Diya Ghar

Project Type: Freelance project (Photographs), Documentary exercise (Film).
Location: Bangalore
Year: 2022
Tools Used: Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Lightroom Classic, Canon 1500D

A documentation of Diya Ghar, an NGO that works to provide early childhood care and education for the children of migrant laborers in Bangalore, India. While the photographs simply document the school events, the film aims to cover the origins, working and future of Diya Ghar as an organization.

The photographs were taken as part of a volunteer freelance project during their different school events over the time frame of a few months. The documentary film was made during a four-day period as part of a unit on documentary filmmaking during the 5th semester of college.

The short film I made as part of the Documentary Filmmaking unit.

Children from the graduating classes watching the event proceed.

Diya Ghar is a Bangalore-based non-profit organization catering to the needs of children from migrant communities engaged in construction work. Their mission is to give children access to a stimulating and nurturing pre-school education.

Every day, they pick up the children from migrant settlements. They are provided with healthy, nourishing meals as breakfast and lunch, and employing the Montessori method, are taught language and math. They also have activities including music, rhymes, reading and even just free play time for the childrens’ holistic development. The children are dropped back home in the evening.

I spent some time with some of the workers and students at Diya Ghar when I attended and covered some of their ‘graduation ceremonies’ for the children that are about to join mainstream education after their education at Diya Ghar. These photographs are from those events.