Ø One of India’s largest poverty alleviation programmes, Magic Bus has completed 20 years, transforming nearly ten lakh children and young people across 22 states in India
Ø Magic Bus equips children with life skills, making them confident and resilient
Ø Magic Bus trains young people through various skill development programmes for better quality of life
Ø 3,75,000 children and young people were enrolled in Magic Bus in FY 17-18
Ø Eminent personalities like Abhishek Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Chunky Pandey, Kunal Kapoor, Dia Mirza, Dino Morea and Harsha Bhogle wish Magic Bus on completion of 20 years
Ø Magic Bus has received institutional funding from Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiative, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, Ford Foundation, Google.org
Ø Its automated programme and business operations create strong governance processes and rigour in programme delivery
Ø Magic Bus conducts systematic monitoring of its programme to evaluate its efficiency and effectively use these learning’s to scale up
Mumbai/New Delhi NCR, February 14, 2019: One of India’s largest poverty alleviation programmes, Magic Bus India Foundation has successfully completed 20 years in its endeavor to provide every child and young person living in poverty in India, the opportunity to a better quality of life. Eminent personalities like Abhishek Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Chunky Pandey, Kunal Kapoor, Dia Mirza, Dino Morea, and Harsha Bhogle congratulate and support Magic Bus in this mission. Magic Bus has worked with nearly ten lakh children and young people in 22 states and 77 districts in India over 2 decades with 3,75,000 children and young people having benefited in FY 2017-18 itself. Through its Childhood to Livelihood programme, Magic Bus equips children and young people in the age group of 12 to 18 with the skills and knowledge they need to grow up and move out of poverty.
Expressing his overwhelming sense of gratitude, Matthew Spacie, Founder, Magic Bus said, “Poverty alleviation is a herculean challenge in a country as vast as India and the goal of taking every child and young person out of poverty cannot be an issue worked on by one organization. We are so grateful for the continuous support of our patrons and the government who with us are trying to provide children and young people of our country a better quality of life. We started in 1999 with 30 children and young people and over the years together we have been able to reach nearly ten lakh children and young people with our programme helping them earn a livelihood that enables them to lead a better quality of life. We are humbled at the amount of support and trust our patrons give us, helping us realize our vision of a poverty free young India.
Jayant Rastogi, Global CEO, Magic Bus joined Magic Bus in 2017. He has leveraged his corporate experience of over 30 years with the recent 6 years in Motorola, to build scale and bring in efficiencies through automation at Magic Bus. Highlighting the outcome of the programme and the approach behind its success, he said, “Magic Bus understands the effectiveness of sports activity based learning to facilitate a long-term engagement with paticipants enabling them to develop the necessary skill set for employability. The approach enables all participants on our programme to finish their schooling, to delay their age at marriage, get jobs in the organized sector and consequently get out of poverty.”
Rehman and Nitin Bane, who first joined Matthew on the field, before the germination of the idea Magic Bus, now led the programme at Magic Bus in various regions. They shared their happiness on this tenure “Getting to know Matthew as a person and working closely with him has brought about a magical transformation in our lives. We want to see more children and young people like us experience what we had the opportunity to experience, working so closely with Matthew.”
The Magic Bus Childhood to Livelihood Programme is present in 77 districts 22 States of India including Maharashtra, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Mizoram & Assam. The Livelihood programme was formed in 2015 to impart employability training to young people who are mentored, taken on exposure visits to various work places and are then enabled to make an informed decision about their career. They are then enabled to transition into stable and salaried employment.
Magic Bus is working with educational partners to enhance children’s academic performance and to train teachers in schools. Magic Bus works with the participant’s support structures like parents, school management committees, teachers, the community at large and local government institutions to ensure social, emotional and economic well-being for all young people living in that area to create transformational change in their lives.
Through the livelihood programme, Magic Bus provides basic skills in IT, spoken English, financial literacy as well as an introduction to business and entrepreneurship. In addition, Magic Bus is working with partners to provide hard skills/ vocational training/ apprenticeship programmes in specific employment sectors. The organization mentors young people at a critical transition to the world of work. This is done through creating personal development plans followed by intensive training on career planning, job applications, work ethics, workplace policies, CV writing and interview skills.
About Magic Bus
Since 1999, Magic Bus has transformed over ten lakh children and young people, helping them move out of poverty. Magic Bus is one of the largest poverty alleviation programmes in India, impacting more than 3, 75,000 children and young people in 22 States and 77 districts of India in FY 17-18. Since the Livelihood programme began in 2015, Magic Bus has 42 Livelihood centers. Magic Bus has placed 10,000 young people in jobs in the organized sector. Magic Bus has 7000 trained Community Youth Leaders who deliver the sports activity-based sessions in communities and across 798 schools. Magic Bus works with children and young people living in poverty, taking them from a childhood full of challenges to a life with meaningful livelihoods. Magic Bus also work in Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar.
Magic Bus Impact:
Magic Bus completes 20 years in 2019. The Magic Bus data in the section below is from our programmes that have run for three years with adolescents up to the age of 14
There was a 37% point’s increase in those attending school regularly, with 81% reporting attending school five days a week at end line, as compared to 63% at baseline.
In the Magic Bus programme, less than 5% of girls drop out of school by Class 8 (age 14). In India, 40% of girls drop out of school by Class 8 (age 14).
In the Magic Bus programme, 95% girls do not get married before the age of 18. In India, 30% of women were married before the age of 18.
79% of young people trained in the Magic Bus Livelihoods Programme are placed in salaried work with an average income of Rs. 8564