Aajibaichi Shala

“I wish I could read at least the holy books” when 85 year old Sitabai B Deshmukh told Yogendra Bangar, a local teacher from Phagane Village, Thane District, he along with Dilip Dalal of Motiram Dalal Trust, took up the challenge of lettering grandmothers and giving them back dignity and purpose of life.

Inspired by the request of an unlettered grandmother, they co-founded the single-room Aajibaichi Shala, the first school of unlettered grandmothers in India, on Women’s Day, March 8, 2016.

The school teaches village grandmothers to read and write and rid them of the social stigma of illiteracy. Today, Aajibaichi Shala has 28 students between 60 to 90 years. They attend school in uniforms of bright pink saris and learn to read, write under the watchful eye of their 30 year old teacher, Shital More.

The greatest sufferers are aged illiterate women.

After giving their whole lives to raising children and looking after family, they suddenly find themselves unfit to cope with the changing world. The social structure that held their lives together is collapsing. This is a story of giving back dignity to the elderly women, deprived of education due to poverty or gender bias.