NIRMAN

About us

NIRMAN was created in 1988. Initially, the focus of the group was the education and training of women who worked at unskilled jobs for a pittance and had no scope for improving their situation.
NIRMAN is a not-for-profit NGO in Varanasi (also known as Banaras, Benares, and Kashi), India. We work for children and their families, for education, civic consciousness, the arts, and international exchange.

NIRMAN has the following component units:
• The Centre for Postcolonial Education, a research centre for continuing research on women, families, and children; on education and pedagogy; and on Benaras and modernity in India in general, with particular reference to the arts.
• A Training and Development component where the initial training programs were continued in an expanded form, and school materials were developed, so that our research was continuously put into practice.
• Vidyashram School, a school aiming to be a model of education in India, of universal standards that did not have to be for the elite like other innovative schools, but was for every kind of child, including the poorest.

NIRMAN was thus the confluence of three related concerns, each arising from a separate set of research projects. The first was with women´s work, the second with education, and the third with artisans.

Activities
• Arts: One of NIRMAN´s main focus areas is in the development and patronage of the arts. We want everyone to love the arts and be a good audience, and to help develop more opportunities and ideas for careers in the arts. The Arts Studios of NIRMAN work towards this in three main ways: 1. By make the wonderful arts of India and the world available for people in the community through concerts, performances, and products, to increase the consumership of the arts, to support and patronise artists, and to provide opportunities for the exchange of ideas and knowledge. 2. To produce new art; each studio is headed by a young leader and employs other professionals and students, who work on projects for the creation of new products and forms, that are rooted in our history and traditions, 3. To develop the arts in education, through the teaching of children in our own school, Vidyashram, and the teaching of children, youth, and adults from the community in our evening Resource Centre.
• Research at NIRMAN: The Centre for Postcolonial Education is NIRMAN´s own research centre. It conducts research projects, affiliates fellows, organises lectures, seminars, workshops, and conferences, brings out publications, and is the umbrella for the Arts Studios and Study Abroad Program.
• Environmental projects: Green Campus; Tree Planting; Ganga Project; Plastic Campaign and Clean-Up Lanka

Nita Kumar is the Director of NIRMAN.

For other net participants we can offer an expert guidance through trained staff, give an expert opinion, procure expert information and establish new contacts in the field of our work.