The WHY Programme run by Sri Ram Gobhurdhun Charitable Trust covers 400 first generation learners in a Delhi slum. It seeks to provide them with the supplementary support that neither the basic schools they attend nor their illiterate parents at home can.

The motto of WHY [We Help Youth] is “Help them enter the world”. Founder of the Trust, Ms. Anuradha Gobhurdhun Bakshi,50 started the Trust in 1998 in memory of her father. She is a foreign languages professional, who graduated in France. She is well to do and has decided to channel her inheritance to the cause she has discovered. She believes it takes more than spells in our token state schools to outfit poor children for the world out there. Having been raised in affluence she is acutely aware of the many extra inputs that go to make privileged children the successes they are. WHY seeks to at least simulate some of these ‘extras’ for deprived children.

Toddlers to children of Class XII --of all religions and castes-- come to the three rented tenements of the Trust where they receive various services: a creche, tutoring to amplify class work, behavioural skills, communication skills in English, personal hygiene and nutrition knowledge, motivation and counseling, association with successful people, career direction and most of all a sense of belonging and hope. The project is deliberately focused on just one slum --Giri Nagar, Bhagat Singh Camp-- and the staff of thirty are drawn from the same slum. They may not be qualified enough to work in formal schools but Ms.Bakshi --a teacher herself-- has trained these school drop outs into highly motivated leaders serving the programme’s mission. Most of them are women for whom these jobs have provided a sense of purpose and valuable additional incomes.

UNESCO has been impressed by the programme and has allowed it to use the by-line, “with the support of UNESCO”. That has attracted many volunteers --many of them French-- to visit the project regularly: that makes the children feel that the world out there cares for them. The programme currently serves 45 toddlers, 138 primary schoolers, 139 secondary schoolers, 14 disabled children and 50 gypsy children who are totally out of the loop of even the basic state schools.

Costs consist mostly of rentals and salaries --between Rs.500 and Rs.2000 each per month-- to the staff. Not a penny goes to anyone but the residents of the slum. Ms. Bakshi is the Lead Volunteer who is at the slum everyday guiding the two year old programme. Costs run to Rs.60,000 per month and she needs donations from well wishers. It has so far been funded by herself, friends and friends of friends. NDTV has committed Rs. 3 lakhs per year for three years.

Ms. Bakshi’s dream is to grow the idea into a mature service that slum dwellers desire and would want to pay for. She says there is evidence that this may happen soon. When that happens, she dreams of replicating the programme in other slums. Until then funds are needed.

Anuradha Goburdhun Bakshi
C 15 Chiragh Enclave,
New Delhi 110048
Tel: 011- 6469915, 6444324,
Mobile 9811424877
Fax: 6217952
E-mail:

The WHY Programme runs at Bhagat Singh camp, Giri Nagar, Kalkaji opposite the Old Labour Court