Arundhuti Gupta

Arundhuti Gupta is enabling an entire generation of India’s excluded children and youth to break the cycle of unequal opportunities, venture into new territories, and experience well-being and upward social mobility by architecting and spearheading India’s largest mentoring program.

For Arundhuti, mentorship is a ‘rite of passage’ for every young person, irrespective of his or her circumstances. Offering a ‘safety net’, a supportive non-hierarchical, non-judgmental relationship with an adult (non-parent) can be a truly transformative experience for a young person, seeding a sense of unique identity in the young person, fueling conviction and self-belief.

Going beyond the traditional ‘guide’ role typically set for mentors, Arundhuti is recasting India’s vast professional workforce as strategic enablers, who, by offering emotional support and companionship, encourage India’s disadvantaged young people to explore their potential and paint a positive picture of their future selves. By addressing three key issues - education, social mobility, and mental health, Arundhuti is demonstrating that an evidence-based, structured mentoring engagement bolsters a young person’s confidence to push through centuries of intergenerational inequalities and strive for upward social mobility. In equipping organizations and institutions alike to adopt this rigorous, evidence-based, and structured approach to mentoring, Arundhati, for the first time in the country, is standardizing a quality-checked mentorship process at scale, which puts the mentee at the core.

Arundhuti’s curriculum focuses on enhancing the mentees' social and emotional skills. The curriculum is bolstered through activity-based exercises focusing on reasoning, critical thinking and decision making through mentee-mentor conversations, improving non-cognitive skills and thereby supplementing formal education. To expand their capital of connections, information, and opportunities, Arundhuti and her team have created a platform for young people to access rich mentoring networks and resources alike. Further, there are modules designed to train mentors in supporting mentees with their emotional well-being. In incorporating these modules, Arundhuti is helping shift the roles the mentors play to become lay counselors and help with a whole range of activities that promote positive mental health.

In 2018 Arundhuti decided to develop an online platform with the firm belief that young people should be able to access mentoring anywhere, anytime. Armed with research-backed and curated methodology, she launched a technology-driven virtual platform that creates a right match that places the mentee at the very heart of this process. The platform captures stories and highlights best practices, to trigger a strong community of mentors and mentees.

She is orchestrating a coalition of governments, individual educational institutions, non-profits, and corporations across India to champion this model, gathering important information and data to support her work on policy change to embed mentoring as a critical element for youth development. Moreover, hoping to fire up mentorship programs that will be independent of her organization, Arundhuti has registered a new organization, a non-profit section 8 company, to share the technology and research with companies and NGOs looking to institute their own mentoring programs to meet the enormous need in the country.

As we approach 2030, a significant shift unfolds in India's education landscape, with 42% of young individuals gearing up for tertiary education—a stark rise from the 11% recorded in 2011. However, this surge in educational aspirations is met with formidable challenges. First-generation learners, striving for meaningful jobs and improved lives, grapple with deep-rooted intergenerational inequalities hindering upward social mobility. A rigid, standardised education system fails to prioritise their well-being, and the absence of reliable role models outside immediate family circles compounds their struggle to shape career ideas and become work-ready.

The persistence of social mobility stagnation is alarming. Despite substantial advancements in average education and income levels, family background remains a predominant factor influencing upward mobility, contributing to a socio-economic "lottery of birth." Caste, gender, religion, and place of birth further entrench these inequalities, notably affecting those in low-skilled and low-paying occupations. Shockingly, studies indicate that almost half of the children born to agricultural laborers end up trapped in the same profession, underscoring the systemic challenges faced by first-generation learners, especially in low-skilled occupations.

Moreover, the rapid transformation of job markets, driven by the fourth industrial revolution, introduces a new layer of complexity. The emphasis on conventional textbook learning deprives young people of critical 21st-century skills essential for navigating the evolving landscape. The inadequacy in addressing skills like complex problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration leaves them ill-prepared for the demands of the future job market. The pressing need to bridge this gap in skill development becomes even more urgent as millions of first-generation learners experience compromised emotional and social health due to an undue emphasis on academic success, contributing to a mental health crisis among nearly one-third of all Indian children.

Arundhuti is bringing a laser-beam focus to mentoring as a country-wide solution to help young people break out of socio-economic constructs and achieve their potential. By intersecting research, expertise, evidence, design, technology, and curriculum, she is addressing the massive gap between the demand and availability of trained mentors for India’s youth, as they navigate through the school-to-work continuum. More so, she is developing a mentoring solution that is backed by evidence, developing the capacity of the mentor to offer the highest quality support and forming a community of learners and practitioners who are championing this form of mentoring. Through her organisation, Mentor Together, Arundhuti is institutionalising this approach to mentoring in the country by partnering with governments, educational departments and workplaces.

The digital mentoring program for underprivileged college and university students opens up opportunities for young people who are transitioning into the world of work to build skill sets and open new and important networks that they will need to shape long lasting careers. This is a virtual program where mentors and mentees connect online and are equally invested in the success of their relationship. The program is defined by strong evidence-based curriculums, mentoring that is facilitative and not prescriptive, an equal stake in the successful outcome of the mentoring process, robust backend processes, and partnerships that lay the ground for a vibrant mentoring ecosystem.

Mentors undergo specialised training in modules focusing on listening, objectivity, and empathy—addressing a crucial gap in traditional mentoring setups nationwide. This comprehensive approach challenges the assumption that age alone equips mentors with essential interpersonal skills, fostering meaningful human connections crucial for successful mentorship beyond technical knowledge and resources.

In the virtual realm, Arundhati's curriculum employs synchronous engagement, asynchronous tasks, and diverse resources such as exercises, games, videos, and toolkits. This dynamic approach facilitates deep self-introspection, goal-focused activities, and reflective discussions. Mentees, guided by mentors, gain insights into employment realities, articulate career visions, and embark on practical steps like resume building and interview preparation.

Cognizant that the demand for a mentorship blueprint that is evidence-based, that can function in different contexts and will enable the youth workforce to be ready for the future of work, at scale, is huge, Mentor Together has signed MoUs with Governments of two southern states, Karnataka and Telangana, and has worked with over 220 colleges and universities located in smaller cities and towns. 40 Corporations with a huge workforce have signed up to champion the mentoring platform within their organisations. Arundhuti is reaching new groups through employee engagement programs and existing mentors are serving as ambassadors.

Laying a solid foundation for a vibrant mentoring ecosystem in India, close to 35000 mentee applications and 15000 mentor applications have been received on the platform. Responding to the need expressed by mentees, Mentor to Go is available in 4 Indian languages, ensuring that the model can reach the most disadvantaged youths across the country. Topic-based speed mentoring over shorter time periods will also be introduced, allowing mentees to dip into work related experience of mentors. Arundhuti also plans, in the long-term, to track the mentee's successful transition into the workforce as well as other longer-term impact indicators over a person’s lifetime.

The digital mentoring platform, Mentor to Go, has grown exponentially enabling close to 6000 mentoring pairs in four years since its launch. Arundhuti sees Work Readiness as an important attribute of a young person’s preparedness to enter the workforce. She and her team have developed an academically sound curriculum in partnership, benchmarked against global excellence standards. Working through the curriculum, young people set work readiness goals and access personalised coaching. Female mentees, who comprise 61% of the total mentee pool, are specifically tracked for an increase in voice/expression and agency and an increase in understanding of gender socialisation norms and behaviours that apply to the workforce.

To be eligible for mentoring, both mentees and mentors must commit to a six-month timeframe. Uploading their college ID and proof of income, mentees submit basic information - their current academic course, their subjects, their work readiness need areas, their hobbies, preferences, and available time for mentorship. Before they are matched, the students must complete a set of self -learning exercises, demonstrating their commitment to the process. The algorithm then offers the mentee a choice of mentors in sync with their preferences – only first names and profiles are shared. The right of choice lies with the mentee.

On the ground, Mentor Together's team ensures the mentoring relationship's success through diligent monitoring before, during, and after the journey. Rigorous diligence calls assess mentee motivation and commitment, ensuring effective pairings. A dedicated 'pair manager' oversees the relationship, addressing navigation, safety, compatibility, and comfort concerns. This professional approach fosters trust and accountability among all stakeholders.

Standard Operating Procedures (SPOs) adhering to global standards for effective mentoring are practised meticulously. The team meets weekly to analyse data on mentors, mentees, satisfaction, and attrition. Measured against 5-6 indicators of excellence - improving self-concept, career linked self-efficacy of mentees, improving work readiness & career maturity of mentees, the metrics instil rigour in the process. This allows Arundhati to both strengthen the system itself by continuously iterating the curriculums, training and engagement practices that work best but also to build a pool of data that allows research and evidence to be developed further, which becomes a key advocacy tool to convince partners such as state education departments to adopt the model.

Moving forward, Arundhuti has set three clear goals for herself: 1) to reach a hundred thousand young people with Mentor Togethers’ services in the near future 2) create a mentoring ecosystem by training NGOs and organisations and making her technology open source, 3) impact policy to embed mentoring as a critical element for youth development. Arundhuti is setting up the networks and infrastructure to achieve these goals. Having rigorously proven her solution through service delivery since 2009, Arundhuti is now looking to ramp up the ability for her model to be widely replicated.

Personally experiencing the positive power of mentoring and its influence on her life choices, Arundhuti started Mentor Together to pay forward.

Growing up in Bangalore, Arundhuti’s early life was dedicated to academics. A brilliant student, she aced her classes, winning a slew of gold medal for her performance. Joining one of Bangalore’s premier colleges - Mount Carmel College, known for its emphasis on holistic personal development, Arundhuti discovered a world beyond studies. Participating in many activities, she found joy and a sense of purpose in volunteering – her own ability to impact a cause/ life positively.

At the age of 20, encouraged by her professors, she participated in a student leadership program held by the Goldman Sachs Global Leadership Institute in New York City – one of only 2 Indian students selected. Interacting with peers from 50 countries, she was both stunned and inspired by their life choices, their actions, and ambitions for a more equitable world. For the first time, Arundhuti experienced youth identities outside of academics. This was a turning point for her.

Fired up and buzzing with new ideas, she returned home to explore her own potential and ability to make change happen. A meeting with Dr. Rajeev Gowda, then a Professor at the Indian Institute of Management – Bangalore, at a conference, pivoted her into the world of youth development and youth empowerment. Expanding her leadership skills, she volunteered with Dr. Gowda, supporting him in organising career exploration events for young people. Closely mentored by him, she poured hours of effort into the events. Interacting with young people she learnt not only about their hopes and dreams, but also their fears. Opening multiple windows to the world of youth aspiration, these early insights would help draw up the blueprint of Mentor Together.

Topping her university, Arundhuti chose to walk the well-trodden path and picked up a job through Goldman Sachs as an operations analyst at a bank. A year was sufficient to decide corporate life was not for her. The experience of everyday work felt disconnected from the sense of empowerment she had felt during her volunteering months. She spent time mulling over how working with young people could be her life’s purpose. Convinced her ambitions lay in a different direction, she applied for the Commonwealth scholarship and went on to pursue her Masters in Finance. Studying in Manchester, she shared her experience, passion and dream to make mentoring accessible for India’s disadvantaged youth with two close friends. Together, they formalised her design for a standalone youth mentorship program for young people in India.

Returning home, she reached out to Dr. Gowda and shared her plans. Enthused by her entrepreneurial zeal and determination, he signed on as co-trustee. In 2009, at the age of 23, Arundhuti launched Mentor Together, with a mission to help underprivileged students gain access to mentors as a way to address some of the ‘deficits’ derived from social disadvantaged situations. To pilot her ideas and those drawn from academic research, Arundhuti partnered with a government home for young girls. Working closely with them, she saw in action how critical it was for the students to prepare them for a future outside the system. Applying for small grants, she set out to implement her model and test her ideas.

As the digital ecosystem flourished in India, and smartphones proliferated in small towns, Arundhuti saw a unique opportunity for technology to mediate and help her reach audiences in small towns where youth need for mentorship was most urgent. The challenge was to ensure the core principles of mentoring relationships: trust, empathy and mutuality were maintained in such virtual mentoring formats, while enabling networks and sharing of information at a national scale. Not willing to buy an off the shelf app, she built core capability within the team to develop the human centred design she had in mind. Working with a few external technologists and designers, her team developed a program built around the concept of Work Readiness – Mentor To Go.

Arundhuti has also served as an Echidna Global Scholar in residence at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC, where she has authored a policy brief on the role of digital mentoring for young women in India.