Unsung Heroes: Shweta Chari's Toybank

1. SHWETA CHARI’S TOYBANK
SECTION B - GROUP 11
AISHWARY K GUPTA B15066
AKSHAR SHAH B15067
ROHIT CHALASANI B15103

2. SHWETA CHARI – THE POWER OF PLAY
BACKGROUND
To the core of any social enterprises, there lies a visionary with the mission of
delivering a better tomorrow for the world we are living in. In variably, these
personalities do not just start a foundation with people but also with life-like spirits.
Spirits that drive the vision with optimism and hope for achieving the targets with
minimalistic resources.
Toy bank too was the
conceptualization of one such social
entrepreneur Shweta Chari who was
determined to bring smiles to the
faces of those who need it the most. An
electronics engineer by profession,
Shweta in 2014 came up with a simple
idea to collect and distribute toys for
the underprivileged and needy kids in
Bombay.
Before starting the Toybank she was
the assistant manager in resource
mobilization at CRY an organization dedicated for child rights. She was also assistant
management in RPG group in the CSR division. Today she is the founder and CEO at
Toybank along with being consultant at the open tree foundation for the last 8 years.
Her passion for children and quest for actualization led her to start her venture which
has now been serving children in various cities.
THE STORY OF TOYBANK
Behind every successful social enterprise and entrepreneur is an interesting,
fascinating and gruelling story of the how the start-up started. Toy bank started back
in 2004 while Shweta Chari was still working. It was once when between a random
conversation between her and her house help that she realized that their kids do not
really play with any conventional toys. That their childhood was mostly always without
the joy of being children which other children were entitled too. She called her house
help’s children to her place the next morning. She saw kids of her house help become
happy when they were presented with old toys that Shweta had at her place. That smile
gave Shweta the inspiration to start the venture of Toybank. She started working from
a restaurant close by and when she really started with the idea, she saw her home flood

3. with toys from across the neighbourhood. These initial efforts made way for a solid
foundation which made Toy bank what it is now.
Chari left her job in 2009 after deciding
to completely devote time to Toybank.
She had enough funds to sustain for her
initial projects which she had decided
to undertake. In fact, the first major
project that Toybank executed was
where children from 5 places in
Mumbai were distributed more than
500 toys which were raised at a toy
distribution event. By 2015, Toybank
had established its presence in the form
of 176 play canters in Mumbai and over
50 play centres in other cities including
Delhi, Pune, Bangalore. Toybank was
also involved in setting up 22 play
centres in the drought-hit district
of Beed, Maharashtra affecting over
3100 children in 2016.
WHAT IS A TOYBANK?
As the name suggests, the toy bank
houses toys; but with a nobler purpose.
Hearing the name toy bank may bring
back childhood fantasies of a singular
place filled with thousands of toys but
our fantasy leaves out the thousands and
millions of children who do not get to
play with toys. Toys, apart from being a
source of entertainment, also promote
healthy behaviour among children and
help them to develop socially. Toys help
in broadening horizons both analytically
and intellectually. They can help foster mental, emotional and social development of
children and help them to develop into confident and better individuals. The motor and
cognitive skills that we have been privileged to learn from our childhood toys are not
bestowed upon a large section of children. Here, the toy bank steps in. The Toy Bank
collects toys, restores them and then distributes them to children who need them. They
firmly believe that it is the basic right of the young generation to play with toys.

4. Apart from organising toy distribution programmes, Toybank also sets up 'toy/game
libraries', which are spaces in which socio-economically disadvantaged children can
play with educational toys and games. They currently have over 250 toy/game libraries
across the state of Maharashtra. The games are stocked keeping in mind the
developmental needs of the children. They are regularly replaced because of wear and
tear and because the children outgrow them. A play session takes place twice a month.
Thanks to these play sessions, Toybank has successfully reduced absenteeism, boosted
cooperation among children and helped them learn better.
The concept of toy banks is not entirely new. The Toy Industry Foundation in New York
collects millions of toys from toy companies and distributes them to thousands of
children’s charities around the globe, with the help of their Toy Bank partner, Kids in
Distressed Situations (K.I.D.S.). Together, they make play possible for families
struggling in poverty, foster children,
military families, kids undergoing
cancer treatments, children with
special needs, and many others.
These initiatives have inspired many
others. The district administration
from a town in Rajasthan recently
commenced a toy bank scheme, which
aims at providing toys to children from
poor families visiting Anganwadi centres. A campaign to collect toys from the public
has begun for which 10 to 15 centres have been established in the city. After collection
of toys, those will be distributed to the 1,936 Anganwadi centres in the district. The
toys would attract children of poor families to visit the Anganwadi centres which
provide free meals, health check-ups to children and mothers, he said.
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
Toys have been proven to effectively partner in a child’s all-round growth. As a child
learns to reach, grasp, crawl, run, climb, and balance, physical and gross motor skills
are developed. Fine motor skills are developed as children handle small toys. Dexterity
develops as the child holds toys or other items. Apart from learning about colours,
numbers, size and shape through toys, children learn to solve cause and effect problems
through play. The increase in cognition also increases their memory skills and attention
span. It also helps them in recreating and re-enforcing other traditional forms of
learning. The development of cognitive and physical skills cannot be attributed only to
educational toys alone however, the depth of thought achieved thus is much deeper.
The development of language and learning to co-operate, negotiate and playing by the
rules are just some of the softer skills that children learn when they play with toys.
This also develops their storytelling abilities which results in effective communication.

5. Other social and emotional skills which a child develops when playing with other
children are essential for being complete and effective members of the society.
VALUE PHILOSOPHY
Toybank believes that investing in the mental development of at-risk children through
early childhood development programs ensures that they have the right stimulation
and nurturing for a better perspective towards life in their adulthood.
Their approach is to develop programs and initiatives particularly focusing on the
behavioural and mental growth of at-risk children in their most impressionable years
of life.
Their Vision and Mission is captured in the following statements which act as the
backbone for their endeavours.
VISION
Act as a catalyst to bring changes in the lives of millions of children, who are not
privileged, by addressing the real needs at the grassroots level and adopting the highest
standard of governance - thereby emerging as a care driven and innovative
developmental organization from India.
MISSION
To address developmental needs among Underprivileged kids through Games, Toys and
Play.
Currently, there is not enough awareness in India about the necessity of play for
children. Toybank also organizes sensitization events to spread awareness about its
mission and vision among corporates and schools. Sensitisation talks are of great help
in this context, transforming un-involved individuals into donors, volunteers or
sympathisers. With the help of presentations and speeches, Toybank’s founder, Shweta
Chari gets individuals and groups apprised about the child’s right to play, and why it is
important.
THE TOYBANK MODEL
The primary focus of work for Toybank was initially to provide toys to children coming
from a relatively weak socio economic background. Till today Toybank has stayed true
to its primary inception idea. Its defined objective is stated as providing toys to children
from weak socio-economic backgrounds. To work toward this objective, Toybank on a
periodic basis organizes collection drive across various channels like schools, colleges,
corporate offices etc. It mainly leverages its vast volunteer network to aid in these
collection drives. After the toys are collected, these are then sent to the Toybank play
centers where kids can come to play with the toys. Some toys are also wrapped and
kept aside for parallel distribution to these children from weak socio economic
background

6. With a network of more than 140 play
centers in Mumbai and another
approximately 120 outside the city in 11
districts in rural Maharashtra, Toybank
today is India’s largest such venture. A
library of toys is maintained at each one
of these play centers visited by children
from poor backgrounds. It is here where
the children live their childhood in the
truest sense and realize their full potential from both playing and learning with toys.
The toys at the libraries may either be newly bought or collected through the toy
collection drives.
It is also interesting to realize that the benefits of children playing with toys is not
limited only to the child. The entire family benefits from the increased happiness
quotient at the home and creates a better conducive atmosphere for the child and
family. Along with educating family, an important aspect that Toybank discovered
needs attention is to educate the teachers of the importance of toys in a child’s life. It
is only then that Toybank has also been involved in sensitizing teachers about the
importance of play in a child’s development through its “Power of Play” workshops in
community centers and public schools.
In more than one way, Toybank endeavors to demonstrate the conviction of John. F.
Kennedy, the free society can't help the numerous that are poor, it can never spare the
few who are rich.
Toybank genuinely dreams to put a toy in the hands of each poor offspring of India and
the world. The toy shapes the mind of the kids, so most extreme care is taken to give
just fair-minded and ethically rectify toys to kids. Toybank does not take Barbie dolls;
toy firearms; brutal toys or whatever other toy that segregates.
WHY IS PLAYING IMPORTANT?
Play through toys helps the kids occupy their psyches from their perilous surroundings.
It helps them from capitulating to the pain brought on by their conditions.
When you give a kid nourishment, you are helping him, yet he won't precisely
comprehend the significance of it. In any case, when you give a little kid an excellent
toy to play with, you are really giving him an adolescence, and that is something he can
quickly comprehend and appreciate. These are youngsters, and they ought to play and
doing the things that all kids do. They shouldn't work in rice fields, or doing difficult
work, or doing as such numerous different things that they are compelled to do out of
destitution.

7. Play is a loved impact of childhood that offers kids essential formative advantages and
guardians the chance to completely connect with their kids. As we endeavor to make
the ideal formative milieu for kids, it stays basic that play be incorporated alongside
scholarly and social-advancement
openings and that sheltered situations
be made accessible to all kids
Toybank has opened toy libraries in
the locations of their accomplice
associations.
Toy libraries are spaces where young
kids can have sessions where they can
play. These sessions comprise of
playing with instructive diversions,
which train and in addition interest. These amusements are loaded remembering the
formative needs of the kids. The amusements are routinely supplanted in light of wear
and tear and on the grounds that the kids exceed them. A play session happens twice
per month. Because of these play sessions, Toybank has effectively lessened truancy,
supported collaboration among youngsters and helped them learn better.
THE FUNDING SAGA
Toybank was running on funds of Shweta from 2005-2011. But the magnum at which
Toybank wanted to grow and create an impact, required not just volunteer
contributions but also substantial funding to raise collection drives and manage play
centers where children come and play with the toys. It wasn’t long before Shweta
realized that she will not be able to run the organization without going for external
funding or donations to survive. It is at this stage when she formally started crowd
funding from her platform for Toybank. Toybank associated with many high net worth
individuals along with various national and international corporate houses associating
with them at various levels to raise collection drives of toys and donations. The
foundation has now associated with over 50 partners and affiliated with various
schools and corporate houses to support its cause.
PROBLEMS FACED
Their greatest test at this moment is to set up coordination’s system to gather toys from
the whole way across India." They plan to beat this by banding together with conveying
and strategic offices for sending the toys back to Delhi, their focus, where they can be
sorted, reused and re-stuffed for appropriation. Toy Bank additionally needs to setup a
decentralized model with accumulation and sorting focuses in significant urban areas
and metros.

8. Seeking after their fantasy to circulate crosswise over India has not been simple.
Expansion is specifically relative to the cost of transportation. They're toying with
raising cash through group financing and crowd funding
Apart from logistics and crowd funding Toybank in their early years faced a mammoth
task of retaining and attracting volunteers to their organization. The came up thus with
specific volunteer programs wherein the focus was to create an entire experience for
them. Along with attraction of volunteers, retention was also of a primary challenge
for Toybank.
TIMELINE
On 14th November 2004, Toybank began its activities of distributing toys to children
on Children’s day in Mumbai. Toys were distributed to more than 1,500 children.
Overwhelmed by their success, Shweta Chari and her team continued their work into
2005 and accomplished a full year of operations in the year 2005.
A successful 2005 went unnoticed and Shweta Chari’s Toybank started getting media
attention. In 2006, CNBC featured Shweta Chari in its programme, ‘Young Turks’. This
programme proved to be an inflection point in the story of Shweta Chari’s Toybank by
building awareness among corporates, housing societies, schools and individuals which
led them to donate toys and the volume of toys collected saw a huge growth. In 2007,
Shweta Chari expanded Toybank’s operations and entered Bangalore. The Bangalore
chapter was operated entirely by volunteers.
After 3 successive years of operations,
in 2008, Toybank reached to more
than 8,000 children in Mumbai.
Shweta Chari was also nominated for
MTV India’s youth icon award.
Toybank was then registered as a trust
in 2009. The year 2009 is also the year
when Toybank opened two centers
outside India, both in Bhutan. Toybank
started receiving foreign media
attention by then and UK’s Channel 4
featured Shweta Chari and Toybank in
its programme, ‘Slumdog Secret
Millionaire’.
By 2010, Toybank reached over 25,000 children through its centers. Toybank also
started operations in Delhi in this year. Shweta Chari conceptualized the idea of a toy
library where children could issue toys from and return them within due dates like
books from libraries. The first toy library was set up in Mumbai. In 2011, Times of India

9. featured Shweta Chari’s work exclusively. Shweta won the ‘Star Social Entrepreneur’
award at the Indira International Innovation Summit.
After 7 years of operations in urban areas, Shweta Chari led Toybank to open facilities
in the rural areas of the country. The first centers were opened in the villages of
Maharashtra in 2012. By now, Toybank’s work was being appreciated quite regularly
by corporates and media houses and it now reached to over 45,000 children through
its centers. Times Now featured Shweta Chari and Toybank in an exclusive program.
Shweta won the ‘Woman of Substance’ award from the Godrej group and ‘Young
Achiever’ award from the Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce in the year 2013.
Toybank celebrated its tenth anniversary by reaching out to more than 85,000 children
in 2014. Starting from a mere 1,000 children in 2004 on Children’s day, Shweta Chari’s
Toybank crossed the 1,00,000 children mark in 2015 and had come a long way. From
just distributing toys to kids, Toybank had started Playcenters, Libraries and captured
the imaginations of thousands of volunteers, donors, corporates, families and
individuals.
VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE
Toybank is run by its volunteers and has been very successful in attracting volunteers
over the years. The incentive of playing with children on weekends and taking a break
from their work lives attracts a good number of volunteers every year. Volunteers are
enrolled for conducting Play Sessions, Toy Collection Drives, for sorting and wrapping,
Toy Distribution, PR, Fundraising and Events. Play centers are where volunteers teach
children how to play board games, interact with them and play with them and teach
them to play with their toys. Volunteers also conduct storytelling, painting, music
sessions for kids in these play centers. When volunteering for Toy Collection Drives,
volunteers spread awareness, create a buzz and collect toys from a community or
friends circle. Once the toys are collected and are brought to the toy sorting and
wrapping facility, each toy is screened for violence like guns and other violent toys
aren’t distributed and so are Barbie dolls due to the apprehension of them spreading a
negative image among kids. Once screened, toys are then checked for sharp edges and
then wrapped using newspapers by volunteers. These toys are then delivered to kids
through the volunteers volunteering in the Distribution team that distributes toys to
kids at distribution events on weekends. Volunteers are also given opportunities to
volunteer in Toybanks’s PR cell that involves writing blogs, reports and in research
predominantly in behavioral sciences. Some volunteers are also hired for fundraising
activities through corporates.
“Volunteering at Toybank brings us immense joy as playing with children makes one
forget all the worries and makes one see the world like a child again, that is, with
enthusiasm and with hope! We wish more and more people be a part of Toybank and

10. touch the life of some children to make it better”, says Simadri
Raut, a Software Engineer who volunteers for Toybank on
weekends.
“This is what delights me! The smiles, the cheers, the tiny hope
peeping out of every face, teamwork and above all the
‘intention’ are delightful. Completing ten and looking at many
more years to come, we can collectively and positively say that
Toybank will continue making its contribution to make the
world a better place to live!”, says Shivangi Bose, another
volunteer at Toybank.
ACCOLADES
Over the years of operating Toybank, Shweta and Toybank have received recognition
and appreciation in many forms. Shweta was awarded with ‘The Change Looms Award
for Social Entrepreneurship’ in 2007. In 2008 at the age of 25, Shweta was nominated
for the ‘Pepsi MTV Youth Icon of India’ and was featured on the cover of the India Today
magazine in 2010. Toybank’s work has
been documented by UK’s National
Television Channel 4 on a special series
called the ‘Slumdog Secret Millionaire’
program in January 2010. Shweta was
declared as a ‘Young Turk’ on CNBC’s
programme and was also featured on
CNN IBN as a “young Social Change
maker”. Shweta was also awarded by
Godrej as a ‘Woman of Courage’ Award
in 2010.
Shweta is a strong believer of the quote by Frederick Douglas - "It is easier to build
strong children than to repair broken men”.
IMPACT
Shweta Chari started Toybank with a mission statement: “Recycle toys – Recycle
Smiles”. 12 years later, Toybank is still striving towards its mission and is trying to
bridge the gap between a child and a toy. Toybank does not just send a toy to every kid,
they try to send toys according to the intellectual and emotional capacity of the child.
“Toys help in broadening a child’s horizons both analytically and intellectually. They
help in fostering mental, emotional and social development of children and help them
grow into confident and better individuals.” – Shweta Chari on being asked Why Toys?
Simadri Raut, Volunteer

11. Toybank and behavioural scientists believe that toys help children in the following
ways:
1. Development of motor skills – Gross Motor skills are developed when children
learn to reach their toys, grasp them, run, climb and balance while playing
sports. Fine motor skills are developed through children handling small toys.
2. Development of cognitive thinking – Problem solving skills of children are
improved through playing board games and puzzles. Such games also enhance
memory skills and increase the attention span of children helping them to grasp
faster and improve their memory and cognitive thinking in schools.
3. Emotional well-being – Playing games helps a child in accomplishing his/her
wishes and in conquering fears and inhibitions. Playing also promotes
awareness of the child’s surroundings, teaches the child in dealing with failure
and other emotional aspects that are essential.
4. Development of social skills – Learning to share is an important social skill
that children need to learn in their early ages. Playing with toys and sharing
them with their classmates and friends helps in inculcating values through
sharing, taking turns, and allowing others to talk without interrupting.
Toybank distributes toys to children who belong to one of the following categories:
 Kids from families below the poverty line
 Kids from urban and rural slums
 Kids attending rural government schools or Zilla Parishad schools
 Kids attending urban government schools/ schools run by other NGOs/play
centres
 Kids in hospitals
Underprivileged children belonging to lower socio-economic strata and backgrounds
are often vulnerable to lack of basic facilities and are prone to malnutrition, health
problems, as well as physical and sexual abuse. Because of these factors, they are
prone to childhood and adolescent depression. Shweta believes that playing with
toys distracts children from their stressful environments and is a form of therapy.
Such environments are not conducive for education for children also hamper their
educational journeys. Educational toys help improve their cognitive, social and
language skills. The sheer happiness that a toy brings a child boosts their physical
and mental health.
From a single center in Mumbai in 2004, Toybank has come a long way and now has
145 play centers in Mumbai alone and a total of 251 active play centers around the
country. From being present only in Mumbai to being operational in Delhi, Pune,

12. Bangalore and Bhutan with more than 50 play centers in these locations. Toybank
has also involved 22 Play Centers in the drought-hit district of Beed in Maharashtra
and has reached over 3100 children in these districts alone in 2016.
More importantly, the growth of number of Children reached through the
programme has been phenomenal. From 1,500 children in 2004 to more than a lakh
children in 11 years is a remarkable achievement.