Established by people who teach, and who could not look away
Kabir Foundation is a non-profit organization established by a group of educators and socially committed individuals who recognized the need for meaningful engagement with the educational and social challenges of our time.
Inspired by Kabir's vision of a society rooted in equality, justice, critical inquiry, and compassion, we believe that education is a transformative process that enables individuals and communities to question, learn, collaborate, and act.
Through inclusive and participatory educational initiatives, we work to nurture critical consciousness, strengthen collective action, and contribute to building a more inclusive and equitable society.
Education is not a delivery problem
A great deal of educational effort in India is organised as delivery: material moves from an institution to a child, and the child is measured on how much of it came through intact. It is a model that can raise a test score and still leave a young person unable to question a single thing about the world they live in.
We start somewhere else. We take seriously that learners already carry knowledge, language and judgement with them into a classroom, and that the work of education is to open all of it up — to let children reason aloud, disagree, be wrong safely, and find out that their own thinking is worth something.
Education that does not lead people to ask questions about their own conditions is only training. The principle our programmes are built on
That commitment shapes practical choices. We build with government schools rather than around them, because that is where the children of the least advantaged families actually are. We treat teachers as colleagues with expertise, not as a delivery channel to be monitored. We work in the languages people speak at home. And we publish what we learn, including what did not work, because an organisation that only reports its successes has stopped learning.
How a programme comes into being
Every initiative we run passes through the same six steps, and none of them can be skipped.
Listen
Months in the community before a single activity. Teachers, parents, panchayat members and children describe the problem in their own terms.
Co-design
The people who will run the programme help write it. If it cannot survive their objections, it is not ready.
Pilot small
A handful of sites, close observation, a documented baseline. Enthusiasm is not evidence.
Measure honestly
Simple, open instruments; results shared with the community first, before any donor or platform.
Hand over
Success is a programme that keeps running when we step back — held by local teachers and collectives.
Publish
Methods, materials and findings released openly so anyone can adopt, adapt or challenge them.
Where we are in the journey
Kabir Foundation is a young organisation. We would rather show you an honest early record than an impressive one — this page will grow as the work does.
Kabir Foundation is formed
A group of educators and socially committed individuals come together around a shared conviction about what education is for.
Reading circles and teacher workshops begin
Work starts where it is most needed and least glamorous: early-grade reading, and support for teachers already carrying the load.
Women's learning collectives take shape
Weekly collectives combining literacy, rights awareness and livelihood skills, facilitated by women from the same villages.
Research and open publication
Baselines, field notes and toolkits documented from the start, so that every later claim can be checked.
Registration and governance
We think an organisation asking for public trust should make it easy to check on. Our registration details, governing-body composition, annual reports and audited financial statements are published here as they become available.
| Legal name | Kabir Foundation |
|---|---|
| Registration type | To be added |
| Registration number | To be added |
| PAN | To be added |
| 80G / 12A status | To be added |
| Registered office | Registered Office — address to be added, New Delhi, India |
Annual reports and audited statements will be listed on the Publications page.
Come and see the work
The most useful thing you can do before supporting us is to look closely. Visit a site, read our methods, ask us hard questions.