During our visit to India this summer, I had the chance to visit a Pratham site in Mumbai with my family.

Our visit was scheduled for the GN Ward in the Dharavi area of Mumbai.
Our Pratham coordinators in the US helped us get in touch with the ones in Mumbai, all of whom were very helpful.
Dharavi is considered to be one of the largest slums in the world where a diverse community of people speaking many different Indian languages lives in crowded conditions.
Ms. Savita Parab who helps supervise the Dharavi program very graciously met with us and took us on a guided tour.
Our first visit was to the Balwadi (3-5yo) program. We walked through some narrow lanes to reach this Balwadi which was housed the in the home of the teacher who runs it. Her living room was small but surprisingly very clean, well lit and well ventilated. She had about 14 children that day. They sat around her in a circle. It was an interactive and engaging learning environment where each child was encouraged to take turns to speak. There was also play time, arts and crafts, etc. Several of the wall posters were made by the instructor herself. I was impressed with the level of instruction and patience of the instructor.
Our second visit was to a Municipal school where Pratham has an instructor who works with 6th and 7th grade students for an hour a day, then goes to another school to do the same. Children who need help improving their fluency in Hindi (the language of instruction), are dentified and pulled out for an hour a day to a designated classroom. Here, under the encouragement of the instructor, they participate in classroom discussions in Hindi. On that day the children were eagerly discussing what they wanted to be when they grew up, and their smiles and enthusiasm was quite contagious.
Our third visit was to the Pratham library which was a unique experience. Pratham gives books to a trained instructor who keeps these in her own home. The library was actually a public space where families brought their children from 0 to 16 years. The instructor read picture books to the younger children and lent books to each child to take home for two to three days at a time. She even went door to door to the families that did not show up that day and handed them books. There were various kinds of books, and remarkably, they were in very good condition.
What makes Pratham special is how well organized it is at the grassroots level. At risk children are identified in each age group within a certain ward and instructors routinely make home visits to encourage parents to bring their child. The curriculum also strongly encourages active instead of passive learning.
In the end, I asked Ms. Parab what kind of progress Pratham has made in these neighborhoods. She said that some “at risk” areas have actually been removed from their list because of their success. This is partly because parents begin to understand the importance of education and therefore become actively involved in their children’s academic progress.
Pratham’s model of maximizing resources by hiring and training people from within the community, utilizing their own homes and public/ school spaces at once keeps expenses low and improves efficiency without compromising on quality.

After seeing how engaged the students are and how passionate the instructors are, it really made me feel great that all the funds I have raised through the Readathon will be going to an excellent cause.