Project Mukti's Impact 2022

“What does ‘Mukti’ mean in Project Mukti?”, a frequently asked question to our team.

We all might have experienced at least once in our lives a sense to free  ourselves —  from gender discrimination, body shaming, domestic violence, caste discrimination, caste stigma, caste slurs, caste-based sexual violence, caste-based occupations and the list goes on.

Does MUKTI mean just Freedom?

For us, Mukti is more than just ‘Freedom’. Mukti is the END of discrimination, marginalisation, stigma and violence that the Dalit Bahujan Adivasi (DBA) community faces starting from their birth to the graves. We can only envision a new world for ourselves by putting an end to all of it.

A new world where DBA children feel free to ask questions, make friends of their choice, pursue any career that they desire and become what they dream of becoming. A new life where DBA women represent themselves, write about and speak of and for themselves and their communities, have the liberty to choose a career, make choices of their own and create an identity they have always wanted to own. 

At Project Mukti, we don’t teach but we facilitate learning by providing a safe and nurturing environment to make learning fun, engaging and exciting. Students who are associated with us love to go to school and love to engage in conversations that have never been part of their lives. Their parents, many of whom work as domestic help and contractual workers, dream of a better future and are fully invested in their child’s present. 

We would like to share some of the highlights from last year, from our teams working with children and women.

During the pandemic, while many government school children were unable to access schools, online classes and were spending time either helping their parents or playing in the neighbourhood, our students who come from the neighbouring bastis and from 4 different states were able to regularly attend Project Mukti after-school program. We were able to provide infrastructural aid (limited), internet and phone recharge. Many parents would confidently leave their only smartphone in the entire house with their children to access Project Mukti’s online classes. 

During the pandemic, we also launched our flagship program Zindagi Fellowship, a four-month online workplace development and job readiness program for DBA women aspiring for higher education, seeking job opportunities and entrepreneurship. 

Most of the participants selected for the Zindagi Fellowship never received any kind of fellowship earlier – 90% of them were from vernacular backgrounds, and 75% had no personal laptop. We witnessed healthy participation from all the Fellows and had much wonderful learning and enthralling moments.