NGO in-depth | IHDUA

Tarika Vaswani, a GiveIndia team member, is working with MoneyLIFE magazine on their Beyond Money column.

In this article, Tarika profiles IHDUA, which ensures literacy and education by empowering women. IHDUA is compliant with GiveIndia’s rigorous due diligence and Credibility Alliance’s norms for NGOs.


Literacy is the basic need of people of all ages in our country. Yet, India falls below the threshold literacy level of 75%, although there are many organisations making sustained efforts to change this.

The International Human Development & Upliftment Academy (IHDUA) is one such organisation. Dr BS Ajaikumar, an oncologist who spent almost 28 years in the US, founded IHDUA after a visit to Mullur village near Mysore, Karnataka which opened his eyes to the harsh realities of rural India.

He saw the severe lack of educational facilities in our villages and decided that he wanted to change this situation. He set up IHDUA in 1991 with a mission “to enable rural communities, especially women, to become agents of change in a development process that is equitable and sustainable.”

The IHDUA Trust has been actively involved in various rural projects since then. It established a school called Vinayaka Gnana Vidya Shala at Mullur, which caters to the educational needs of nine villages near Mysore. The school has 18 full-time teachers working to make a difference and provide quality education to children.

Visalakshi, a young girl who came from a poor farmer’s family, was given the opportunity to study at Vinayaka Gnana Vidya Shala. The school brought out the best in Visalakshi. She has made the village community proud, having recently secured distinction marks in Std VII, and won the Hubli Level Cross Country Championship in sports. She would never have achieved this, had she not been given the opportunity to go to school.

The Trust also organises various vocational training programmes to provide alternative employment to those struggling to find a job. Shailaja is one of the many beneficiaries of these programmes. Coming from a poor agricultural background, she managed to complete her pre-university examination as well as a teachers’ training course but was unable to find a placement anywhere. She attended one of IHDUA’s training programmes in tailoring and, today, with the help of some generous donations, she has acquired a new sewing machine and has orders that will help her earn over Rs400 per month to help support her family.

IHDUA has set up 240 self-help groups (SHGs) to assist and support rural communities and to make them economically self-sufficient, for which it has come up with a scheme to increase savings. Each SHG has 12 to 20 members and each member saves Rs10 per week. Three months later, the members are able to take loans from their own savings at 2% interest per month, and the loans are used for various needs of members such as education, health, house repair or repaying of old loans. Members avoid borrowing money from moneylenders who offer loans at astronomical interest rates.

How can you support IHDUA?

Help improve a rural school for poor children for Rs10000 (appx US$205)

Help one poor woman acquire a sewing machine for Rs4000 (appx US$80)

Help two children go to school for Rs1500 (appx US$30)