Reva Dandage

Reva Dandage

Many students in India succumb to suicides because of a rigid and competitive educational system, every year. Reva Dandage was a bright young girl with a promising life ahead until she failed to pass her Grade 12 final exams. While this failure made her question her capabilities, she never imagined that this would make her a public embarrassment for her family. This whole experience was very traumatic and Reva went into severe depression.
However, Reva’s parents supported her and she was determined to overcome her failures. While pursuing a degree in Design from the USA, she was inspired to introduce a more inclusive approach to education in India. Reva wanted to enable young students to explore their interests through a liberal academic environment that encouraged them to find their own paths.
In 2010, Reva Dandage gave wings to the aspirations of many young Indian students by setting up Swaraj University. Based along India’s Guru-Shishya tradition and Mahatma Gandhi’s teachings, Swaraj University encourages all its students to become the true ‘Khojis’ or ‘Explorers’ and to adopt a more vocational approach to education. Today, Swaraj University has 31 happy students from across the country shaping their future in a stress free environment. Reva Dandage has made the first step towards transforming the Indian educational system. As she says, sky is the limit!
Main Story- As a student in the USA, Reva met many experts in the education field and decided to start her own academic institution that gave students the freedom of doing what they really want. Students at Swaraj University follow no set curriculum, and the learning here is self-designed. Swaraj is India’s first university dedicated to strengthening local cultures, local economies and local ecologies. Most importantly, it helps young people put their dreams into action.