Genesis

A devastating fire rocked Jahangirpuri, one of the biggest slums in Delhi in the year 1988. The fire had caused large-scale physical devastation but the worst outcome had been the situations of shock, trauma and the feeling of complete destitution lingering in the minds of the people. Children for obvious reasons had been the worst victims of this calamity. Delhi police responded with emergency services for reorganizing and rebuilding the shattered lives of these children. This pioneering effort led to the birth of an organization and Prayas was born in the year 1988. The organization got registered as a society under the societies Registration Act, 1860. During the same period two other organizations joined hands with Prayas viz. Delhi School of Social Work and Shramik Vidyapeeth. Starting its activities in a tiny one-room structure by providing non-formal education to 25 children. Today Prayas operates more than 12 different projects in various slum communities of Delhi thus serving around 50, 000 neglected, street and working children in Delhi itself. Similar projects are now operating in the six states of the country to provide basic needs care facilities and opportunities for holistic development of the child. This long journey has remained beset with numerous challenges but with the passage of time this small welfare agency serving the children evolved into a fairly large sized voluntary agency running multiple programmes for the empowerment of the marginalized children, youth and women. Today most of its projects function with the cooperation of the communities it serves. The single common denominator in the entire process has been its focus on development of: ‘Children in Need for Care and Protection’.