Pratham

Since inception the goal of the Pratham team has been to ensure that "every child is in school, and is learning well. Pratham started in the slums of Mumbai in 1994, as a result of the vision of a couple of committed individuals! The two, after much deliberation, decided to tackle the problem of education headlong. They could see only one way of correcting this problem and that was to involve the people of Mumbai to help the government in its quest of universalizing primary education. UNICEF parented the birth of Pratham and continued fostering it for the next three years. A Public Charitable Trust was accordingly formed by the Commissioner of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai together with the association of several prominent citizens of the city. Today, the parental role of Pratham has been taken over by the ICICI Bank, a leading private sector bank of India. Pratham activities have spread to 21 states; assistance has come from the local governments, leading corporate houses and the local citizens. Many local trusts and governing bodies have been formed to oversee the smooth operations of Pratham activities; committed individuals from every walk of life have chipped in with their bit.