DAY REPORT — 22 NOVEMBER 2014
Nambarwadi: The School We Could No Longer Ignore
On 22 November 2014, Lakshya Foundation visited Nambarwadi, a remote tribal village in the Ambernath region, as part of its continuing efforts to understand the educational conditions across the 27 tribal villages and schools surveyed by the Foundation.
By this point, Lakshya Foundation had already understood an important truth.
Bringing children who had dropped out back into education was only one part of the problem.
The next challenge was much larger:
How do we make education a habit in these villages—not an exception?
The answer would eventually require improving the institutions where children first encounter education.
And Nambarwadi was beginning to emerge as a possible starting point.
A Village Cut Off From the Mainstream
Nambarwadi was among the most remote settlements in the region.
The village was connected by a single kaccha road, with government buses operating only infrequently. For most travel beyond the village, residents had to walk approximately three kilometres to Boradpada, a larger settlement from where they could access public transport.
There was also no mobile tower or network coverage reaching Nambarwadi.
Electricity had not yet reached the village either.
This isolation was not merely geographical.
It affected access to education, communication, transportation, and opportunity.
Looking at the Aanganwadi
During the visit, the Foundation documented the condition of the Nambarwadi Aanganwadi through photographs.
The building reflected many of the difficulties seen across the tribal educational institutions in the surrounding villages.
The infrastructure was visibly in need of attention. The Foundation was increasingly concerned that children were being introduced to education in spaces that themselves communicated neglect and deprivation.
The purpose of documenting the Aanganwadi was therefore not simply to record a building.
It was to record the reality that children were growing up with.
The photographs taken on this visit became part of the growing visual record that would help Lakshya Foundation understand where intervention was most urgently required.
A Decision Beginning to Take Shape
Lakshya Foundation had identified schools across villages including Kurhadpada, Mandvyachi Vadi, Lavhali, Dharol, Kuderan, Shilandwadi, Nambarwadi, Padirpada, Belpada, Washivali, Sonavale, Fanaswadi, and Birwadi, among others.
The need was widespread.
Resources, however, were limited.
The Foundation therefore knew that it would eventually have to begin with one school and one village.
Nambarwadi was increasingly standing out.
Not because its problems were unique, but because its remoteness and the condition of its educational institutions made the need particularly compelling.
The Beginning of Phase 2
The Foundation’s first phase had focused heavily on bringing children back into formal education.
The emerging Phase 2 was different.
It was about creating an environment in which children would want to remain in education.
The visit to Nambarwadi on 22 November 2014 therefore became part of a much larger process of observation, documentation, and decision-making.
There was no inauguration.
No construction.
No announcement.
Just photographs, observation, and the growing realization that Nambarwadi could become the place where Phase 2 would begin.
Sometimes transformation starts long before the first wall is repaired.
It starts when someone decides that the condition of that wall is no longer acceptable.