About Bala Janaagraha
Bala Janaagraha uses an interactive child-focused pedagogy that has three core components:
- a structured module of classroom sessions
- a hands-on practical civic project and
- a series of Civic Fests across the country. These Fests are exciting platforms through which the children showcase their civic projects and get recognised for their outstanding work.
A resource book, called ‘I Change My City’ A Guide to Active Citizenship – is provided to support the curriculum. Through simple language and attractive visuals, this book brings to life topics related to good citizenship, urban governance and sustainable urban development.
By seeding principles of good citizenship in children, Bala Janaagraha aims to make them catalysts of change. It is hoped that they, in turn, will spread the message at home, at school and in their neighbourhood, thereby leading to a multiplier effect.
The program is administered by a team of Facilitators, ably assisted by Bala Janaagraha Mitras (BJMs), who are volunteers. BJMs come from various walks of life: from the community, corporates, the teaching fraternity and so on. All of them share a passion for interacting with children and are great at imbuing them with values in an interesting manner that is anything but pedantic.
The journey so far
From a modest start in 2002 (when it covered 170 children across 5 schools in Bengaluru), the programme has scaled up to 531 schools in 25 cities across 16 states, and has touched more than 85,000 students so far.
We are extremely thankful to our donors, whose support has helped us scale up and at the same time, deepen the impact of the programme.
The cities covered by the programme are given below: