We are a newly established Indian NGO working alongside children, women and communities — through education, empowerment, and patient, on-the-ground partnership.
Short, direct, and signed.
To put time, attention and resources — where they go furthest.
Cognitud Foundation was set up by Shantanu Bhowmick and Nilanjana Som Bhowmick with a simple intent — to put time, attention and resources where they go furthest: into the futures of children and women in our country.
We are a young organisation. We don’t claim to have solved anything. What we have is a clear sense of where we want to begin, the willingness to do it carefully, and the discipline to measure what we do honestly.
Shantanu Bhowmick & Nilanjana Som Bhowmick
Founders ∙ Cognitud Foundation
Children in active learning programs across six states
Community learning centres and partner schools
Of Grade 5 students reading at grade level after one year
Paise of every rupee reaches a child directly
Every programme begins with months of listening — to children, to mothers, to teachers, to the community. We arrive with questions, not answers, and we design what we build around what they tell us they actually need.
Each educator we work with is from the neighbourhood they teach in. Every centre is staffed by people who live on the same street as the children they serve. The best people to do this work are the ones already living the questions.
We treat every rupee of philanthropic capital like an early-stage equity cheque — with the same diligence and the same expectation of compounded return. We measure what we do, we publish what we measure, and we do not curate the difficult moments out.
We do not run our own schools. We work with the schools, centres and families already trusted by the communities we serve — bringing methods, materials and mentorship that quietly support the work that is already happening.
Three threads of the same conviction — built around the people we serve, in close partnership with the communities they live in.
Nutrition, safety, learning support and life skills for children in low-income communities — built around the simple idea that every child deserves a real childhood, not a shortened one.
Skilling, financial literacy and leadership programmes for women who are the quiet backbones of their families and want a path forward — economically, socially, and on their own terms.
Foundational learning, scholarships, teacher support and community libraries — because a real education is the single most reliable lever a country has, and the one we believe in most.
We are not here to give. We are here to walk alongside — long enough that the change holds when we step away.
That is the full annual cost of putting a child through our programme — assessment, materials, teacher salary share, and household engagement. Pick what feels right. Every donation is 80G eligible.
Cognitud Foundation·Section 8 Company·Registered in Bengaluru, India
