Pratham is one of the largest education NGOs in India, but is not well known outside of the country.
In the words of Nobel Laureate Abhijit Banerjee, “Pratham’s impact on the lives of millions of kids has been tremendous; it is quite simply an exceptional, best-in-class organisation that has managed to scale across India.” Pratham has won many prizes, including the Kravis Prize, the Skoll Award, the WISE Prize, the LUI Che Woo Prize and most recently the Yidan Prize.
Pratham conducts high-quality, low-cost and replicable interventions to address gaps in the education system. Their best-known programme, Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL), teaches basic literacy and numeracy in as little as 30 days for £14 per student. They offer this in 10,000 villages in 21 states in India. The World Bank has recognised this model as an important method to make up learning lost due to the pandemic.
In 2000 Pratham established the Pratham Council for Vulnerable Children (PCVC). It started in Mumbai, where there are significant levels of child labour and initially aimed to educate working children before focusing on the eradication of child labour. Subsequently, Pratham identified that whilst Mumbai was a destination for many children, most had originated from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh states.
Their presence in these states means they can both reduce the number of children leaving home to join the labour force in the first place and provide support to rescued children once they are returned to their home villages.
In 2021 the Randal Charitable Foundation provided grant funding to assist 200 high risk families to establish a small business involving a vegetable cart, selling dry rations. The funding also paid for others to set up an Indian Chinese car through the charity’s existing model, post covid. The funding will help families in Bahraich, in Uttar Pradesh, India.
For more information on Pratham UK visit here
