THE DAS FOUNDATION
The Das Foundation is a registered Charitable Trust set
up under the Bombay Public Trust Act for the purpose of
establishing and managing night schools for under-privileged children as well as other institutions for the welfare
of such children. The foundation has been created by
Ranjita Basu in memory of her grandfather the Late
Justice S. R. Das, former Chief Justice of India and her father the Late Group Captain Suranjan Das of the Indian
Air Force who was posthumously awarded the Padma
Vibhushan in recognition of his distinguished service to
the nation as Test Pilot at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.
The Foundation at present runs one school at Gandhinagar
(Gujarat) for about 50 boys and girls from deprived
families in premises provided by the Government of
Gujarat. The children are aged between four and
fourteen years of age,. They are taught to read and write
in Gujarati, apart from being given lessons in History,
Geography and Mathematics. Community prayers and
poetry recitation, games and art classes also form part of the curriculum. The school timings are from 6.00 p.m. to
8.00 p.m. for six days a week throughout the year. The
children are provided a hot nutritious meal every evening
after class and two pairs of new clothes a year. Children are from the Nursery to the 10th standard level
and are from different castes and communities and
religious backgrounds. There are 2 paid teachers and one
supervisor who works on a voluntary basis.
FUNDING
So far the school has been largely funded from the personal
resources of the trustees and through donations from friends
and well-wishers of the Foundation. The success of the
experiment as evidenced by the attendance levels and
negligible dropout rate as also by the academic performance
and social behaviour of the children has encouraged the
Trustees of the foundation to consider expansion of the school
and replication of the school at other locations.
MEDICAL PROGRAMME
The children are taken to a doctor if seriously ill and
medical aid and medicines are provided. Elders in the
family are motivated to undergo family planning
operations to limit the size of the family and several such
operations have been performed with an incentive scheme
introduced by the Foundation.
NATURE CAMP
Once a year the children are taken to a Nature Camp
organized by the local Gandhinagar open air nature park. The
children stay there for three days and are given instruction on
environmental issues as well as lessons in nature study and
animal life.
HOME VISITS
Regular visits are made to the homes of the children by the
teachers. Drop-outs are encouraged and motivated to return
to school and in many cases the children do so. Domestic
problems are discussed and an attempt is made to give the parents encouragement and guidance.
Executive Trustees
Rathikant Basu
Nandita Basu
Aparajita Basu
Janak Dave
CONTACT
Das Foundation
Regd. Charitable Trust
No. E/710/Gandhinagar
Date: 30.5.2000
Regd. Office
Plot 102
Sector 8
Gandhinagar
Gujarat 382008
Email: dasfoundation@dasfoundation.org
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