Report of the Managing Director’s visit to India 2024
From October 19 to 26, 2024, XertifiX Managing Director Walter Schmidt will visit social projects in India and accompany the XertifiX auditors on quarry and processing audits. On the morning of the first day, Walter Schmidt and Mr. Rajnath drive with GRAVIS employee Mr. Vinod to the first school, the Adarsh Khan Majdoor, Badi, Bada Kotecha.
This school is – like all the schools that you will visit that day – a new school that will be supported for three years as part of the donations from “Ein Herz für Kinder” (EHfK). These schools, run by our partner organization GRAVIS, are located in remote villages, about 70 to 80 kilometers from the district headquarters.

GRAVIS-Co-Founder and employee Mr. Vinod

Geographically, accessibility is difficult as they are located in the desert region of Jodhpur district. There is no public transport. It is very difficult to get drinking water. Our car got stuck in the desert sand on the way to school.
The tour group is greeted in a traditional manner. This includes hand-woven flower garlands, the traditional headgear, and a mark on the forehead (tilak). This is a way of showing the guest honor and wishing him well-being.


Afterwards, the children give the guests pictures that they painted in preparation for the visit and with which they would like to express their gratitude for the support.
In the classroom, the children show the guests, among other things through presentations on the blackboard, how the lessons in mathematics, Hindi and English are carried out and which notebooks and books they work with. The children also answer questions from the visitors.


In discussions with the school committees (Village Development Committees, VDC), it is clear that GRAVIS is doing a good job at these schools too: In all schools, the local community committees feel responsible for “their” school and work daily to ensure that school life runs smoothly. None of the schools have been running for a full school year yet. Nevertheless, it is impressive how well the schools are already integrated into their respective communities.

Warm farewell from the Jodhpur area
The next day, visits to social projects in the area around Daneshwar, Rajasthan are scheduled. The children and teachers of the Dhaneshwar preschool center give the guests a warm welcome in the traditional way.



A total of 55 children (28 boys and 27 girls) are present at the center. It is particularly gratifying to see that ten children are present who have already completed preschool and are currently successfully attending state primary school. This shows us how important the work of the preschool center is in convincing children and families of the importance of education and school attendance and in getting children to attend school.

Farewell from the preschool in Daneshwar
The second preschool supported by XertifiX is located in the village of Molat, which is very remote from the main road in the Dobi region in the middle of a stone mining area. The local community’s homes are in open fields/steppe, so there is no electricity, water supply or toilets. As part of the social project, the preschool center is run in a private house provided by a community member.


Despite the adverse external circumstances, the school manages to prepare the daily supplementary meal for the children in addition to the classroom activities. The teacher, Mrs. Ramgani, used to work as a stone crusher to earn a living. She was selected as a teacher for the center and qualified as a preschool teacher. She does a great job and is very popular with the children.
The locals greet the guests by beating drums, which is one of the most popular ways of welcoming guests. During the classroom time, interaction was done with the children present. Some of them dance and others recite poems they have learnt. There is also a brief interaction with the children of the village/community level special education class.


Afterwards, a community-level meeting is organized near the preschool center to talk to the children’s mothers and parents to ensure that their children attend the center regularly, continue their education from primary to middle school and high school, and that their children’s development is taken into account. The children’s parents thank the donors EHfK and XertifiX in the local language for the valuable support they have given their children.
In addition to the preschools, the social project co-financed by EHfK also includes a “remedial teaching” module to improve the learning level of the children, who mainly come from families of workers in the stone industry and attend the state primary school. Children with learning difficulties/weaknesses in studies have been identified from grades 1 to 5. The remedial teaching is offered in four locations, either in the building/classrooms of a state school or at the community level in available rooms.


During the day, the guests attend all four units of the special education classes (“remedial classes”). Extracurricular activities that take place at the remedial classes center on weekends or on special days/occasions, such as dancing, singing, painting and local games, boost the children’s confidence. On the day of the visit, the children also show their talents to the guests by dancing to the local songs of the state of Rajasthan.
In some remedial-classes-centers, a meeting is also held with state school teachers, NGO representatives and tutors of the remedial classes to discuss the measures and problems of the project, as well as ways of supporting each other. During a meeting, some parents are also present, who say that the children are now showing more interest in attending school after they started the remedial class. Most of the children now go to school regularly and are doing well in their studies.


Quarry audits and audits of natural stone processors are scheduled for the following days. This year, the rainy season lasts well into October, so most of the quarries in Rajasthan registered with XertifiX are not yet back in operation. Our auditor Mr. Rajnath has nevertheless managed to organize an announced audit at the few quarries that are already active. During a quarry audit, it is noticeable how exemplary the workers are protected at work by personal protective equipment.
The auditor nevertheless points out once again why this is so important and that this is for the workers’ own protection (and not for the employer or XertifiX). Personal contact with the workers is also an important part of conducting an audit: In addition to individual interviews with the workers, there is a final training session with the workers in which all important aspects of occupational safety are highlighted.


The workers receive the XertifiX flyers with the requirements and exchange information intensively with the auditors. This form of training goes beyond the actual audits, but is a central part of the XertifiX approach to achieving step-by-step success in occupational health and safety and environmental protection.
The next day, our auditors carry out audits of natural stone processors. The auditors have to report a need for improvement, particularly in the area of accounting. In Budhpura, the paving stones and natural stone slabs are produced on a closed site. After we have completed the audit, we drive through the adjacent settlement. This area should actually be a child labor-free zone, which is guaranteed by a social project of a local NGO that is independent of XertifiX. But when we take random samples at the roadside, we find that children are still working in the paving stone production in this area.

That’s why we are pleased that, thanks to regular, even unannounced, audits, we have not been able to detect any child labor in recent years, at least in the companies registered with XertifiX.
On the last day, we visit the social projects of our partner Vikas Santhan in the Firozabad area. In the slums there, families live below the poverty line and let their children work in the production of glass bangles for the Indian market so that they can survive as a family.

The poverty of the families becomes particularly clear when we visit the families in their homes. Sometimes extended families live in a single room and have to cook, live, work, and sleep there.


It is extremely difficult economically for the children to stop working from one day to the next, as the children’s income – albeit small – helps ensure the survival of the family. For this reason, Vikas Santhan employees work with the families in many discussions to ensure that the children can go to school for part of the day and – if absolutely necessary – continue to work for the rest of the day. This is a compromise! Nevertheless, it allows the children to receive an education and hopefully one day the vicious circle of poverty in which the families in the slums find themselves will gradually be broken.


We would like to extend our sincere thanks to our partner organizations GRAVIS, SARC and Vikas Santhan, who presented the social projects so excellently, as well as to our two auditors Mr. Susai and Mr. Rajnath, especially the latter, who planned and organized the trip for XertifiX.
Dr. Walter Schmidt
Hannover, 04.11.2024