Jai Wadia

Sutradhar, supported by the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, is making learning fun for young children by integrating traditional materials with innovative new teaching techniques

Barbie dolls and plush teddy bears don't hold seven-year-old Neha's attention very long. She wants to play with something else. Her mother brought her to the Sutradhar store where she found handcrafted toys, puppets and games with a distinctly Indian flavour. Attracted by the bright colours and new textures, Neha reaches out to feel them. A string of smooth, multi-coloured wooden beads, a zoo of colourful animal puppets made from cloth, a wooden tortoise; Neha wanted them all!

These products, retailed at Sutradhar, not only provide for hours of fun to children like Neha but also serve as learning materials that encourage self expression and imaginative play. Founder-director Mandira Kumar started this unique 'umbrella' educational media resource centre in 1995 in Bangalore after a four-and-a-half-year stint with CRY as its all India education coordinator.

The organisation was set up to fill some of the gaps in the education system specially for younger children — there was hardly any literature available in bookstores on early education, most of the innovative as well as traditional materials were scattered all over the country and not easily accessible, government schooling was of poor quality, there were not many opportunities for teachers to get trained, there were very few forums for educators to exchange ideas and there was a general lack of documentation and dissemination of innovations in the field.

The organisation hopes to address most of these issues and although it is based in Karnataka, its resources and publications reach out to individuals and institutions across the country, including non-governmental organisations and underprivileged children. In fact, 55 per cent of its sales last year was through institutions.

Its main aim is to promote early education through varied media like toys, crafts, teaching aids, storytelling, puppetry and books. A 'sutradhar' is the narrator of a story who knits together the tale — the metaphor was particularly chosen by Ms Kumar to depict the work of the organisation — culling together educational resources and ideas from across the country and showcasing them under one roof.

Sutradhar's is no ordinary toyshop — its products are carefully sourced and picked for quality and appeal, and some are even designed to provide the much-required sensory and tactile stimulation young children need. In fact, the organisation focuses on early learning — from age 0 to 10 — during the child's formative years. Very reasonably priced, many of the toys and resources also help detect disabilities among children as well as in remedial education.

Besides its retail store, Sutradhar has organised several public exhibitions to create awareness of their products nationwide, designed mobile exhibitions on areas of learning and the importance of toys, hosted a national folk toy seminar, designed folk games and new resources in collaboration with educators from all over India, developed an early learning kit, and compiled and coordinated a child resource directory of NGOs in Bangalore called Fingertips. The organisation also conducts open forums for educators and NGOS, and works in tandem with the government and NGOs to improve the conditions in state-run anganwadis, preschools and non-formal schools.

Sutradhar has not only created awareness on the vast richness of India's folk toys but has also generated a keen interest and demand for learning resources in Karnataka and other states. What sets it apart from other such resource centers is its emphasis on plurality and diversity — they believe in incorporating the best from a whole range of ideologies — from Montessori and Piaget to Indian educators like Gijubhai and Gandhi.

Ms Kumar, who has studied social communications media and earned a Masters in educational media, says, "Apart from general principles of learning through play and media - it's [Sutradhar] not about promoting one particular idea but making people aware of the many ideologies that exist. For me each of these persons [educators] has validity because there are some ideas that I have absorbed from every one of them. Nature and art are the cornerstones of how I see early learning, as well as room for children to express themselves through exploration. Some of these concepts are common to many educators like Tagore, Gandhi and Montessori."

Sutradhar, as part of its work to help the underprivileged, has also initiated the Forum for Creche and Childcare Services (FORCES) chapter in Karnataka — an informal national-level advocacy network committed to securing the rights of the underprivileged child (0-6 years). Besides this, it is working with the Akshay Patra Foundation to provide hot meals to anganwadi children in Bangalore city. Although nutrition is part of the government programme, the Sutradhar staff found that not only were the anganwadis in abysmal condition but the children were given only two slices of bread each day!

School improvement projects like these also include teacher-training workshops for preschool educators, and research and documentation to overhaul the present system of education in the country.

The Sir Dorabji Tata Trust has been giving the organisation valuable support over the years under the Trust's mandate of strengthening resource centres that would impact the quality of education provided to children. In December 2000 a grant of Rs 15.85 lakh was given to the organisation over a period of two years towards core costs of Sutradhar. Later, in October 2003, Rs 52 lakh was granted — out of which Rs 15 lakh was for its corpus fund and the balance Rs 37 lakh for programme activities. Sutradhar was to raise a matching amount for the corpus, and this aggregate fund has helped the organisation gain financial stability. The organisation also receives support from CRY, ICICI, PLAN-India, the Sir Ratan Tata Trust, the Ashoka Foundation (the latter was a personal fellowship to Ms Kumar for being a social entrepreneur with an innovative idea) and the Concern India Foundation.

Having completed 10 years in the field in 2005, Sutradhar decided to review its work and plan for its second phase of activity. This includes tackling some of the challenges faced by Ms Kumar and the staff, such as the high turnover of people within the organisation, in the government and other collaborating NGOs, and the dwindling supply of folk toys over the years.

With the positive approach of viewing weaknesses as opportunities for improvement, Sutradhar has a number of ideas to further its work. Some of its plans include building and strengthening the staff at Sutradhar, designing and providing additional resources for specific niches, eg. an infant stimulation kit for crèches, and creating materials for children with special needs (for which there is a growing demand). Improving display, signage and communications for the materials, developing a new range of products, increase in visibility and better service through computerised billing, etc, are also on the anvil. Relocating to a larger space in order to improve service is another project on the horizon.

Through its work, Sutradhar is helping to revitalise the education system and motivate more children like Neha to grow, think and enjoy the learning process.

Uploaded on July 13, 2006