In a country where education often focuses more on marks than market skills, an experiment in Amreli, Gujarat, is rewriting the script. At Dr. Kalam Innovative School, a story of empathy transformed into entrepreneurship.
It began with an incident that shook the school deeply: a father, unable to afford his child’s fees, sold his motorbike. The sacrifice was noble, but the question it left behind was piercing—should education force families into desperation, or could it empower children to support themselves?
From this thought emerged the Kalam Youth Center (KYC), an initiative designed to help students earn while they learn. By equipping children with entrepreneurial skills at the school level itself, KYC is giving them both dignity and opportunity.
The Vision: Empathy to Empowerment
The three core values that sum up the philosophy of Kalam Youth Centre:
|| संवेदना || सजनशीलता || आत्मनिर्भरता ||
संवेदना (Empathy) – to understand the struggles of others turning them into an opportunity to help.
सजनशीलता (Creativity) – to provide with mind tools to young minds for them to be innovative and express their talent.
आत्मनिर्भरता (Self-Reliance) – to prepare the students to be financially and socially stable, and make them stand on their own feet.
Unlike traditional classrooms, KYC believes in teaching through action and enterprise. The initiative encourages students to not only acquire knowledge but also apply it in creating real businesses.
Startup Studio: The School Becomes an Incubator
At the heart of this model lies the Startup Studio, set up within Dr. Kalam Innovative School. It is no ordinary classroom. Inside, you’ll find:
• Laser cutting and digital fabrication machines
• T-shirt and mug printing units
• Design and assembly tools
• Special entrepreneurship training sessions
Here, students aged 13–15 get hands-on training to create usable, market-ready products. But more importantly, they are guided to set up actual business ventures—right from ideation and production to sales and customer interaction.
In a time when most school students are focused on exams and homework, these children are learning how to pitch, sell, and scale.
The Numbers Tell the Story
The Startup Studio isn’t just an idea—it’s a proven success. Some highlights include:
• In just six months, students as young as 13–14 generated ₹8 lakh in sales through their products.
• More than 18 hostel students from nearby villages have become financially self-reliant through these opportunities.
• At the Satvik Food Festival, the students’ stall—labelled “Made in Amreli, Made by Students”—earned ₹4 lakh in just 4 days. Their work drew praise from dignitaries like Mrs. Sonal Shah (wife of Home Minister Amit Shah) and Padma Shri Prof. Anil Gupta.
• This initiative also won the GTU Ventures Sankul Award. It is an honour reserved for college-level entrepreneurs. It was a matter of proud for these school students and for the entire district.
These milestones establish that the Startup studio is much more than learning skills. It is about creating a real-world impact.
“At Kalam Youth Centre, we provide students with up to ₹50,000 as seed capital to launch their ventures. The profits earned go directly to parents, helping them support their children’s education by paying school fees. This model eases financial burden on families while giving students first-hand entrepreneurial exposure, instilling responsibility, confidence, and the mindset to create value from a young age”, Jay Kathrotiya, Founder–CEO Kalam School
Platforms of Recognition
The story of Kalam Youth Center has gone far beyond Amreli. These young entrepreneurs have represented their school on National and International stages.
• Millet Expo, Ahmedabad – Students showcased their creations to thousands of visitors and received personal encouragement from Hon. Governor Acharya Devvrat Ji.
• Satvik Food Festival – Their products stood out as unique student-made items, covered extensively by news channels.
• International Conference on Grassroots Innovation, IIM Ahmedabad – These students presented their Startup Studio model in front of delegates from over 15 countries and earned global appreciation.
• Visits to NID and i-Hub.
• Hastkala Haat & Science Fairs – Students displayed their work on the stalls which were visited by senior leaders including former Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama and local MLAs. All the delegates appreciated students’ entrepreneurial spirit.
This brought recognition and also instilled a strong sense of confidence among students. It proved that their ideas and efforts could stand shoulder to shoulder with visionaries from across the globe.
Building Life Skills More than Money
While the revenue numbers are impressive, the true success of Kalam Youth Center lies in the skills and values it imparts. Students are now able to:
• Operate complex machines and design software without needing technical mentors.
• Understand customer preferences, product design, and market demands.
• Work collaboratively in teams, taking ownership of their projects.
• Manage finances, pricing, and profits—skills that even many college students struggle with.
What’s emerging is not just a group of student-workers, but a generation of student-entrepreneurs who are confident, capable, and self-reliant.
Stories That Inspire
Every stall, every festival, every award carries behind it dozens of personal stories. Many students from the nearby villages, staying in hostel has been affected by this initiative.
It has been life-changing for them. Instead of being dependent on their parents who often work as farmers, small vendors, or labourers, these children are now contributing to their own education and living costs.
Their products, carrying the proud stamp of “Made in Amreli”. These are testimony that rural India has immense talent, waiting only for the right platform. The story that began with a father selling his bike has now come full circle. Today, the very same kind of families are seeing their children support themselves with dignity, proving that empathy can indeed become empowerment.
A Model for Rural India
India talks a lot about Startup India and Skill India, but initiatives like Kalam Youth Center show what these visions look like on the ground. By blending academics with entrepreneurship, the Startup Studio is building:
• Confidence – Students learn that their creativity has value in the real world.
• Independence – They don’t have to wait for degrees or jobs to start earning.
• Innovation – Exposure to modern tools and markets keeps their thinking future-ready.
• Community Pride – “Made in Amreli” is not just a tagline, but a movement inspiring the entire region.
Their model is practical, deeply human, and scalable too. If replicated in other schools, this will transform how India nurtures its next generation of entrepreneurs. It will make businesses flourish not just from business courses or colleges but right from classrooms and hostels across rural towns.
Conclusion: The Future in Uniforms
At first glance, these students would appear like any other 8thor 9th graders. But looking closely, you’ll find them to be change makers, initiators, and innovators in making. These little innovators from Kalam Youth Centre prove that entrepreneurship is not about age but mindset. Kalam Youth Centre carries empathy as the seed, creativity as the soil and self-dependency as the water. It is cultivating a garden of young entrepreneurs, planting their own fortunes.
For more such stories on young and experienced, new or seasoned entrepreneurs and more, keep reading Gujpreneur!
