A Companion Page · For Parents & Guardians

The Under-18 Cohort.

A separate pathway for Sikh youth aged sixteen and seventeen — built around the principle that no young person under the age of legal majority should travel anywhere on a programme of ours without their family travelling with them in spirit, in writing, and in regular contact.

I. The Principle

Sikhiyas does not run an undifferentiated 16-to-45 programme. The Diaspora Seva Scholarship operates as three distinct cohorts, each with its own design, mentor structure, housing arrangements, and family-liaison commitments. The youngest of these — the Under-18 Cohort — is the most heavily structured of any programme we run, and is the only cohort to which a parent or named guardian is contractually embedded as a co-participant.

This page sets out, in full, what that means in practice. It is written for parents, legal guardians, and the school counsellors and Gurdwara mentors who often advise diaspora families during such decisions.

II. Three Cohort Tracks

The Diaspora Seva Scholarship admits applicants into one of three age-banded cohorts. Each runs on its own calendar, with separate housing, separate mentor ratios, and separate evening curricula. They do not share dormitories. They do meet, on scheduled occasions, in shared Pangat and Sangat.

The remainder of this page concerns only the Under-18 Cohort. For the other two, please see the full Scholarship details page.

III. The Parent-Embedded Design

Every Under-18 applicant must be accompanied, for the duration of their placement, by a named adult co-participant from their own family — a parent, legal guardian, grandparent, aunt or uncle, or in some cases an older sibling who has reached the age of twenty-five. We refer to this person as the Saath (companion) for the duration of the cohort.

The Saath is not a chaperone in the casual sense. They are a co-enrolled participant in a parallel adult programme:

• Co-housed. The Saath stays in family-quarter accommodation on the same supervised campus as the cohort, with their own room and their own evening time, but never more than five minutes' walk from the youth dormitory.
• Co-engaged. The Saath participates in their own track of cultural reconnection, Gurbani study, and (optionally) a parallel adult Seva placement. Many parents tell us this is the part of the programme they did not know they were looking for.
• Co-present. The Saath is present, by design, at the beginning and end of every cohort day, and at every weekend Gurdwara visit and field excursion. They have full access to the youth campus on a 24-hour basis. There are no closed activities.

This design was not a compromise. It was a deliberate choice, taken after looking at how other diaspora-facing youth programmes have struggled, and after listening to the parents of our earliest enquirers. The presence of the Saath is what allows us to make every other commitment on this page in good faith.

IV. Safeguarding Architecture

Sikhiyas operates a written child-protection framework adapted from sector-standard practice (UK Working Together, Indian POCSO Act 2012, ICC Centrelink-style standards) and reviewed annually by external counsel. The architecture has six pillars.

1. Named Safeguarding Lead

Every Under-18 cohort has a named, trained Safeguarding Lead who is not the Cohort Director and not the Mentor. They sit outside the line of programme delivery so that any concern raised against a programme staff member can be reported safely. Their name, photograph, qualifications, and direct contact line are issued in writing to every Saath at intake.

2. Police Verification & DBS-Equivalent Checks

Every adult — staff, mentor, driver, kitchen team member, or volunteer — who has any contact with the Under-18 cohort holds a current Indian Police Verification certificate, and where applicable a UK DBS, Canadian Vulnerable Sector Check, or US equivalent. Documentation is retained on file and is open to inspection by any Saath.

3. The Two-Adult Rule

No member of programme staff is alone with a member of the Under-18 cohort, at any time, in any private setting. All field excursions are two-adult-staffed at minimum. All transport is logged. All medical and pastoral conversations take place with the Saath or the Safeguarding Lead present, or by explicit recorded request of the participant.

4. Mandatory Reporting

Any disclosure of harm — historical or current, on-programme or pre-existing — is reported, on the same day, to the Safeguarding Lead, to the participant's Saath, and where the matter is statutorily reportable, to the relevant Indian or international authority. We do not promise confidentiality on safeguarding matters; we promise honesty about the limits of confidentiality.

5. Independent Grievance Channel

Every participant and every Saath receives, at intake, the direct contact details of an Independent Ombudsperson — a senior person outside the Sikhiyas Directors' line, retained on a written terms-of-reference, to whom any grievance can be addressed without fear of programme retaliation. Their findings are binding on the Directors. The Ombudsperson's identity is published on the Leadership page.

6. Insurance & Medical Cover

Every Under-18 participant is enrolled, before arrival in India, in a comprehensive travel and medical insurance policy underwritten by a recognised international carrier, including evacuation cover. Sikhiyas holds a separate organisational liability policy. Policy documents are issued to the Saath in writing before any travel commitment is made.

V. Daily Rhythm

The Under-18 day is structured, not improvised. A typical week looks like this:

• MorningAmrit Vela practice (optional), Nitnem in cohort, breakfast Langar, academic-continuity hour for any participant whose home school has term obligations.
• MiddayField placement with EduCARE / RISHEE operations — health outreach, ecological restoration, disaster-preparedness work — always in two-adult teams, always within a defined geographic radius.
• AfternoonCultural reconnection: Punjabi language, Gurbani study, regional history, conversations with elders.
• EveningFree time on campus, Gurdwara Rehras in cohort, dinner Langar with the Saath, and a wind-down session that ends, every night, with the cohort back in their dormitory by ten.
• WeekendsOne day for Gurdwara Sangat, one day for family time with the Saath away from the campus.

VI. Family Liaison Commitments

For under-eighteens, the family liaison structure is not a courtesy — it is a written deliverable.

• Weekly video call between the Cohort Director, the participant, and any home-country parent or guardian who is not present as Saath. Same time each week, fifteen minutes minimum, with a written follow-up summary.
• Monthly written report on each participant's Seva progress, cultural learning, well-being, and any pastoral matters arising. Sent to all named guardians.
• Open-ended escalation line for any home-country parent who needs to reach the Safeguarding Lead outside business hours.
• Programme-end debrief, on the last day, between the participant, the Saath, and the Cohort Director — with the participant invited to offer the candid view of the programme that informs the next cohort's design.

VII. Academic Continuity

For applicants whose school terms overlap with the cohort dates — the situation for many UK Year 12 / 13 and Canadian Grade 11 / 12 students — Sikhiyas offers a structured academic-continuity provision. We coordinate with the home school's pastoral lead to ensure that participation is documented as approved enrichment rather than absence, that any examined coursework is delivered within agreed deadlines, and that a participant returns home with a Sikhiyas Cohort Reference on letterhead — recognised by an increasing number of UK, Canadian and US universities as a substantive UCAS / Common App credential.

For applicants taking a deliberate gap year, the longer 6-month and 12-month tracks are open at eighteen but not before.

VIII. What We Will Not Do

It is sometimes easier to describe an institution by what it refuses. The Under-18 Cohort:

• Will not permit any participant under eighteen to undertake disaster-response field deployment, regardless of training. Disaster-response track placements open at twenty-one.
• Will not authorise solo travel, in any form, by any member of the cohort.
• Will not retain custody of any participant's passport, identity document, or money for longer than thirty minutes — passports and documents stay with the Saath at all times.
• Will not run unstructured residential time. Every hour of every day has either a defined activity or a defined free-time location.
• Will not permit medical procedures, religious ceremonies, or any other irreversible decision on a participant's behalf without the documented written consent of a parent or legal guardian.
• Will not, under any circumstance, use a participant's photograph, name, or testimony in marketing material without separate written consent obtained at programme end and renewable annually.

IX. The Conversation Before The Decision

Every Under-18 application begins with a sequence of three conversations, in this order:

1. A first video call with a Diaspora Coordinator — exploratory, with the participant and at least one parent both present.
2. A second call with the Safeguarding Lead and Cohort Director together — in which the family asks every question they have, and we answer in writing afterwards so the answers can be re-read.
3. A third conversation, a fortnight later, in which the family reflects, and either proceeds to written application or declines without prejudice. Many families take this third conversation to step back, and we treat that as a sign of seriousness, not of disinterest.

No payment, deposit or financial commitment is requested before the third conversation has concluded. No application is treated as complete until all three guardians (where applicable) have separately signed the parental consent and safeguarding acknowledgement forms.