A short intro about our work..

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Antral – ‘Bridging the Gap’
About Antral-
Antral is a voluntary organization registered under the Indian society Act 1860.
VISION:
The inception of Antral took place when few people, those who love to work with a vision to empower the
disadvantaged children and self, came together. The word Antral means ‘the existing gap’ in our society. We at
Antral, have a vision to bridge this gap by creating an open platform which offers alternative education to the
not-so-privileged children. The idea is to give each child a space where one can explore, identify his/her
potential and become an independent learner. Thus, we see good life skills based education, not only as the
fundamental right of every child but, also as the most potent means of creating an equitable society.
Our Belief:
“As you simplify a child's life, the laws of the Universe will be simpler to you”.
The concept of Open Schooling:
 The National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) formerly known as National Open School (NOS) was
established in November,1989 as an autonomous organization in pursuance of National Policy on
Education 1986 by the Ministry of Human Resource Development(MHRD), Government of India.
 NIOS (National Institute of Open Schooling) was brought for the improvement in enrollment at primary
and secondary level.
 Dropout rate: 25% (I to V), 49% (I to VIII) and 62% (I to X)
 Laborers migrate along with their families and it becomes difficult for their children to attend school.

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The Model:
Background:
The Team at Antral strives to educate, enable and simplify the life of as many children who belong to slum
community, streets, rural areas and who are deprived of a formal or in-formal educational environment.
We at Antral, also seek to help children who are autistic, sexually abused and special in any way. We try to
align our vision by uncovering their intrinsic innate curiosity, imparting science and silence together, spreading
love, compassion, peace, grace, gratitude and light, and hence, initiating the process of transformation within
them.
Antral has already reached out to children in 2 places of India i.e. 2 (Darbhanga and Begusarai) in Bihar and in
Jharkhand. There are about 40 children in both districts (Darbhanga and Begusarai).
Overview of Antral’s work:
We started working with children in April, 2011. Later, realizing the need of a registered body, we applied and
got it registered in August, 2011. Till now, we have been able to reach out to children of construction laborers,
children of migrating communities, some victims of child labor and street children.
We believe in the vision of Rabindranath Tagore and J.Krishnamurty as need for the current education system,
so we follow some of their alternative approaches.
We have learned through our experience that education system and pedagogy can never be same or common for
all places. We have realized that education system for every village and community may vary according to the
environment of that village or community, and then only we can really make our children an independent
learner.
Promotion from
govt. and Funding
agencies as
alternative education
Open
Schooling
(NIOS)
Role of NGO in
concept
development
and project
management
ANTRAL

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Aims& Objectives:
 Antral believes that every child has his/her own uniqueness and individuality. Thus, Antral aims to help
them to realize who they are. We aim to preserve their individuality and let them grow into an
independent learner.
 We believe that the aim of education should be to develop rational autonomy, sensitivity to all
democratic and egalitarian values, dignity of human life, respect for labor, and capability to work.
Thereby, enabling the child to be a self-motivated and independent learner simultaneously.
 We provide an independent learning mind frame to children. Antral doesn’t encourage any kind of
grading system to assess children hence; we don’t take examination of the children at our learning
center. We try to periodically assess our children on some essential parameters, with a detailed report
about the child. We strongly feel that every child has her own identity, so we aim to nurture and build up
her identity in the way she wants. Here, we encourage ‘alternative education’, where our child gets
freedom to make her capable of taking decision for herself. Despite the challenges in such a learning
program, it’s showing the best expected outcome and thus, we plan to take it forward.
 Our objective is also to work with individuals and organizations working in the field of elementary
education. Working together with experienced individuals, academicians and organizations such as
Digantar, Shikshantar and Manzil, gives us exposure to new methods and techniques which would be
beneficial for our children as well as our organization.
 Our aim is to provide education up to senior - secondary level together with some essential life skills
which would be meaningful especially to the not-so-privileged children of our society.
 We emphasize to create a non-competitive environment for our children where every child is free to
move in their own way.
 Our objective is to conduct a research in all aspects of elementary education.
 Help other individuals and organizations working in the same field.
 Work for the advancement of the society in general.
 Our curriculum includes yoga and meditation classes on weekends to nourish body, mind and soul of
our children. As we believe that spiritual growth is most important for every human being, it should
begin from childhood. Yoga and meditation are the tools which help to develop spirituality in a human
being.
 We also believe that different therapeutic exercises and therapies such as catharsis and EET (Emotional
Empowerment Technique) and EFT (Emotional freedom technique), help children to make them more

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expressive and increase emotional quotient. These therapies and meditation techniques are mostly used
for children who are abused in some way.
 We aim to promote the importance of organic farming, zero waste living and sustainable living among
society.
 We try to follow an integrated approach to child development. Thus, we aim to organize awareness
programs and workshops for parents and mothers on pre-natal caring with help of mid-wife in the
community. We focus to make the parents aware of the precautions that are needed to be taken for the
birth of a healthy child.
 As there are no quick-fix solutions in education so to provide quality education to all, we need to
augment institutions in order to develop a shared vision of education among teachers and other
functionaries.
 We also seek to start a re-habilitation programme for the trafficked and sexually abused children so that
they can regain their normal life and enter into their own world.
Our Funding:
Till now our organization is running on Gift culture and some individual funding which we collect from
individuals and other infrequent donors. We don’t have access to any government or corporate funding but we
are trying to reach them in order to reach out to maximum number of children to whom we are targeting. On
some occasions our children took certain creative initiatives to raise funds for themselves (basically through
events).Ideas came out of dialogue between the children and the mentor.
Other Activities:
Workshop with Parents and community people: We conducted several awareness programmes and
workshops on issues like importance of education, health and sanitation, safe drinking water, impacts of child
early marriage, family planning and monthly budget planning. Here we learned about their problems from their
perspective and together tried to find out some solution of those problem.
Our ongoing and proposed activities/Programmes/projects:
Activities Expected Outputs Outcomes
1. Life Skills Programme Children would acquire life skills
as per their interests and creativity
Children would become
independent
2. Learning center programme Children would learn reading,
writing, speaking, etc
Children would be able to present
themselves.
3. Herbal manure making &
Farming
In the villages of Bihar and
Jharkhand together with farmers
and children we would promote
herbal methods of manure making
Children would practically learn
many things in science.

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and natural farming/Organic
farming..
4. Zero waste Together children and volunteers
we would pour our creativity in
making best out of waste.
Children would be aware of living
in harmony with nature.
5. Kitchen Garden We would conduct workshops with
our children for the rural schools in
understanding the importance of
having our own kitchen garden.
Children would learn the
importance of producing their own
food and also they would be
learning science practically.
6. Co-operaative games We would be offering workshops
with our children for all types of
people where we would make them
learn the importance of co-
operative games.
Children as well as other
participants would learn to promote
co-operative games rather than
competitive games.
7. Child sexual abuse &
reproductive health
We would be conducting 2 to 3
days workshop on CSA and
reproductive for all types of
children, teachers, parents and
youths
Everyone would understand why
such evil like CSA exists in our
society and how to overcome it.
8. Alternative healing
programme
To provide healing to our children
and the abuser with the help of
some Psychotherapies and
Meditation techniques.
This would help society in having
the understanding and importance
of alternative healing.
9. Learning Exchange
program
Here we aim to build a platform
where children, youths and other
community people would get
chance to exchange/share their
skills and learning’s by means of
workshops, etc.
This would be giving chance to the
people of grassroots to share and
learn from each other. This may
happen between two communities
of different states or place or vice-
versa.
10. Working with teachers Here we aim to work with the
teachers of the rural schools, where
together we work upon curriculum
and develop understanding towards
education
By the help of dialogues and
workshops we move towards
conscious schooling.
Past Events and Activities:
BADHTE KADAM:
 Badhte Kadam was an initiative taken by children at ‘Antral Shiksha Kendra’ at P3, Greater Noida, UP.
Antral’s children understand the need and their right to get computer education, which other privileged
children of their age group, get otherwise. But lack of funds is a hindrance in the way of fulfilling this
need. With their determination and imagination, these kids came up with an idea of taking Diwali
beyond celebration. They decided to explore their creativity in painting and decorating Diyas,

6. Antral – Concept Note Page 6
earthenlamps, and other decorative items. They made every item alive with their creativity and art, and
then they reached to the market place to display their creativity. We at Antral strongly believe that it’s
the social and moral responsibility of all conscious individuals to help the cause. This kept our hopes
high and the event was eventually a success.
EDUTHON:
 Eduthon-2011, A 10 Km run, organized in Greater Noida. Our aim was to create awareness and raise
funds for Antral with the help of the event. The event was organized by students of Indus World
School of Business. The college has a rich entrepreneurial and academic pedigree. It was set up by the
Career Launcher Group, one of the largest ‘edu-corporates’ in the country. The core aim of the event
wass to create awareness about the Antral.We Invited people to volunteer and witness the event. This 10
KM run was for all those who would want to run for a cause and inspire others to join the cause. The
event was a great success and we collected a fair amount of fund to fulfill needs of Antral’s children.
Online event invitation and details: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=280877835268002 or
Google EDUTHON – 2011.
Greeting Card Initiative:
 Here our children learned to make beautiful greeting cards on the occasion of Christmas and New Year.
For this initiative we got help and support from Manzil NGO, situated in Delhi. This also became an
excellent learning experience for all of us.
HIV Awareness programme by NAZ India (NGO):
HIV awareness programme was conducted by NAZ India for the parents and other community people on 24th
December, 2011. Here volunteers from NAZ helped the community people to understand every aspect of HIV.
At first, they outlined the difference between HIV and AIDS. Discussion was very interactive because the
volunteers were experienced and they succeeded to get the full attention of the community people in
understanding everything. Community people got to know a lot about HIV and the precautions that can be taken
to prevent themselves.
Volunteer Program:
Under this programme, volunteers from the management college came to volunteer for ASK (Antral Shiksha
Kendra) Greater Noida, from 12th
jan, 2012 to 7th
feb, 2012. Volunteers took regular classes of the children on
different topics in which 3 days of week were spent in learning ‘English Language’, as per the curriculum
provided by Mr. Ravi Gulati founder of Manzil (NGO). Apart from classes, volunteers also helped us in
preparing profile of every child of Greater Noida chapter.

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Rice Cultivation – A Meditative process:
During the monsoon of 2012 form July end to August 1st
week we started working on a project of relating rice
cultivation with science. We felt somewhere the need to know to learn the process of rice cultivation, because
we saw that everyone knows to eat but rare people knows how to grow a single grain of rice. Out instinct said
that it would be the best way of celebrating monsoon the best way to experience the rainy season. Here we also
aim to document the knowledge of children upon rice cultivation by themselves either in their local dialect or in
Hindi, and later we are aiming to publish it as a resource book which would help other teachers and children
studying botany in senior secondary classes.
Registered head Office &Centre:
Chapki, Laxhimisagar,
Darbhanga,
Bihar, Pin – 846009
Contact no: 9973617438, 9709612312, and 8750661667
Documentation by:
Sumit Gunjan