How M3M Foundation’s first flagship initiative grew from one community centre in Gurugram into a seven-year movement reaching thousands of children, women and families across five states.
There are initiatives that begin with a programme. And then there are initiatives that begin with a question.
For M3M Foundation, that question was simple but significant: if India’s cities are growing with the contribution of migrant workers and underserved communities, who is making sure their families and children are able to grow with them?
The answer began taking shape in 2019 with iMpower—M3M Foundation’s first flagship initiative.
Its purpose was never limited to putting children into classrooms. It was about creating the conditions that make learning possible and meaningful—early childhood care, continued education, nutrition, healthcare, identity documentation, access to social entitlements and, eventually, the confidence to discover what a child can become.
Seven years later, iMpower has grown from one Club in Sector 66, Gurugram, to 35 iMpower Clubs and Resource Centres across five states. It has connected with 4,500+ families, 10,000+ children and 2,400+ women and adolescent girls, while 1,000 children have been mainstreamed through iMpower Clubs.
But the most meaningful way to understand these seven years is not through the number 35.
It is through everything that happened between one Club and 35.
When iMpower began, its focus was close to the ground—construction sites and migrant settlements around Gurugram. Families were moving in search of livelihoods, while children could find themselves outside stable systems of education. Documentation could become a barrier to accessing schools and government schemes. Women and adolescent girls faced gaps in healthcare, nutrition and awareness. For families living with constant uncertainty, even the opportunity to simply sit, learn and imagine could not be taken for granted.
The response was to create something families could trust: a community-based space where education could sit alongside care, guidance and opportunity.
That space became the iMpower Club.
At the heart of this vision was Dr. Payal Bansal Kanodia, Chairperson & Trustee, M3M Foundation, whose approach was to look beyond temporary assistance and towards continuity.
“When we envisioned iMpower, we wanted to create more than access. We wanted to create continuity—continuity in learning, continuity in care and continuity in opportunity. A family’s circumstances may change, but a child’s opportunity to learn, grow and discover their abilities should not have to disappear with them.”
— Dr. Payal Kanodia, Chairperson & Trustee, M3M Foundation
That philosophy shaped the programme’s evolution. The Club was not simply a classroom. It became a place where children could receive early childhood care, return after school for academic support, access digital learning and nutrition, participate in activities, and gradually become more confident in expressing themselves. The current programme data reflects this wider ecosystem, including 1,181 ECCE supports, 6,353 after-school supports, 4,135 nutrition supports and 3,129 digital education supports, alongside social-entitlement assistance.
For families, the journey also meant navigating systems that can often feel difficult to enter. Through iMpower, 2,616 individuals have been connected with various schemes and identity or welfare linkages, including ABHA, e-Shram, PM-JAY, Aadhaar, PAN, BOCW, Ayushman and bank accounts.
Sometimes empowerment begins with a classroom. Sometimes it begins with a document. Sometimes it begins with a nutritious meal or a teacher who stays after school. And sometimes it begins with a child being told, perhaps for the first time, “You can do this.”
Over seven years, that belief has also changed what children are encouraged to imagine.
The iMpower Resource Centre has opened pathways into art, music, science, communication and sport through initiatives such as Science Lab, Magic English, Manch Ki Raah, Tarang and Kettlebell. More than 50 young talents from iMpower Clubs are learning piano, guitar, conga and vocal techniques with professional artists, with aspirations of eventually forming their own band. Tarang gives children a space to explore art, while science and astronomy activities encourage curiosity beyond the conventional classroom.
The point is not that every child will become an artist, musician, scientist or athlete.
The point is that every child gets the chance to find out what they are capable of.
Muskan’s journey captures this transformation quietly. She joined the IFC iMpower Club in 2023 with her younger brother after moving from Bihar with her mother. A new city and difficult circumstances had left her distressed. At the Club, education came alongside painting, music and nutritious meals. The iMpower team also helped prepare the government documentation required for her enrolment in Badshahpur Government School in Class 4. She continued coming to the Club after school for academic support and, through her own hard work and the encouragement around her, became a top-performing student for two consecutive years, while developing a strong interest in painting.
Sajid’s story reflects another side of the same journey. Originally from Malda, West Bengal, he came to Gurugram with his family in search of better livelihood opportunities and joined iMpower Club Tyagiwada in 2022. Amid difficult family circumstances, the Club became a space where his artistic ability could be recognised and nurtured. Painting became a way for him to express his imagination, emotions and ideas.
These stories help explain what the numbers really mean.
10,000+ children is not simply reach. It represents thousands of individual journeys where learning has been kept alive despite circumstances that could have interrupted it. 1,000 mainstreamed children represents a transition from community-based support into formal education. 2,400+ women and adolescent girls reflects an understanding that a child’s progress is connected to the wellbeing of the family around them. And 4,500+ families represents a widening circle of community engagement.
The programme has also continued moving towards communities where exclusion is harder to address. From its origins in Gurugram, iMpower has expanded into Panipat, Tauru, Delhi, West Bengal and Bhubaneswar, reaching communities including construction workers, daily-wage earners, street-connected children and rag pickers. In Bhubaneswar, Aama Pathashala Clubs work with street children and rag-picker communities across multiple locations.
That evolution matters because iMpower has never remained tied to one definition of vulnerability.
It has followed the need.
Seven years have therefore not simply made iMpower larger. They have made it deeper—from access to continuity, from continuity to confidence, and from confidence to aspiration.
As the programme enters its next chapter, the ambition is not simply to create more Clubs. It is to strengthen the pathways between learning and mainstream education, between education and skills, between confidence and talent, and between talent and meaningful opportunity.
For Dr. Payal Kanodia, that future carries both pride and responsibility:
“Seven years of iMpower give us immense happiness, but they also give us a greater sense of responsibility. We have seen what becomes possible when children and families are given continuity, encouragement and opportunity. Our vision now is to take that journey further—so that more children can move from access to excellence, from learning to confidence and from confidence to meaningful participation in India’s growth. As we look towards Viksit Bharat 2047, we want these children not simply to witness the country’s progress, but to have the education, skills and confidence to contribute to it.”
— Dr. Payal Kanodia, Chairperson & Trustee, M3M Foundation
That is perhaps the real meaning of iMpower at seven.
It is not simply a programme that has completed seven years. It is a programme that has spent seven years building the foundation for what comes next.
Because impact is not only the number of people reached.
Impact is what becomes possible after they are reached.
And iMpower’s journey—from one Club to a growing network, from access to aspiration—is ultimately about making sure that once a child crosses a barrier, there is a world of opportunity waiting on the other side.