Joint Women's Programme · #PehliClass
This summer, help a child reach their first day of school
Champion #PehliClass — share the story with your circle. One honest voice can reach the person who funds a child's entire year. No donation or fundraising required.
Active operations · Mera Sahara Bridge Learning Centre, Nithari · Delhi NCR
Dear Changemaker,
Every Indian parent cherishes the memory. The new uniform. The lunchbox. The slightly too-big bag. The first day of school.
For most children, it happens. For thousands in the communities we work in, it doesn't — not because their families don't want it, but because the system asks for things they don't have. A first-generation learner falls behind early. A birth certificate goes missing. A year is lost. A school gate stays shut.
The Joint Women's Programme has spent forty-eight years working alongside India's most vulnerable women and children. #PehliClass is our campaign to put children from underprivileged backgrounds into formal school, where they belong, on time. It is focused, finite, and every child we reach can be counted.
Who we're doing this for
The children we serve are first-generation learners, dropouts, and children who have never set foot in a classroom. Many were turned away because their families are poor and marginalised, or because a document was missing — a Birth Certificate, an Aadhaar card, a Transfer Certificate, a Permanent Education Number — and because no one had ever helped them close the learning gap.
Some are six, knocking on the gate of a school that wants paperwork their parents don't have. Some are twelve, never schooled, and told they are already too late. Others are adolescent girls pulled out because a younger brother's education came first. Without a hand to walk them across, they fall further behind, and the cycle continues.
The promise: one year, then a real classroom
At our Mera Sahara Bridge Learning Centre in Nithari, Noida, every child stays for a maximum of one year. In that year we close the academic gap, secure the missing documentation, and walk them through the gates of a government or private school — into their pehli formal class, on time. For adolescent girls who cannot attend a regular school, we open pathways through open schooling (NIOS, Classes 9–12) and higher education (IGNOU), so even the girls forced out by family responsibilities have a way through.
It takes ₹19,000 to bridge one child into a mainstream classroom for a full year. We are not asking you for that today. We are asking for something that goes further: your voice.
What it means to champion the cause
A Champion does not need to fundraise or donate. You simply help the right people find #PehliClass — by sharing it with your circle, telling the story in your own words, and rallying the people who would want to help. One voice, shared honestly, can reach the person who funds a child's entire year.
Why #PehliClass, why now
A child's right to education is enshrined in our Constitution under the Right to Education Act. But for thousands of children, that right still needs a hand to walk them across — past the learning gaps, the missing paperwork, the dropped years, and the closed gates. That hand has been the Joint Women's Programme for forty-eight years.
Champion the cause. Share it with someone who should see it. Help us reach the next child.
About Us
With over 48 years of grassroots impact and policy advocacy, we are proud to have contributed to landmark legislation — the Women's Reservation Bill, laws to combat gender-based violence, and menstrual hygiene policy. We are proud to stand alongside changemakers like you to build a more just and inclusive world for girls.