Gram-Mangal’s Educational Model for Tribal Children in Maharashtra

In the forested hills of Palghar district in Maharashtra, where roads barely existed and schools were a distant dream, one woman decided to walk into tribal hamlets and bring education to children no one else had reached. That woman was Anutai Wagh – a Padma Shri-awarded educator whose life’s work gave rise to Gram-Mangal (GM), an NGO that continues to redefine what schooling looks like for India’s tribal communities. Gram-Mangal’s model is not simply about building schools in remote areas. It is about rethinking education from the ground up – its language, its tools, its structure – so that it genuinely works for first-generation learners from Adivasi backgrounds.

Anutai Wagh’s pioneering approach to tribal education 🔗

Anutai Wagh’s path to tribal education was shaped by decades of personal struggle and intellectual curiosity. Widowed at thirteen and navigating a social environment hostile to women’s education, she nonetheless completed her primary teacher’s certificate, taught in village schools, and eventually earned her graduation degree at age 51 – despite facing cataracts. Her encounter with educator Tarabai Modak’s newsletter, Shikshan Patrika, ignited a lifelong commitment to child-centred learning.

The turning point came in 1945, when Tarabai Modak invited Anutai to help start an experimental school for tribal children in the Bordi-Kosbad area of Dahanu taluka, Palghar. The area had no roads, no electricity, and no means of communication, yet eight tribal hamlets nearby had nearly a hundred children with no access to schooling. The school – inaugurated by then Bombay Presidency Chief Minister B.G. Kher on 24 December 1945 – became the seed of what would grow into the Gram-Mangal movement.

Convincing tribal families to send their children to school was itself a challenge. Anutai went door to door, brought children to school herself, washed and fed them, and even arranged a bullock cart to transport them. She followed the child-friendly teaching philosophy of Gijubhai Badheka, singing with children, telling them stories, and helping them learn from their surroundings. In 1982, in collaboration with Prof. Ramesh Panse, she formally established Gram-Mangal as an NGO at Dabhon village, Dahanu taluka – its name translating simply as “village well-being.”

Hands-on learning for first-generation tribal students 🔗

The most significant challenge Gram-Mangal faced was designing education that made sense to children who had no family tradition of schooling. Conventional textbook-driven methods simply did not resonate. So Gram-Mangal developed an alternative: a non-formal, self-learning education system built around scientifically designed educational aids made from locally available materials.

Learning through local materials and activity 🔗

After extensive research and fieldwork, Gram-Mangal developed over six hundred educational aids prepared using locally available raw materials, crafted by trained primary teachers themselves. These aids – examples of which are now on permanent display at Aine tribal village – are used for self-learning by pre-primary and primary students. Clay work, for instance, is not merely an art activity; it develops fine motor skills, spatial reasoning, and allows children to connect abstract concepts to tangible forms. Materials like bamboo and leaves are woven into science and mathematics lessons, making the curriculum feel rooted in the world the children already know.

This approach reflects a core belief at Gram-Mangal: that education must evolve out of life and be made relevant to it. Rather than importing an urban classroom model into a forest hamlet, Gram-Mangal builds learning from within the community’s own environment and experience.

Rhymes, songs, and oral traditions as teaching tools 🔗

Tribal children in Maharashtra grow up in rich oral cultures – songs, rhymes, and storytelling are the primary vehicles for transmitting knowledge across generations. Gram-Mangal’s educators deliberately incorporated this into classroom practice. Local rhymes and songs become tools for language development, number recognition, and cultural continuity. Anutai followed Gijubhai Badheka’s methods of playing and singing with children rather than lecturing them – an approach that transformed reluctant learners into engaged participants.

The Balwadis (playschools) run by Gram-Mangal are also built on this philosophy. Teachers in these preschools use the language spoken in children’s homes to ease the transition into formal learning, ensuring that no child is made to feel alienated by schooling from the very first day. Cognitive, social, and motor development are addressed together through play and structured activities for children aged 3 to 6.

A curriculum grounded in daily life 🔗

Gram-Mangal’s curriculum goes beyond academics. It includes free play, mathematics, sciences, arts and crafts, physical training, classical music, and Jeevan-Vyavahar – a category dedicated to the activities of daily life such as personal hygiene, neighbourhood cleanliness, household work, and stitching. Students at the residential school in Aine are also introduced to bio-dynamic farming, vermiculture, and basic healthcare. This comprehensive approach ensures that education builds not just academic knowledge but life skills and economic self-sufficiency – critical outcomes for communities that have historically been marginalised from mainstream development.

Vikaswadi schools: education designed for scattered hamlets 🔗

One of the most structurally innovative contributions of Gram-Mangal is its development of Vikaswadi schools – multi-level, non-graded learning spaces designed specifically for the geographic and social reality of scattered tribal hamlets. Conventional graded schools assume a stable population of children of similar age grouped into fixed classes. This model simply does not work in areas where communities are spread across hills and dense forests, where population density is low, and where attendance can be irregular due to seasonal agricultural cycles.

Multi-level, non-graded classrooms 🔗

Vikaswadi schools bring together children of different ages and learning levels in a single environment. Rather than sorting students by age into fixed grades, the focus is on learning at one’s own pace, with older or more advanced students naturally supporting younger ones. This peer-learning dynamic is not incidental – it is built into the design of the school. It mirrors the way learning happens organically in joint-family and community settings, making it culturally compatible with how tribal children already experience knowledge transfer.

This flexibility ensures no child is penalised for starting school late – a common situation in tribal areas where families may delay enrolment due to economic pressures or distance. A child who enters at eight rather than six is not placed in a class incompatible with their actual learning level; instead, they are supported to develop at their own pace within a mixed-age group.

Schools integrated into the community 🔗

Vikaswadi schools are deliberately placed within or very close to tribal hamlets, reducing the travel burden on young children and increasing the likelihood of regular attendance. Grammangal’s schools follow a constructivist approach to learning in which teachers do not simply deliver content but guide students to construct their own understanding. Problems are set by teachers and solved by students in ways suited to individual learning styles, with group discussion, questioning, and exploration forming the basis of each session. Local materials and resources are used throughout, making the schools sustainable and ecologically integrated into their surroundings.

After completing basic education at the Balwadis, students are channelled into different pathways based on their strengths: academically inclined students are referred to government ashram schools, those inclined toward vocational skills are directed to the National Open School, and those with special abilities in classical music or athletics receive further specialised training.

Recognition by government and NGOs 🔗

Gram-Mangal’s model has earned recognition from both state and international bodies – not through lobbying, but through the undeniable quality of its outcomes. Anutai Wagh herself received the Padma Shri, the Jamnalal Bajaj Award, and the FIE Foundation Prize for her contributions to tribal and child education. Her mentor Tarabai Modak was honoured with the Padma Bhushan. These national recognitions validated an approach that had long operated quietly in forested hamlets far from public attention.

At the institutional level, UNICEF India has funded several of Gram-Mangal’s teacher-training programmes, and the organisation is a recognised resource body that advises both UNICEF and the Maharashtra state government on education policy and practice. Gram-Mangal also conducts a full-time one-year residential teacher training programme for primary educators and various crash courses for pre-school teachers – all of which are recommended by the Maharashtra Bal Shikshan Parishad (Maharashtra Childhood Education Organization).

Crucially, Gram-Mangal maintains a deliberate policy of not accepting government grants, preferring to work with – rather than under – the government. This independence has allowed it to innovate freely, keeping its methodology responsive to children’s needs rather than bureaucratic targets. Funding comes from membership fees, private donations, and institutional contributions from foster parents and corporate sponsors.

The organisation’s philosophy and methods are also recognised as being fully aligned with India’s Right to Education Act, 2009 – demonstrating that an alternative, community-rooted approach can meet and even exceed the standards of formal educational policy. Today, the Grammangal model has benefited thousands of children across Maharashtra and continues to attract educators and researchers from across India and internationally, drawn by the permanent exhibition of 600+ learning aids at Aine village and the functioning schools that embody a living educational philosophy.

A model worth replicating 🔗

What makes Gram-Mangal significant beyond Maharashtra is the principle it demonstrates: that effective education for marginalised children does not require imposing a one-size-fits-all system. It requires listening carefully to the community, designing tools from available resources, and trusting children as natural learners. The Vikaswadi model, the locally crafted learning aids, and the emphasis on cultural continuity through rhymes, songs, and daily-life skills together form a coherent alternative pedagogy – one proven over decades in some of India’s most under-resourced regions.

As India continues to grapple with learning gaps in tribal and rural areas, Gram-Mangal’s track record offers both inspiration and a practical framework. Its success shows that when education is built from within a community rather than imposed upon it, children don’t just attend school – they thrive in it.

What do you think? Can the Gram-Mangal model of non-graded, community-integrated schooling be adapted for other marginalised groups beyond tribal communities in India? And what would it take for governments and NGOs to scale such deeply localised education models without losing their core strengths?

References

1. https://grammangal.org/anutai-wagh
2. https://lathateacher.wordpress.com/2015/10/10/gram-mangal-amansetu-and-rishi-valley-schools/
3. http://grammangal.org/pre-schools
4. https://grammangal.org/pre-schools
5. https://www.nios.ac.in/
6. https://legislative.gov.in/acts/right-of-children-to-free-and-compulsory-education-act-2009/
7. https://grammangal.org/
8. https://aserindia.org/