt close enough to reach, instead of something behind a closed door. That's the part we keep coming back to. Not the count.

| National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (PM-NAPS) | Kerala Government | Kerala Development and Innovation Strategic Council

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C-767, New Friends Colony
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110025

Website

http://www.rightwalk.org/

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