For most people in the Thar Desert, formal education has little draw. Most of the population is employed in agriculture or mining and the benefits of school seem to be greatly outweighed by the time lost not working. Children often have to travel great distances to reach educational facilities, further lessening their appeal. The overall literacy rate in the desert is therefore very low and only around 8% of females are literate.

GRAVIS is committed to the education of the people in the Thar Desert and focuses on providing education that is pertinent to rural village life. Attempting to circumvent the obstacles facing rural education, GRAVIS has established educational facilities in various locations, targeting a wide age group and many different sections of rural society.

Non-formal Education (NFE)

GRAVIS has been establishing Non-Formal Education (NFE) centers in rural locations in the Thar Desert since 1988. These NFE centers are established in villages located far from the nearest government school and in communities where most of the children are minorities and are extremely marginalized (tribal, Muslim, ST, SC or OBC). The NFE centers are run by villagers through Village Education Committees, and aim to raise children's interest in school and prepare students for entrance into formal schools. These schools provide students with mid day meals every day with the support of CRS, and primary health care on a regular basis. There are currently 30 NFE centers which receive funding from Worthington Foundation (US). Several more NFE centers established by GRAVIS have merged with government schools or have been transferred to independent village management through the Village Education Committee.

Primary Schools

GRAVIS currently runs 48 primary schools. Over 45% students are girls in these schools. Each of the primary schools once run and funded by GRAVIS are now either run under the supervision of the state government, or are run by the VDC with support from the community fund as well as panchayat and block level support.

Outreach Program

GRAVIS has facilitated the establishment of special outreach schools in three communities where no school existed before and where formal education was not at all popular due to cultural barriers:

Bengti Kalan: Until GRAVIS established an outreach school in this all-Muslim community in 2000, religious education was typically promoted and primary education was ignored. Today there are 150 students enrolled in the outreach school. As part of its educational outreach to this community, GRAVIS has established an Early Child Development Center (ECDC) here. Teachers from the outreach school go into the village a couple of times per week and gather the young children (ages 3-5) to play games and sing songs, trying to get them interested in school and comfortable with an educational setting. After six months of involvement in the ECDC program, the children are invited to enroll in the outreach school.

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) Special Study Center

There are a very limited number of secondary schools and even less colleges in the rural Thar Desert. Students who wish to continue their education often have to travel and live far from home, which requires very large amounts of money which most villagers lack. The Kalron Field Centre has training facilities for youth who wish to continue their education. The centre has been invaluable in providing a learning environment for higher education within the nearby rural community.

GRAVIS believes that a revival of the traditional rain harvesting systems is essential to the survival of the people of the Thar Desert. These structures are technologically sustainable and can be built at a low cost. Moreover, by using these structures the people are able to achieve water security and therefore self-reliance. GRAVIS has been assisting the people of the Thar Desert to achieve water security since its inception and uses the majority of its resources to this end.