We all remember returning home from school, hurriedly changing our clothes, and excitedly returning to a familiar basket of what we knew was our birthright – toys. Countless afternoons that were spent with our favourite toys fueled our imagination, developed our communication, and shaped our dreams.
Sadly, not every child gets to dress a figurine, hug a teddy bear to sleep, or picture themselves as a pilot or a doctor during their playtime. Their emotions and channels of expression stay limited to the grim limitations of lower-economic backgrounds, and their little hands, instead of holding a toy, ready themselves to manage bigger responsibilities of life.
Every child is a life full of emotions and looks for an outlet to manage them, and as simple as they are, they don’t need much to return back to their childhood.
Ratna Nidhi’s TOYBOX is just about that. We began by gathering toys for children in Mumbai and nearby rural areas and aim to reach every child who is deprived of the bare minimum, gifting them what is rightfully theirs – a toy box full of joys, ideas, and expressions that allows them to shape up into the happy individuals that they were meant to be.
Some facts about underprivileged children in India:
● 1 in 4 children of school-going age is out of school in India, with around 99 million children in total who have dropped out of school.
● Out of every 100 children, only 32 children finish their school education
age-appropriately.
● There are 10.13 million child labourers between the ages of 5 and 14 years in India.
● India has 33 million working children between the ages of 5 and 18 years. In parts of the country, more than half the child population is engaged in child labour.
What happens to these children?
All these children have either lost their childhood or on the verge of losing it.
Ratna Nidhi’s TOYBOX is reaching out to these children in India and aims at filling joy and happiness in their lives by donating toys and games.
Till now TOYBOX has spread smiles on the faces of 750 children in Mumbai and Rural Maharashtra.