Siddharth Sharma

Siddharth (17), is from India. Siddharth grew up in Dausa, Rajasthan, where he saw firsthand how easily a child’s education could be pushed aside—like a boy forced to serve tea at a roadside stall instead of attending school. He came to believe that geography, circumstance, and distance should never be reasons to deny a child their future.

That belief led him to build Students for Last Mile Learning (SFLML), a student-led effort to channel resources toward tribal education through Ekal Vidyalaya’s single-teacher schools. With guidance from his parents, who taught him that meaningful work takes patience more than ambition, Siddharth led the campaign from start to finish—coordinating with major corporations for CSR funding and running online fundraising to widen its reach. Separately, his team partnered with 21 NGOs to carry out awareness and community engagement work.

The results speak for themselves: the campaign raised $185,000, sustaining education for 16,500 tribal children across 550 schools. Siddharth also helped deploy over 1,000 eco-friendly reflective collars across Jaipur and nearby districts through Eco Reflect, working with the Rajasthan government and local communities to protect both people and animals..