As the sun begins to filter through the windows of her home in Baraut, Uttar Pradesh, 27-year-old Richa Jain settles down with a notebook, a stack of reference books, and her phone. Before the camera starts rolling, there are hours of preparation ahead — researching topics, cross-checking previous years’ questions, creating PowerPoint slides, and organising lessons for students she may never meet in person.
For many educators, recording an online class might involve laptops, professional setups, and high-speed internet. For Richa, however, it began with none of those things.
What started as a simple desire to share knowledge during the pandemic has today grown into one of the most trusted Hindi-learning platforms for students preparing for competitive examinations.
Through her YouTube channel, Hindi With Richa, and more recently through her app, she has helped thousands of students prepare for NET and JRF examinations — all while pursuing her own academic journey and overcoming personal challenges that could easily have discouraged her.
Building an identity through education
For Richa, education was never simply about earning degrees. Growing up in Baraut, Uttar Pradesh, it became a way of building confidence, independence, and eventually, a life on her own terms.
Today, she is pursuing a PhD from CCS University, has qualified for the Junior Research Fellowship (JRF), and mentors thousands of students preparing for NET and JRF examinations. But the road to becoming one of the most recognised Hindi educators online was far from straightforward.
Alongside her academic ambitions, Richa was also navigating the emotional weight of living with vitiligo. The condition often attracted unsolicited comments and social judgment, experiences that could have easily shaken her confidence.
Instead, she turned towards books.
“My family encouraged me to continue my education and keep learning,” she recalls.
That encouragement stayed with her. Through school, college, postgraduate studies, and later while pursuing her B.Ed., education became both her refuge and her strength.
With just a phone and determination, Richa Jain started Hindi With Richa in 2021 — a platform that now helps students across India prepare for competitive exams.
When she cleared the NET examination, a new thought began taking shape.
“Since I had acquired this education myself, I felt I must take it further. I needed to teach other students as well,” she says.
There was another reason, too, one that many young women may relate to.
“The desire to achieve something entirely on my own,” she adds.
That desire would soon change not only her own life but also the lives of thousands of students across the country.
In 2021, as the pandemic pushed classrooms onto screens, online education was witnessing an unprecedented boom. While many educators were investing in professional setups and digital infrastructure, Richa had neither a laptop nor a Wi-Fi connection.
Still, she decided to begin.
Armed with a smartphone and determination, she started uploading Hindi lessons for NET aspirants on YouTube.
PowerPoint presentations were created on the mobile itself. The recordings were done on the same device.
Editing, uploading, and managing the channel, everything happened through that single screen.
Internet access posed an equally daunting challenge. With no broadband connection at home, every upload depended on the family’s combined mobile data packs.
“My phone had 1 GB of data, my mother’s phone had another 1 GB, and my father’s phone had data as well,” she recalls. “I would pool the data from everyone’s phones to upload the videos.”
Each lecture represented hours of work. Creating slides, researching content, recording explanations, and uploading the final video could easily consume seven hours of her day.
At the same time, she was preparing for PhD admissions and managing her own studies.
“Time management was a significant challenge,” she says. “I had my academic work on one side and video production on the other.”
Richa Jain’s online classes have created a learning community where students can access free, detailed Hindi lessons for NET and JRF preparation. Photograph: (Enhanced with AI)
Yet the practical difficulties were not the hardest part.
Whenever she mentioned her plans, many people dismissed the idea altogether. Some questioned whether online teaching would work. Others doubted that students would seek Hindi educational content in significant numbers.
“Many people kept insisting that nothing would come of it,” she remembers. “The challenge was keeping myself motivated and maintaining faith that one day it would definitely succeed.”
When students began finding her
In the beginning, teaching online felt strangely one-sided.
Unlike a physical classroom where a teacher can see eager faces, confused expressions, or raised hands, YouTube offered no such reassurance.
Richa spent hours creating lessons but had little idea who was watching them or whether they were helping at all.
“Especially when teaching online, you don’t get to meet the students in person,” she says. “I couldn’t tell how many children were actually watching or studying.”
For months, she continued regardless.
Then, slowly, things began to change.
Comments started appearing under her videos. Students began sharing their results and messages arrived from aspirants who had used her lessons to prepare for examinations.
What had once felt like speaking into an empty room was gradually becoming a community.
The turning point came nearly two to three years after she started in 2021.
“It was after two or three years had passed that I first felt a genuine sense of validation,” she recalls.
“Students were watching, and they were truly benefiting from it. That gave me the motivation to believe that what I was doing was absolutely right.”
The appreciation wasn’t merely about the availability of content; it was about the quality and depth of her teaching.
What began as lessons recorded from her home in Baraut, Uttar Pradesh, has grown into a platform supporting thousands of students pursuing academic careers.
“The messages I received most frequently from students were regarding my content,” she says. “They would tell me that they hadn’t found material of this quality, specifically tailored to the level of the UGC NET examination in Hindi, elsewhere.”
Her approach to previous-year questions particularly resonated with learners.
Rather than simply providing answers, she focused on helping students understand where those answers came from.
That level of detail built trust. Students knew they weren’t memorising shortcuts; they were learning how to study systematically.
As recommendations spread from one student to another, the channel continued to grow. What began as an experiment conducted entirely on a smartphone soon became one of the most trusted destinations for Hindi NET aspirants across the country.
The students who found confidence through her classes
Among the thousands who discovered Richa’s lessons was 25-year-old Rajni from Bijnor.
Like many competitive exam aspirants, she was constantly searching for reliable study resources online when she stumbled upon Richa’s channel.
“I used to study using YouTube resources, and quite by chance, I found Richa Ma’am’s channel two years ago,” she says.
For others, the impact translated directly into results.
Devashish, originally from Bihar and currently based in Delhi, discovered her videos while preparing for the NET and JRF examinations.
From creating presentations on her phone to launching her own app, Richa Jain’s journey reflects how technology can make education more inclusive.
“I found her YouTube channel last year while preparing for NET and JRF,” he shares. “I subsequently achieved a 100 per cent score in the JRF examination.”
But perhaps the most telling measure of Richa’s influence is how frequently her name comes up among Hindi students.
One of her learners, Ananya, explains that her classes have become almost synonymous with NET preparation in the subject.
“Initially, her content was quite niche, and the outreach was limited,” she adds.
“But gradually, as more people discovered her videos, it reached a point where it began to feel almost mandatory for anyone preparing for Hindi examinations to watch Richa Ma’am’s classes.”
For many learners, the biggest advantage wasn’t simply the quality of the teaching but the fact that it remained accessible.
“She has provided such high-quality free content that even students who cannot afford paid courses can comfortably prepare for NET and JRF examinations,” adds Ananya.
That accessibility is something Richa consciously prioritises.
“Last year, I met students who simply couldn’t afford to enrol in paid courses, no matter how low the fees were,” she says. “That is where YouTube proves invaluable. It is a platform where every student can study for free.”
For her, education was never meant to be limited by financial circumstances. If a student was willing to learn, they deserved an opportunity.
More than a teacher
Ask her students what sets Richa apart, and many speak not just about her lectures but about her willingness to support them long after class ends.
Whether it is guidance on examinations outside her primary area of teaching, academic decisions, or personal doubts, students say she makes herself available.
By breaking barriers around language and access, Richa Jain is proving that quality education can reach learners anywhere through digital platforms. Photograph: (Enhanced with AI)
For Richa, some of the most memorable success stories are not always about ranks or scores. They are about people who rediscover confidence through education.
One such student was a 52-year-old man who had been quietly following her lessons on YouTube. Richa remembers regularly seeing comments from him under her videos, but she had no idea who he was or how old he was.
Then one day, a message arrived.
“He told me that he was 52 years old and had qualified for NET after studying entirely through the free classes available on YouTube,” she recalls.
What stayed with her even more was the reason he had decided to appear for the examination.
“He said he wanted to show younger students, who often lose hope after a few unsuccessful attempts, that it is never too late. He wanted them to believe that if a 52-year-old could qualify NET, they could do it too.”
For Richa, the message was deeply moving.
“When I learnt that a 52-year-old uncle had qualified NET through the classes, it felt incredibly special,” she says.
“Moments like these remind me why I started teaching in the first place.”
A platform built on trust
Today, the scale of her work would have been difficult to imagine back in 2021.
Nearly 90,000 students are connected to her YouTube channel, while an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 learners have studied through her platform over the years. Thousands have reportedly qualified for NET and JRF examinations using her guidance and classes.
In January 2025, she expanded her efforts further with the launch of the Hindi With Richa app.
For thousands of Hindi learners, Richa’s classes are a source of guidance, confidence and opportunity.
The platform already serves more than 25,000 active students through a mix of free resources, complete batches, crash courses, previous-year question series, and mock tests.
Yet despite the growth, her core philosophy remains unchanged: quality education should be accessible to anyone willing to learn.
Why Hindi education deserves more respect
Richa’s journey also raises an important question about how India views language and education.
For decades, conversations around academic success have often been dominated by English. Hindi and other Indian languages are frequently viewed as secondary options, despite being the primary medium of learning and expression for millions of people.
That perception, however, is slowly changing.
Through her work, Richa is proving that quality education is not defined by language. Every language carries its own beauty and depth, and when learning is made accessible in those languages, it creates opportunities for countless students to thrive.
All images courtesy Richa Jain
