THE BEAT BOX OF LIFE

They say music is food for life. It is not only an important part of our culture, our past and present, but also helps building relationships between individuals and determines their relationship to the world around, thereby shaping their attitudes and beliefs. The “Music Basti” program for children, is a reflection of this strong belief in the power of music to understand and access the world around us.
Music Basti aims at creating cultural and social awareness for “children at risk”. Children at risk are those who live and work on the streets and face a series of problems that are interconnected, including a physically unsafe environment to live in. Most NGOs primarily provided accommodation, food and clothing to these children, where institutionalised development programs often did not have the capacity for any cultural and recreational activities.
Keeping this in mind, the Music Basti program was started in 2008, by the Integrated Development Educational Association (IDEA), supported by The Youth Parliament (YP) Foundation and Aman Biradri, as part of their “Dil Se” program to uplift the dignity of street children. Founder and Project Coordinator, Faith Gonsalves says, “ Music Basti seeks to use music as a tool of personal empowerment for children who may be runaways, homeless, living in slums , or streets, in shelters or in rehabilitation centers. Our programs are geared towards social and cultural awareness and child rights based education.”
Apart from honing the musical skills of these children, the primary objective of this program is to enlighten them about child rights, human rights, life skills, gender equality and other social issues. This also helps to engage and empower the young music community in Delhi, by gearing them towards social activism and change in the lives of children at risk. The program is designed in such a way that it does not fall back on a child’s ability to read or write, but emphasizes on their sense of rhythm, knowledge about instruments, their vocal tonality, music appreciation skills and how much they gauge through music.
Faith says, “While choosing the volunteers and musicians for this program, we ensure that they are committed, enthusiastic and open to learning themselves. These children are aged between 3 to 12 years and often do not understand the process that they are a part of. The volunteers must understand the background and learning needs of these children. For this, we conduct workshops for them, where we train them to recognize, value, support and encourage these young talents”.
Sumeet Singh, a volunteer with the program adds, “The volunteer training sessions are really eye opening. We discuss about different notions, values and our opinions. This helps in broadening our own minds and developing our perspectives. To know that we play such an important role in making these children better and more capable human beings, is truly fulfilling”.
Music Basti however is not established as an independent NGO and works majorly in collaboration with other NGOs, organizations, educational and cultural units. They believe that establishing it as an NGO is a tedious process involving too much legality that leads to nothing but a wastage of time and defeats their main purpose of social upliftment. They attain their funding from partnerships, sponsors and donors whose contributions are acknowledged through multiple annual public programs, print and online publications, collaborative programs and media coverage.
This however does not ensure a steady flow of resources which is why they are currently working on a model that enhances income flow, at the same time promoting their project at various forums, looking for collaborations that will support and sustain it in the upcoming years. Being supported by a credible organization like IDEA, facilitates this process for them.
Till date, the project has conducted over 40 workshops, with over 200 children, and 25 sessions for volunteers on training and skill building, and have established three centers in Delhi, at Okhla, Kashmere Gate and Shastri Nagar. It has built relationships with organizations like The YP Foundation, Aman Biradri, Bridge Music Academy and the American Centre and has organized innumerous performances and concerts by the children and the renowned musicians.
Sunil, a student of the program, exclaims, “I always look forward to the workshops. I really enjoy the song writing exercises, the games and the lectures. It has made me aware of so many things around me”.
Today, Music Basti’s primary goal is to expand their outreach, develop a well defined musical program and involving more people in the project, so that they can make a difference to the lives of more children like Sunil.