Every year on 14 November, India celebrates Children's Day, a day about the right of every child to learn, play and grow up safely. At the Civilian Welfare Foundation (CWF), a women-led NGO in Kolkata established in 2011, we mark Children's Day 2026 by sharing the story of Icchedanar Pathshala, our bridge school for child labour in Kolkata, and the children who are using it to find their way back into education.

Why Children's Day should be about child labour

For many children in India's cities, childhood is cut short by work. When a family is under pressure, children can be pushed into labour or out of school, and once a child has missed years of classes, walking back into a mainstream classroom can feel impossible. CWF believes that education is not a privilege, it is a right. For children trapped in poverty, forced into labour or pushed out of the school system, reclaiming that right takes more than a classroom. It needs safety, trust, creativity and a curriculum that reflects their lives and their futures. A day that celebrates children is the right day to talk about the children who are still waiting for that chance.

What is Icchedanar Pathshala?

Icchedanar Pathshala is CWF's inclusive bridge school in Pyarabagan, one of Kolkata's most densely populated slum communities. For over a decade it has been an alternative learning space for children who were forced into child labour or who dropped out of formal schooling, giving them a second chance at learning, growth and a future.

• Six days a week: the school runs six days a week, so learning becomes a steady routine.
• 100 child labourers: the school currently serves 100 child labourers from the community.
• Inclusive by design: children with and without disabilities learn together in a shared classroom.

How a bridge school works

A bridge school is exactly what the name suggests: a bridge between a life outside the classroom and a place in mainstream education. The primary goal of Icchedanar Pathshala is school readiness. That means building the academic confidence and the social-emotional skills that help children move into government schools and access mainstream educational opportunities.

The curriculum goes beyond conventional subjects. Alongside Bengali, English and Mathematics, students engage with social sciences including Psychology and Sociology, developing critical thinking and an understanding of the society they are growing up in. CWF's wider education work with child labourers and school dropouts combines structured academic learning with health, legal literacy, mental wellbeing and the arts.

More than lessons: safety, health and the arts

Children cannot learn well if they do not feel safe. Around the bridge school, CWF runs programmes for children and families in Pyarabagan:

• POCSO Awareness Camp: organised with the West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights at Pyarabagan and attended by around 100 children, so that they know their legal protections under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
• Menstrual health workshops: regular workshops for girls and women at Pyarabagan.
• Trauma-informed teaching: a capacity-building workshop for CWF's teachers, interns and members on supporting children who show challenging behaviour, which is often a result of trauma, poverty or disability.
• Inclusive movie night: an evening for over 50 children with and without disabilities, watching together.
• ‘Girl Child Labour and Realism’: an artistic tabletop calendar launched in 2022–23 to raise public awareness about the exploitation of girl children in India.

Award-winning, built on partnership

In 2022, Icchedanar Pathshala received the Best CSR Award from the Indo-French Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IFCCI). At the IFCCI CSR Conclave and Awards 2022, held in New Delhi on 23 November 2022, Servier India Private Limited won in the Education category for Icchedanar Pathshala, delivered in partnership with CWF. The intervention aimed to make Pyarabagan a Child Labour Free Zone through the focused inclusion of 100 underprivileged children. Servier went beyond funding: its employees ran workshops in storytelling, yoga, art and craft, and the performing arts. You can read the full story in our post on the IFCCI Best CSR Award for Icchedanar Pathshala, and see all of our programmes on What We Do.

What comes next

The work is far from finished. CWF is working to expand Icchedanar Pathshala to reach 100 more students, and to deepen its focus on holistic psychosocial development, so that every child who walks in leaves ready for a mainstream classroom.

How you can help this Children's Day

Donate: your gift helps keep a bridge school open for children who have been pushed out of education. Donations to CWF are eligible for tax benefits under Section 80G (80G registration AACAP9946P25KL02). Donate to CWF.

Partner with us through CSR: CWF is registered for CSR (CSR-1 registration CSR00010154). If your company would like to support the expansion of Icchedanar Pathshala, as Servier India has done, please contact us about CSR partnerships.

Volunteer: teachers, artists and professionals can share their skills with our students. Get in touch through our contact page.

This Children's Day, help us make sure that every child in Pyarabagan has a classroom to go to.