This presentation represents my contribution to society through my work at Muktangan.

1. S
Simran Sanghi

2. Muktangan
• An NGO was established in 2003
• Has grown from 1 school and 7 teachers to7
schools, with more than 400 teachers over 11 years
And still continues to grow..
Mission Statement
To evolve sustainable, replicable, inclusive models of
quality child centered teacher and school education in
partnership with marginalized communities and to
advocate them to the larger system.

3. My experience with Muktangan
Over the past 2 years I have worked closely
with the faculty and children of Muktangan in various
capacities:
• 2014: Part of a student profiling project
• 2014: Volunteered at Muktangan, teaching their
Grade 6 children basic English
• 2015: Contributed to a case study project
• 2015: Conducted a session on Terrorism with their
faculty

4. 2014: Student Profiling Project
The project was aimed at accurately discerning the strata
of society the students of Muktangan were coming from
and the difficulties that they faced.
I was assigned a group of children, and went personally to
their houses, to collect the relevant data for them.
The difficulties they faced ranged from:
a. Availability of electricity and water
b. Treatment of women in their homes
I visited many homes of students and was sensitized to
their reality.

6. 2014: Working with children of Grade 6
Through the year 2014, I volunteered at Muktangan.
I coached Grade 6 children in the application of basic
English like, prepositions, antonyms, adverbs and
adjectives.

8. 2015: Case Study Project
This involved interviewing students from Grade 1 to
Grade 8 of the Baba Saheb Ambedkar School to assess
the impact of Muktangan’s education on their
children, to showcase it to donors.

9. This is Sriram Bandari from a Junior KG class.
He shared with me, that his deepest desire
was to be a superhero like Spider Man!
This is Sakshi Gawli from Grade 1.
She wants to be a pilot because her father told
her that she could be anything that she wanted
to be.
(This is a decision that she has made with her
best friends approval, of course!)

10. Himanshu Tarswar is a part of the 3rd grade
classroom and aspires to be a policeman so
that he can keep people around him safe
and “catch all the robbers”.
Shreya Chinta is in Grade 4 and has severe
learning disabilities. However the teachers
of Muktangan have inspired her to become
a teacher herself, so that she can help other
people to learn.

11. Many of the children whom I interviewed told me
that they wanted to grow up to become teachers
because they loved their teachers at Muktangan.

12. 2015:Workshop on terrorism for 32 of Muktangan’s
faculty.

13. The aim of this workshop was to:
• Increase their awareness of terrorism
• Causes of terrorism
• Effects of terrorism
• Names of some terrorist organizations, that are
plaguing India

14. Session Plan
Activity Description Time taken
Balloon game Each of them is given an inflated balloon and a pin, and
told to play, keeping their balloons safe. (They reflexively
began trying to pop each others balloons.)
5 minutes
Peace Close your eyes for a minute and think of what peace
means to you
3 minutes
Terrorism Described what terrorism means to you. Then I gave them
the dictionary definition
5 minutes
Where is
terrorism
concentrated?
I made each of them mark conflict zones on a map of the
world.
7 minutes
Terrorist
groups
I asked the trainees to name some terrorist groups and
asked them if they new their symbols. Then I asked them
how they recruit members.
5 minutes

15. Session Plan
Activity Description Time taken
Terrorism and
religion
I showed them pictures of groups like the Naxalites and the
LTTE, who were not Islamic terrorist organisations.
3 minutes
Solution I questioned them on potential solutions to this global
problem. Many of them cited education as an appropriate
solution.
6 minutes
Education This activity involved asking them how to incorporate a
solution to terrorism in our education system, and their
roles as teachers.
8 minutes
Peace I asked them if after this session they thought that there
could ever be peace in this world.
4 minutes
Imagine To conclude I played the song “Imagine” by John Lennon 5 minutes
Feedback To gauge how much they had learnt from the session I
asked them to write down how they, as teachers would
incorporate the lessons that they had learned while they
were teaching.
10 minutes

16. I began by asking them their idea of peace,
and whether that was actually achievable/practical.
I asked them what they thought terrorism was, and
we concluded “Terrorism is a violent way to resolve
conflict.”
I then asked them where
they thought terrorism
was concentrated in
the world.

17. The next question was what they thought was the
motive of some terrorist groups.
The methods of recruitment for these groups was also
discussed.
In order to shatter their assumption that many
terrorists are “followers” of Islam, I made sure to tell
them about groups like the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of
Tamileelam) and the Naxalites of Bengal.

18. I ended the session by asking them if they believed in
a solution to terrorism.
Most of the trainees responded by saying that
education was the solution.
Then they informed me that as teacher trainers they
could teach their teachers and children about
terrorism and the right way to resolve conflict by
peaceful means.

19. I left them with this quote:

23. My work at Muktangan has served as my way of
giving back to society. Coming from a sheltered
background, Muktangan, has opened my eyes to the
real world, and made me realize how much I can
contribute to it positively. It has taught me to
appreciate the education that I have had the
opportunity to get, and how I can spread this
education to those that do not have this privilege.
I intend to continue engaging and contributing
towards education – the greatest equaliser.