Supporting Pratham for 'Read India' Program

Colgate has been associated with Pratham, and has been working towards providing quality education to the underprivileged children of India. ‘Every child in school and learning well’ has been Pratham’s endeavor since its modest beginnings in Mumbai in 1994. Education is one of the foremost priorities for India’s developing economy. It is the only lasting solution towards eradicating poverty in the long-term and can be achieved by empowering children through education. Pratham has come a long way both, in scope and geographical coverage since, and has established itself as a credible implementer of education solutions for the under-privileged children.

Colgate partnered with Pratham in supporting their endeavor of working to provide education to the underprivileged children under their Initiative ‘Read India’.  This program brings together children from disadvantaged communities with an aim to enable them to develop basic mathematics and language skills in English, Hindi, Marathi and Urdu through learning camps.

Pratham in a joint effort with ACER (Annual Status of Education Report) Centre, launched a call-to-action campaign, ‘Lakhon mein ek’, targeting 1000,000 communities across India. This program specifically aimed to help the basic reading and mathematical skills in children. Colgate India supported with education material and recognition certificates for the volunteers in Mumbai and 13 other cities of Maharashtra.

In the year 2016, Colgate initiated employee volunteering, during weekends in the ‘Read India’ program that primarily aimed to improve basic reading, writing and arithmetic skills of the children in the age group 6-14 years. Learning camps were conducted in 10 communities of Sangarsh Nagar in Powai, Mumbai.  At the end of the first phase, the enthusiasm of the children and their regular attendance to the weekend classes were an encouraging sign and Colgate will continue this endeavor.