Pehchaan The Street School

Challenges of Street Education and How Pehchaan The Street School is Overcoming Them Introduction Street education is one of the most heartfelt yet difficult paths to creating social change. It doesn’t take place in conventional classrooms but in open areas or in slum areas. The students are underprivileged children—resilient, bright-eyed, and burdened by poverty and survival. For the children, education can seem more than just a social right but an impossible dream.  According to EAG (2024) In India, only about 46.5% of five-year-old are enrolled in early childhood education and care (ECEC) programs. Lakhs of children live and grow up in underprivileged areas. With little to no access to formal schooling, they are often forced into child labour, many have to work from a very young age to sustain their livelihood. For children from such disadvantaged backgrounds education can bring a grain of hope to move towards a better future.  Let’s read how one of the NGOs situated in Ne...

The Impact of Youth Volunteering for Social Progress Introduction: The Power of One Small Act In the middle of a bustling crowd a young girl looking confused and stranded, clutching a notebook and a pencil, keen to learn and study but has no school to attend. Then imagine another young approaching the girl, perhaps someone like you or me crouching in front of her, assisting her issues, teaching her the first few alphabets. That one simple moment sowed by a stranger will remain spirited within her forever. That one act of giving now has the power to change her life. The act of volunteering reforms the connection from each individual to a marginal society. The power of youth volunteering links the giver to the ones that might never have someone to believe in them. For such a generous act of social service as educating the underprivileged children from disadvantaged backgrounds the youth volunteering for progression has the ability to change lives. The service of volunteering can spark a ...

A Modern-Day Idgah The Spirit of Inclusivity at Pehchaan The Street School “Hamid ke paas sirf teen paisey the. Lekin uska dil saaf tha, uska irada nek tha, aur uski soch sabse badi thi.” (“Hamid had only three paise. But his heart was pure, his intention noble, and his thinking the greatest of all.”) Munshi Premchand’s ‘ Idgah ’ was once introduced to us in our grade five Hindi class. Looking back at the story stirs a much bigger image of the story that we once innocently learnt in our childhood. Idgah is a mirror into the soul of a child who understands life far beyond his years. Set against the backdrop of Eid, a festival of joy and indulgence, the story follows four-year-old Hamid who, unlike his peers, chooses not to spend his meagre three paise on toys, sweets, or swings. Instead, he buys a pair of tongs for his grandmother so she won’t burn her fingers while making rotis. His act, though seemingly simple, is monumental in its moral weight. In the narrative we learn how Premchan...