From Brick Kiln to Digital Dreams: How a Mobile Van Changed Monika’s Life

Pune, 19th July 2025: In a dusty village near Parbhani, where daily survival once eclipsed even the faintest dreams, a young girl named Monika is now crafting a new future — one click at a time.

Her story begins in the shadow of hardship. With an alcoholic father, no steady income, and days spent helping her mother toil at a brick kiln near Pune, Monika’s early life offered little room for education, let alone aspiration. But destiny — and a digital van — had other plans.

One afternoon, Monika walked into a van unlike any she’d seen before. It wasn’t selling snacks or ferrying passengers. It was the Digital Literacy Van, a mobile classroom launched by Symbiosis International (Deemed University) under its community engagement programme SCOPE (Symbiosis Community Outreach Programme and Extension).

She had never touched a computer. But when a laptop screen flickered to life and played a video, something inside her changed. Eyes wide with curiosity, she rushed home and told her mother:

“I want to go to school every day. I want to learn computers.”
And she did.

Today, Monika types her name, draws using digital tools, and navigates the keyboard with confidence. More importantly, she walks into school every morning not out of obligation, but with purpose.

Her dream?
“To become a computer teacher — just like the sir in the van who taught me,” she says, her eyes now focused on a future her past never promised.

Her mother, once consumed by daily struggle, now watches proudly as her daughter explores new worlds through a screen. She often visits the digital van just to see Monika in her element — a child transformed.

This is more than a story of digital literacy. It’s a story of digital dignity — where access to technology becomes access to hope, identity, and empowerment.

“Monika didn’t just learn to click. She began to dream,” said Dr. Ramakrishnan Raman, Vice Chancellor of Symbiosis International University, who shared Monika’s journey in a recent LinkedIn post. He called the initiative a reminder that education isn’t just about curriculum — it’s about opening doors.

Thanks to the tireless work of Lelith Daniel and his team, the SCOPE programme continues to bridge the digital divide in rural India — not by accident, but by design.

As Monika’s story travels beyond the village, it stands as a beacon for what inclusive education can achieve: not just information, but transformation.