A Companion Page · For Families

For The Families Behind Every Sikhiyasi.

For the parents, guardians, spouses, partners and elders carrying the decision your applicant is making. The applicant has read the main site. This page is for you.

I. What You Are Being Asked To Decide

Underneath the surface decision — whether your young person, partner or sibling joins a structured period of Seva in India — sit four real questions. The rest of this page addresses each in turn.

1. Is the institution holding them real, accountable, and experienced enough to be trusted with someone you love?
2. Does the programme design fit the person it will hold?
3. Is the financial commitment transparent and sized to your circumstances?
4. Will your family — not just the participant — be kept in genuine partnership?

II. Is The Institution Real?

Sikhiyas is the youth-cohort door into a thirty-year body of field work. The implementing institutions — EduCARE India, RISHEE, CIEEL, GlobalPEACE International — together carry decades of experience in disaster risk management, public health, and ecological restoration. The first Village Disaster Management Plan in Kangra District was developed by EduCARE in 2015–16, and EduCARE has since extended that work across multiple villages and across thirty-three colleges in Kangra and Hamirpur.

Sikhiyas itself is led by two named co-Directors — Navleen Kaur and Adarshveer Singh — accountable to a Council of Patrons drawn from the implementing partners and the diaspora Sangat, with an Independent Ombudsperson sitting outside the Directors' line for any grievance. Full architecture on the Leadership & Patrons page.

You should verify all of this independently before proceeding. Every implementing partner is open to direct enquiry from prospective Sikhiyas families. The Diaspora Office can arrange the introduction.

III. Will The Design Hold Them Well?

The Sikhiyas day is structured but not regimented. The work is real, the evenings are quiet, weekends belong to family and Sangat. The design tightens or loosens by cohort age:

• Under-18Parent-embedded Saath arrangement, supervised cohort housing, 1:5 mentor ratio, academic-continuity provision. Full design on the Under-18 page.
• 18–25Supervised cohort housing, 1:8 mentor ratio, weekly family liaison.
• 26–45Independent or family accommodation, professional placement matched to discipline. Mentorship continues; chaperone structure does not.

One element of the design worth knowing in advance: every Sikhiyas placement operates under a contracted-role discipline set out in writing on the Seva Placements page. The principle is straightforward — the community where a participant serves is the workplace for the duration of the placement, and conduct in the community is held to workplace standards. Personal life is fully respected and explicitly held off-site through scheduled offsite breaks. Many families find this section reassuring; if your applicant is approaching placement, it is worth reading together before the selection conversation.

IV. Is The Money Honest?

Yes. The full fee structure is on a single page — Scholarship Details — with indicative ranges in INR and major diaspora currencies, and a four-band scholarship system. Every successful applicant receives a written offer with the precise figure for their cohort before any commitment is made. There are no hidden fees.

One thing worth saying directly: Sikhiyas is fee-funded, not donations-funded. We do not solicit charitable contributions from families, alumni, or supporters, and we do not accept them. The economics are commercial-services economics, transparent and conventionally taxed. This is deliberate. It means we are accountable to applicants and families as customers, not as beneficiaries — which is the relationship we believe a serious youth programme should hold.

If financial circumstances are a barrier, Band A — full scholarship, family pays only travel and visa — is awarded each cycle on merit. We do not ask families to disclose financial position before written application; only after, as needed to set the band.

V. Will We Be Kept In The Loop?

• WeeklyVideo call with the participant and Cohort Director, same time each week, fifteen minutes minimum, written follow-up summary.
• MonthlyWritten report on Seva progress, cultural learning, well-being, and any matters arising — to all named guardians.
• Always-onOpen escalation line to the Safeguarding Lead and Cohort Director outside business hours.
• ClosingEnd-of-programme debrief between participant, family, and Cohort Director.
• OptionalFamily-visit window for the closing weekend — we hold space at the Kangra campus for any family that wishes to travel.

For Under-18 cohorts, the family-liaison structure is heavier still. See the Under-18 page.

VI. The Question We Ask You To Hold

If your applicant is between sixteen and twenty-five, we ask you, quietly, before any application is submitted, to hold one question:

Sikhiyas is built for young people who want this for themselves. It does not work, and we do not admit, applicants who are being sent. Sometimes a family realises in the first conversation that the energy is the parent's and not the child's, or that the energy is the child's and the parent has not yet caught up. Either is fine. Either is a reason to pause and return when the alignment is real.

We have held more first conversations than admissions, by a significant margin. We are not in a hurry. The cohorts are small. The work will still be here in six months.

VII. A Note On Roots And Reach

Many diaspora families arrive at this question carrying a quiet anxiety: that their young person will encounter a version of Sikhi in India that pulls them away from the life they have built abroad — toward something heavier, more rigid, more rooted than the family is comfortable with. We hear this concern often. We honour it.

Sikhiyas was built precisely to refuse that pull. Our work is not to make young people less at home in their countries of upbringing; our work is to make them more at home everywhere — including in the tradition they may have grown up around without fully growing into. Miri in one hand and piri in the other. Open hair and open heart. Sovereignty of identity and full citizenship of the world they live in. That is the posture we offer your applicant.

If a particular family conversation about Amrit Sanchar, particular religious practice, or particular life choices feels heavier than it should after a Sikhiyas cohort — that is a conversation we will not have caused, and one we will help your family navigate honestly if you wish.

VIII. What To Do Next

If you have read this far and the answers feel honest, the next step is the same first step we offer every applicant: a half-hour exploratory video call with a Diaspora Coordinator, with you and your applicant both present, with no commitment of any kind. Email the Diaspora Office and a coordinator will respond within seven working days.

If you are not ready, that is a perfectly good answer. The work will still be here. We would rather you took six more months and arrived in alignment than took the next cycle and arrived in tension.