Programs

PRAGATI (PROGRESS)

Pragati is designed to engage youth in contests and projects that challenge them and appeal to their competitive spirit! Events are designed to help boys learn about teamwork, take on leadership positions, participate in planning. Each Praagti event – be it a” life plan” contest or a Pragati Youth Film Festival is also a platform to discuss dangerous and risky behavior related to offending, substance abuse, peer pressure, gender, violence and more.

Pragati 2009
Last year, short films by about 150 boys on their own lives, communities or views were screened. They played to packed audience with 750 boys / and 120 parents attended it and also there were discussions and debates around the film topics

Watch Pragati Films

Meet Pragati Talent

Sarik: A year ago sixteen year old Sarik would most likely be found roaming around the streets of Bhiwandi, engaging in fighting, bullying, eve-teasing. He would drop in at the Bhwandi Youth Center now and then, rarely agreeing to attend more structured sessions or classes. But when Pragati films started, he came into his own – full of creative ideas, passionate about directing. During the ideation stage, he opened up a lot and spoke about his experience of bullying, group fights. How it made him feel, why he did it and so on. At the end of the course, he participated with great dedication in creating his own life plan, and more importantly has followed it up after. Starting out reluctantly, Sarik not only attended Pragati regularly till the end, he also encouraged his friends to join the next batch of Pragati. But he does have one regret: On the day of his graduation, he was very disappointed about the fact that his parents couldn’t attend the Pragti graduation ceremony. He said – “agar meri maa ati to mujhe, uske hato se certificate milata jaise sabko mila.” (I wish my Mother had watched me graduate. She could have given me a Certificate with her own hands)
Sarik is part of the script and direction team of the Pragati film: Dhoom ka Nasha

Azhar: Pragati facilitators started the course in Sangam Nagar with an interview, which gauged if the boys were high risk. Azhar was definitely this, but facilitators were almost certain he would stick it out through the forty hour program.  But he did! Although he was disruptive and distracted in the sessions, he also seemed to have gained a lot from the sessions. A part of the course focused on relationships and during the discussion, a question was posed, “what is friendship? Is it supporting your friends in whatever they do? Or it about keeping your friends’ best interest in mind?” Azhar was determined that friendship means supporting your friends in whatever you do. He gave an example where he had stood up for a friend, got into a fight with some boys and because of which he had been taken to the Observation Home. He remained quiet during the rest of the session and he seemed to give this question a serious thought. During the closing ritual, he said that he had never thought about this before and that he had not known an alternative to supporting your friends in this way.

Azhar missed only one session and was punctual for all the sessions – usually reaching the center before the facilitators. During the last phase of Pragati, he came up with one of the most well thought out life plans where he knows which course he wants to pursue, where he wants to pursue it. To demonstrate how serious he is, he also planned how he will pay for the course.
Azhar worked on 31st December; a film about the coolest boy in the neighborhood ends up in an Observation Home.

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