Living Academy in Pune

The Living Academy project is operating in association with Saans Foundation at Bhavani Peth in Pune. It is a club-house for the kids and youth living in the largest urban basti (slum) in Pune at Bhavani Peth. It is a life-long Kindergarten for any community members and the entry is free of charge. The making of the academy is documented at https://www.livingAcademy.org and also as blogs by the students at the chatShala: metaStudio.org.

About Kishore Bharati

Kishore Bharati is a 54-year-old volunteer-driven organization founded in November 1970 in Mumbai by a group of activists and professionals with roots in science, social science, social work, engineering, medicine, law, management, mass communication, and education. The initial group was ignited by the Gandhian vision of reconstructing India’s education system to catalyze social transformation and self-reliance and, most importantly, liberate villages from their endemic poverty.

To meet the objectives, Kishore Bharati conceived and implemented a spectrum of ideas during the 52 years of its existence. Most notable among them are:

• Setting up a sprawling 150 acre rural campus in the Village Palia Pipariya on the eastern end of the Hoshangabad district of Madhya Pradesh (1972-91), which hosted various programs inspired by Gandhiji’s*Nai Taleem* and other linked ideas of Rural Development and social transformation

• Agriculture (including Animal Husbandry and Cross Breeding Horticulture)

• Irrigation (by promoting Concrete Ring Wells in collaboration with Friends Rural Centre Rasulia, Hoshangabad)

• Public Health (through village women and traditional Dais and in collaboration with Medico Friends Circle)

• Youth Conscientization for Social Change & Development

• Nai Taleem Experiment with School Push-Outs/Walk-outs at the Rural Campus (1974-77)

• Cycle-borne Mobile Library in villages Library and Documentation Centre at the Rural Campus

• Shaheed Bhagat Singh Pustakalaya & Sanskritik Kendra at Pipariya town (30 Km from Rural Campus) organized by the local socialist youth

• Engagement with Peoples Movements (from 1977 onwards)

• Mazdoor Sanghatan at Village Palia Pipariya

• Interfacing with tribal and trade union movements in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh (then in Madhya Pradesh)

• Social Forestry at the Rural Campus

• Gender Equality and Women’s Liberation

• Fertility Awareness Education Program for both women and men

• Children’s Activity Program in neighbouring villages and government schools

• Peoples Science Movement in Rural Areas

• Hoshangabad Science Teaching Program (HSTP) in govt. middle schools, Class VI-VIII (1972-1982) in collaboration with Friends Rural Centre Rasulia, Hoshangabad

• Creation of Ekalavya (1983) to continue and extend HSTP program to Social Science and to Primary and Secondary Stages as well.

• Joining the Struggle for Scientific Relief and rehabilitation of Bhopal poisonous gas victims & Justice from Union Carbide Corporation (1984-87)

• Environmental Education in collaboration with Eklavya) in Govt. Secondary School of Chhindwara polluted by Coal Mining (1985-86)

• Educational Policy for Systemic Transformation of Education:

• National Commission on Teachers (1983-84)

• Education Policies of 1986, 1992

• Campaigning for Common School System and Equitable Free & Compulsory Education as a Fundamental Right (From 2004 onwards)

• Work-Centred Education in National Curriculum Framework 2005

• Public campaign for rectification of flawed RTE Act,2009

• Periodic support for All India Forum for Right to Education (AIFRTE)

• Collaboratively Understanding Science Education (From 2015) in collaboration with the gnowledge.org lab of Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, TIFR

• Home Labs in collaboration with several schools and colleges across the country

• ChatShaala https://metastudio.org, an online platform to inculcate STEM Habits

• Making of a Living Academy

• Interfacing with All-India People’s Science Network (From 2022)

• Publications: Several books/booklets and essays were published (1980s to date): Please see Publications page.

• People (Please see the page of the people who participated in various roles over the years)

• Join and support Kishore Bharati

On the occasion of 50 years celebration of Kishore Bharati organization, Chintan Shivir: A critical reflection session on re-imagining education is going to be organized by Kishore Bharati in association with IISER Pune, in the context of issues such as rural to urban migration and resolving the dilemmas and paradoxes of current education