Pagdandi School

Another of Swechha’s initiatives is called Pagdandi (http://pagdandi.weebly.com and check the facebook page called Pagdandi School) – it involves informal schooling, outside regular school hours, for children of a nearby slum community called Jagdamba Camp in Sheikh Sarai, New Delhi. Volunteers from colleges and universities in Delhi offer their time to educate children on active citizenship, environmental issues, arts, music etc, in a park next to the community. Last week I visited a component of Pagdandi called Kitaab Ghar (an interactive library in a rented room within the community itself). A group of boys came to the one-hour session in the morning, before attending their regular school, to read and tell stories in Hindi and English, and to play games. One of the boys recounted a story he had just read to the rest of us about a man who wished to turn one of his donkeys into a man. The library has enough books for the time being but is interested in finding a good bookshelf, and of course in finding new volunteers to work with the children.