Hope is a good thing—perhaps the best of things—and no good thing ever dies

Hope is a good thing—perhaps the best of things—and no good thing ever dies.

Imagine growing up in a community where you're not allowed to ask questions.

Where your future is predetermined even before you are born.

Where choices aren’t made—they’re forced.

Where you watch generation after generation endure the same fate.

But then someone dares to break the cycle.

It’s not easy. You receive life threats. You’re beaten. Your house is set on fire.

And still, you return.

You perform on the same streets where you were attacked just a week ago.

You rebuild in the same settlement where your home was burned.

You hold onto that one thing no one can take away from you—HOPE.

Hope that things can get better. And will get better—for good.

This is not a Bollywood script.

This isn’t the story of just one person.

This is the story of passionate grassroots leaders working tirelessly in the remotest corners of India.

Names we haven't heard.

Stories yet to see the light.

Voices that still go unheard.

Through Community Collectives, I’ve had the privilege of meeting some of these remarkable individuals.

It begins with reading their words in an application.

Then you hear their voice in a phone interview.

Eventually, the voice finds a face.

Strangers become friends.

Friends become a community.

Today, I am incredibly proud to introduce Cohort 6 of Community Collectives.

This year, we are working with 10 grassroots leaders from 6 Indian states.

Together, they are running 21 safe spaces, impacting over 1,500 children.

But that’s not all:

50% are first-generation school-goers.

1 in 3 have been child labourers themselves.

70% belong to the very communities they now serve.

Over the next year, we will walk alongside these grassroots leaders—offering them skills, knowledge, resources, and visibility to strengthen their work and deepen their impact.

Together, we will strive to create safe and joyful spaces of learning and support for children from historically marginalised communities like the Nat, Banjara, Phase-Pardhi, Musahar, Meer, and Fakir.

We will work to protect the right to a safe childhood for:

children living in the tribal belts of Bihar,

children selling balloons on the beaches of Goa,

children growing up in conflict zones of Chhattisgarh,

and children living in urban settlements across Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Uttar Pradesh.

Together we will address the disparity in society and in the not-for-profit world. Together, we will continue to hold onto that hope as a community.

Because hope is a good thing. And no good thing ever dies. 

From Survival to Choice - Reimagining Childhood in India

Have you ever felt that you have absolutely no control over your own life?

That your choices aren’t really yours—but are instead shaped, forced, or dictated by circumstances you didn’t choose?

For millions of children in India, this isn’t just a passing feeling. It is their everyday reality.

India is home to approximately 364 million children aged 0–18 years, representing about 30% of the country’s population of over 1.4 billion. The distribution by age group is roughly:

0–6 years: ~158 million

6–14 years (elementary school age): ~195 million

15–18 years (secondary/higher secondary age): ~80 million

According to a 2023 report by the World Bank and UNICEF, 11.5% of children in India live in extremely poor households, which translates to around 52 million children surviving on less than $2.15 (₹178) per day. Children living in poverty are highly vulnerable to becoming trapped in the vicious cycle of child labor — where poverty forces them out of school and into work, and the lack of education, in turn, ensures they remain in poverty for life.

Challenges Faced by Children Living in Poverty

Limited access to education is just the tip of the iceberg. Children in poverty also face:

• School-related challenges: Lower preparedness, poor attendance, stigmatization, and exposure to violence (domestic, workplace, verbal abuse).
• Health issues: Anemia, malnutrition, stunted growth, and substance abuse.
• Social challenges: Early marriages, teenage pregnancies, domestic abuse, and family separation.

According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), as of 2016, 152 million children aged 5–17 years were involved in child labour worldwide. Alarmingly, 114 million of these were children between 5–14 years, making up 75% of the global child labour population.

In the Indian context, the Census of India 2011 reported that 10.1 million children aged 5–14 were engaged in some form of work. However, more recent estimates from the ILO (2020) suggest a declining but still significant figure — 5.8 million children aged 5–17 years are currently working in India. Despite the decrease, the numbers continue to reflect deep-rooted systemic issues.

Maharashtra: A Closer Look

Maharashtra, one of India's most industrialized and economically advanced states, is not immune to this issue. According to PENCIL (Platform for Effective Enforcement for No Child Labour). Maharahstra reported 25000 child labors. But according to the other reports and estimation it is a highly underreported figure.

The prevalence of child labour is particularly notable in:Agricultural sectors, especially sugarcane harvesting and cottonseed production

• Brick kilns, stone quarries, and construction work
• Small-scale industries, including zari work, fireworks, bidi rolling, and leather goods
• Informal service sectors, such as domestic help, roadside stalls, and automobile repair
• Addressing these challenges demands more than educational reforms. Today, on World Day Against Child Labour, we must confront an uncomfortable truth:

Child labour isn’t just a violation of rights—it’s a consequence of social and economical inequality.

To truly eliminate child labour, we must go beyond education alone.

We must:

Invest in community resilience

Build holistic support systems

Design child-focused public policies

Address gender and caste-based vulnerabilities

Let us not just raise awareness, but raise our voices.

Let us not just condemn child labour, but commit to action. 

Let’s build a world where every child has the freedom to dream—and the power to choose.

Redefining Passion and Dedication

We opened applications for our Community Collectives program in February. A few days later, one of our team members received a call from a grassroots leader in Uttar Pradesh. With a polite tone, he asked if he could submit the application a bit later. The reason he gave shook us: he had just lost his wife, who was only in her late twenties, two days earlier.

A few days after that, during the virtual final panel selection, I was speaking with one of the finalists. When I asked him how his week had been, he shared that just three days after our panel, his elder brother had committed suicide. It had been only five days since that tragedy, yet he was still determined to participate in our process. I apologized and offered to postpone the conversation, but he said he wanted to continue—for his brother, who had always supported him.

Through Community Collectives, I have the privilege of meeting grassroots leaders working in some of the most remote corners of the country. Every time, I am humbled by their unwavering dedication, commitment, and perseverance.

Yes, we too face challenges—but they are rarely matters of life and death. Every time I talk to grassroots leaders who stand tall amidst unimaginable adversities, I wonder why they are so determined to participate in this process. They always say, “We don’t get these opportunities often, and now that we have one, we want to make the most of it.”

The not-for-profit sector often favors those in metropolitan areas who speak fluent English, leaving many passionate grassroots leaders overlooked. These leaders deserve a fair chance to step up, to lead, and to build resilient communities. Through Community Collectives, we are striving to bridge this gap—but we can’t do it alone.

We need your support. Are you with us?

The story how we stopped 8 children from migrating for sugar-cane cutting with their parents....

 Hope is a good thing, may be best of things and no good thing ever dies...

Our Fellows were very much disturbed when they got to know that almost 16 children from Chopda Anandghar are going to migrate with their parents. They brainstormed on various ideas of how we can stop this and what we should do if migration still happen.
From the next day they started having dialogue with parents to understand why they are migrating and if there is any possibility of them not going. They were constantly going to their houses to convince them to not go. Most of the people have taken advances from their Mukadam and have spent it to fulfill their daily needs and now they had no money to return. The parents understands that the migration is going to hamper the future of their children but had no answer of what they should do. They were helpless and so were we.
It took Shubham and Kalusing a week before they got the first success. The grand-mother of Ritik and Vir announced to other family members during dinner that they are not going to migrate and she is willing to face all circumstances of the decision. Her determination gave power to the other family members and in next 3 days they arranged Rs. 10000/-, the advance they had taken from the Mukadam. Ritik and Vir's father went to Mukadam, returned the advance and told him that they are not going to come.
But this is not the end. The decision of Ritik & Virs family worked as a motivation for others as well.
I am happy, thrilled, excited, overjoyed to share, to announce that this year we have successfully stopped migration of 8 children and their families. This is not a small victory.
8 children not going to the work with their parents mean 8 children saved from child-labour. This also means 8 children saved from facing abuse. This also means 8 children not dropping out of the school. This also means a ray of hope for better future for 8 families.
This also means that we were not able to stop 8 children going out with their parents. But we have not lost hopes. We had distributed worksheets, stationery and relevant study material to the children along with the numbers of Shubhal & Kalusing to stay in touch..

At Vardhishnu we believe that Every Child Matters. It is one child at a time for us. It is because of the determination, dedication and passion of our Fellows, team members which makes this possible. We face lots of adversities when we work, be it not having enough funds, not having a closed space for running Anandghar, CSRs, funding agencies not willing to break their comfort zones of staying in metros. But we have people who are highly qualified, yet they have decided to be with children in an hostile environment, we have passion, we have an unending zeal of making a change in this world. To create a better, safer, happier world for every child. Because EVERY CHILD MATTERS...EVERY CHILD COUNTS...

Copyright @ Adwait Dandwate

When your children starts their own 'Anandghar'....

Pratiksha, currently studies in 7th grade. She is the 1st batch of students of Anandghar to whom we enrolled in school in 2016. Pratiksha used to work as a waste picker along with her mother and younger brother getting enrolled in schools. She is still a regular student of Anandghar.
Anandghar runs from Monday to Friday; so she along with her friends decided to run their own Anandghar for the children from the community on every Saturday.
They started the campaign from Thursday last week. Asked each and every student of Anandghar whether they would like to join 'their' Anandghar on Saturday. Noted down names of the interested children and then on Saturday they inaugurated their Anandghar with 25+ children in the narrow lanes outside her home.
You can see Pratiksha Didi, Shalu Didi, Roshani Didi and Bhuri Didi teaching kids in this picture shared with me by Pratiksha after hugely successful 1st day.

PS. They also distributed Bananas as nutritional food just like Anandghar

Aditi tai was reading a story to Dadu and he just slept in her arms.

Dadu's day starts at 5 in the morning when he goes to the dumping ground. He usually comes back at 02:00 / 03:00 pm. After eating something he couldn't wait any longer to come to Anandghar. For a 8 year boy like him, it is an very exhausting job. Most of the times he is very exhausted by the time he comes to Anandghar. But he never skips the center.

Even if he decides to stay home, he does not have the luxury to take an afternoon nap.

On that day, Dadu came late to the center, he picked up a book and ask Aditi Tai to read him a story. She was reading a story to him when he just slept on her shoulders and Aditi just sat in that position for next about 20 minutes as she did not wanted to disturb him.

He is not the only one who sleeps at Anandghar. There are few other children also and they do it because they feel safe.

Incidences like this let us know that whatever we are doing is really worth doing....

The Nigerian Witch Boy

नायजेरिया, आफ्रिका खंडाच्या पश्चिम किनाऱ्यावर वसलेला छोटासा देश. लोकसंख्या सुमारे १९ कोटी. लोकसंख्येच्या मानाने आफ्रिकेतील सगळ्यात मोठा देश. ख्रिश्चन आणि इस्लाम धर्मीयांची संख्या सगळ्यात जास्त असली तरी २५० हून जास्त समूह असलेला हा देश. जगातील सगळ्यात श्रीमंत कृष्णवर्णीय व्यक्ती नायजेरीन आहे मात्र दुसरीकडे नायजेरियातील ६१%हून अधिक लोकं दारिद्र्यरेषेखाली राहतात. यांचे दैनिक उत्पन्न 1 $ हून म्हणजे ६५ रुपयांहून कमी आहे.

नायजेरियात सार्वजनिक आरोग्य सुविधांचा अत्यंत अभाव आहे. येथील लोकांचे सरासरी आयुष्य ५२ वर्षे आहे, भारताशी तुलना केल्यास भारतातील लोकांचे सरासरी आयुष्य ६९वर्षे तर अमेरिकेसारख्या देशांत हेच ७९वर्षे आहे.  नायजेरियातील साक्षरता दर हा ६०% टक्के आहे. शिक्षण, अंधश्रद्धा या अत्यंत गंभीर समस्या झाल्या आहे.

मुळची डेन्मार्कची अॅन्जा लोवन (Anja Ringgren Lovén) तिच्या नवऱ्यासोबत नायजेरियाला आली आणि लहान मुलांना वाचवण्यासाठी म्हणून त्यांच्या आफ्रिकन चिल्ड्रन एड एज्युकेशन & डेव्हलपमेंट सोसायटी या संस्थेमार्फत काम करायला सुरुवात केली. ज्यांना वाचवण्यासाठी म्हणून काम करत होती ती मुलं कोण होती? तर घरच्यांनी वाईट शक्तींनी पछाडलेला (Witch), चेटूक करणारा, असे ठरवून सोडून दिलेले, वाळीत टाकलेले हे छोटे जीव. हि चिमुरडी मुलं चेटूक करतात हा त्यांच्यावरचा आरोप. कुटुंबियांच्या वाईट आर्थिक परिस्थितीला, संकटांना मुलांनी केलेलं चेटूक कारणीभूत आहे या मानसिकतेतून नायजेरियात असंख्य मुलांना पालक सोडून देतात. जी घरात टिकतात त्यांना याच कारणाने कौटुंबिक हिंसाचाराला बळी पडावे लागते.

एकदा का एखाद्या मुलाला / मुलीला पछाडलेल ठरवले गेले कि बाधा दूर करण्यासाठी गावातील पुजाऱ्याला किंवा एखाद्या मांत्रिकाला बोलावले जाते. एका अभ्यासानुसार नायजेरियात १९९९ पासून आजपर्यंत सुमारे १५००० मुलांना पछाडलेला (witch boy / girl) म्हणून वाळीत टाकण्यात आले आहे तर १००० हून जास्त मुलांना मारले गेले आहे.

फोटोतल्या ह्या चिमुरड्यामुलावर देखील असाच आरोप करून घरच्यांनी त्याला सोडून दिले होते. नायजेरीच्या रस्त्यांवर पडलेला कचरा खाऊन हा न जाणो किती दिवस जगत होता. अॅन्जा लोवनला तो दिसला त्यावेळी पूर्णपणे नग्नावस्थेत होता, त्याच्या हाडाचा सापळा तेवढा उरला होता. संपूर्ण शरीरावर जखमा होत्या आणि अळ्यांनी ते शरीर पोखरून काढलेलं होत. त्याला नीट उभ राहता येत नव्हत कि नीट चालता येत नव्हत.

३० जानेवारी २०१६ला अॅन्जाने या मुलाला वाचवलं. या दिवसाबद्दल अॅन्जा म्हणते, “आम्हाला फोन वर एकाने अगदी २/३ वर्षाच्या मुलाबद्दल माहिती दिली होती. एवढ लहान मुलं फार काळ रस्त्यावर एकट जगू शकत नाही म्हणून आम्ही लगेच तयारी सुरु केली. आम्ही ज्यावेळी मुलाच्या शोधात या गावात पोहोचलो तेव्हा माझ लक्ष रस्त्याच्या कडेला बसलेल्या या अगदी काही वर्षाच्या चिमुरड्याकडे गेल. मी देखील नुकतीच काही महिन्यांपूर्वी आई झाले होते पण ह्या चिमुरड्याची परिस्थिती पाहून मी हादरून गेले. ”

अॅन्जाने त्याला प्यायला पाणी दिलं, बिस्किटं दिली. ह्याच वेळी कोणीतरी हा फोटो काढला. अॅन्जाने स्वतःच्या फेसबुक प्रोफाईलवर हा फोटो शेअर केला आणि काही कालावधीतच हजारो लोकांनी त्यावर कमेंट लिहायला, तो फोटो शेअर करायला सुरुवात केली. पण अॅन्जा लोवन एवढच करून थांबली नाही. तिने  त्याला संस्थेत आणले आणि त्याची काळजी घ्यायला सुरुवात केली. त्याचे नाव ठेवले ‘होप’ (Hope). होपला दवाखान्यात दाखल केले गेले. डॉक्टरांनी तातडीने त्याच्यावर उपचार सुरु केले आणि लवकरच त्याचे परिणाम दिसून येऊ लागले.

होपला मदत करण्यासाठी केलेल्या आवाहनाला प्रतिसाद देऊन जगभरातून 10 लाख डॉलरपेक्षा जास्त रक्कम जमा झाली. यामुळे त्याचे ऑपरेशन होऊ शकले. आज होप अॅन्जाच्या संस्थेतल्या आणखी सुमारे ६० मुलांसोबत राहतो आहे.

२०१६ साली अॅन्जा लोवनला जर्मनीतील ‘Ooom’ मॅगिझनने वर्षातील प्रेरणादायी व्यक्तीचा सन्मान दिला. हा सन्मान मिळवताना तिचे प्रतिस्पर्धी होते, दलाई लामा, पोप फ्रान्सिस आणि अमेरिकेचे राष्ट्राध्यक्ष बराक ओबामा.

नुकतच बरोबर एका वर्षाने अॅन्जाने पुन्हा एकदा ह्या चिमुरड्यासोबतचा फोटो शेअर केला. होपला आता शाळेत जायला लागला आहे.

चेटूक करतात म्हणून लहानपणीच कुटुंबीयांनी सोडून दिलेल्या या मुलांच्या मनावर या घटनेचे सहजासहजी न मिटणारे असे तीव्र पडसाद उमटलेले असतात. ह्यातून बाहेर काढून त्यांना प्रेम देणाऱ्या होप आणि तिच्या संस्थेचे कौतुक करावे तेवढे थोडे आहे.

रस्त्यावर एकट्या पडलेल्या मुलांना  पाहून बहुतांश जरी नाकाला रुमाल लाऊन पुढे निघून जातात तरी काही मात्र त्यांच्यासाठी संपूर्ण आयुष्य झोकून देतात....नुसते सगळेच निरोज गेस्ट नसतात......

अॅन्जा लोवन आणि तिच्या संस्थेविषयी आणखी जाणून घेण्यासाठी: https://dinnoedhjaelp.dk/en/