Summary
Pratham is one of India’s largest NGOs focused on improving education quality
Pratham held special programmes to prevent children from dropping out of school during the pandemic
Pratham, a non-governmental organisation dedicated to offering quality education to underprivileged children across the world, has been awarded the Indira Gandhi Peace Prize 2021.
Pratham was established in 1995 by Farida Lambay and Madhav Chavan with the objective to impart education in the slums of Mumbai. The organisation set up community-based preschools and offered education to children who lagged behind education according to their age.
The outreach of Pratham has reached about one million children and with government partnership, about five million children are benefitted every year.
During the lockdowns due to COVID-19, Pratham took various initiatives to make sure children do not lose out on their regular quality education by using innovative digital technology.
Devyani Pershad, the head of communication and international collaborations at Pratham, said, “The pandemic was a challenging time, but also one of significant learning and innovation at Pratham. Through our community networks and digital innovations built over the years, we were able to reach children in more than 10,000 communities with creative and learning content through the period of school closures, and build an environment of support for children’s learning in these communities. We also supported several State governments to leverage our digital content and devise processes to reach every child. Our programming with youth also went fully remote during this period, with training and upskilling content shared through webinars, zoom calls and WhatsApp groups, so youth could prepare for better livelihoods.”
Pratham held special programmes to prevent children from dropping out of school during the pandemic. The organisation also made sure that girls and women got a second chance to complete their education.
“In addition to supporting children and youth during this time, we were able to share safety and preventive measures with families and communities through these same networks in more than 10 regional languages, making essential information available to everyone. All this was done through our committed teams working remotely across the country and making sure we are helping children, youth and communities through the pandemic,” added Pershad.
Last updated on 20 Nov 2021
