MUSIC BASTI ANNUAL REPORt 2013-14 BASTI ANNUAL REPORt 2013-14 [email protected] 91 - 011- 46524123. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... Society for Labour and Development’s Tarang …

MUSIC BASTIANNUAL REPORt [email protected] - 011- 46524123

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThis is a report of Integrated Development Education Association’s (IDEA) project, “Music Basti”, highlighting the “ReSound” program implemented between April 2013 and April 2014. The preparation of the report was initiated and coordinated by Faith Gonsalves, Projects Director for IDEA. Program staff including Adhir Ghosh and Chayan Adhikari facilitated the preparation of the evaluation data and analysis. Sikandar M Kumar contributed to the writing of the report and participat-ed in the document review.Our gratitude goes to the invaluable support of the students and staff in the children’s centers and homes where the ReSound program was facilitated, namely, Aman Biradari, Center for Equity Studies and Dil Se Campaign in Mehrauli and Okhla Industrial Area, Vidya (Integrated Development for Youth and Adults) in Papankalan Dwarka and Okhla Industrial Area, and Society for Labour and Development’s Tarang Kala Kendra in Kapashera. The ReSound program was made possible through the support of donors including OML Pvt. Ltd., EFICOR India, CornerstoneonDemand Foundation, The YP Foundation, Ministry of Culture, and Global Family Care Network, and Vishal Dadlani. Key partners who were instrumental in developing the program and enabling training, outreach and growth opportunities include Kevin Wenzel and Caleb Dance of MIMA Music Inc.; Suchet Malhotra, Ethno India and the Neta Kapur Scholarship; Tarun Balani, Aditya Balani and Global Music Institute; Ritesh Khokhar and Bridge Music Academy; School of Inspired Leadership (SOIL); Ameri-can Center, India Habitat Center, LiveMedia, MTV India and Child Rights and You (CRY). We are also very thankful to Gaurav Vaz and The Random Lines for developing a beautiful new website for the program. We are grateful for the mentorship of individuals including Gabriel and Maude Gonsalves, Ushinor Majumdar, Pattie Gonsalves, Ishita Chaudhry, Clark and Jennifer Jensen, Deepak Goel, and Aparna Nayam-palli. IDEA is also appreciative of the support of our colleagues and friends including Medhavi Gandhi and Happy Hands Foundation, Abhishek Mathur, Mohit Kapil, Asad Ali, Kuhu Kochar and Paper Cuts Designs, Manzil, Daniel Lalande and Monde Par La Main – Give a Hand, Drizzlin Media, NowDelhi.Tv, NH7.in, Little Black Book Delhi, Wild City, The Alternative, and The Music Therapy Trust. To conclude, we would like to acknowledge the hard work, commitment and enthusiasm of our staff team including Adhir Ghosh, Chayan Adhikari, Harleen Sidhu, and the team of Teaching-Artists and volunteers at Music Basti.

Cover Photo: ReSound Music program at Vidya community centre, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase 1. Photo by: Mohit Kapil

(c) Integrated Development Education Association (IDEA), September 2014Permission is required to reproduce any part of this publication. Permission will be freely granted to educational or non-profit organisations. To request permission and for any other information on the publication, please contact:

Integrated Development Education Associa-tion (IDEA) A 17/3 Saket, New Delhi, 110017, India Tel: 01146524123 Email: [email protected]

In the summer of 2013, Music Basti embarked on a project called Re-Sound that marked a decided move forward towards the realisation of its founding belief in a ‘community led approach’ to music education for social upliftment in India. Re-Sound is a music teaching program which involves the recruitment of highly proficient musicians, a training period with the help of our mentors, the development of a 8 month curriculum which is carried out in at least six different centers for at-risk children and youth and the simultaneous conceptualization of a sophisticated evaluation schema to measure the success and weaknesses of the program. This report provides a brief history of Music Basti, its founding philosophy, a description of its belief and methodology in evaluation, an empirical analysis of its activities in the year 2013- 14, the challenges that were faced as a matter of course and recommends measures for their redressal.

MUSIC BASTIANNUAL REPORT2013 - 2014

INTRODUCTION

Music Basti activities are managed by Integrated Development Education Association (IDEA), a registered Association set up in 1991. Address: C/o 144 Munirka Vihar, New Delhi 11006Web: www.musicbasti.org/

Photo: ReSound Music program at Vidya community centre, Papankalan, Dwarka, Phase 3. Photo: Asad Ali

Executive Summary

Evaluation 8

Activities

Introduction to 6Music Basti

Key Observations and 12 Recommendations for Improvement5.1 Overview: Progress and Best Practices 12

5.2 Challenges and Key Observations 15

5.3 Recommendations for Improvement 18

Conclusion ANNEX A: Music Basti Project Background 20

ANNEX B: Annual Activities Overview 22

ANNEX C: Partners 23

ANNEX D: List of staff and teachers 24

4

10

19

#01

#02

#03

#04

#05

#06

EXECUTIVE SUMMARYThis report provides a brief history of the founding philosophy of Music Basti, a description of its paradigms of evaluation, an empirical analysis of its activities in the year 2013-14 while charting out the chalenges that were faced as a matter of course and recommends measures for their redressal in the future. The crux of the report analyses Re-Sound, a project Music Bastiembarked upon in the summer of 2013, and was constitutive of the teaching curricula for the rest of the working year.

Re-Sound marked a decided move forward towards the realisation of Music Basti’s founding belief in a ‘community led approach’ to music education for social upliftment in India. It was a music teaching program which involved the recruitment of highly proficient musicians, a training period with the help of our mentors, the development of a 8 month curriculum which was carried out in six different centers for at-risk children and youth and the simultaneous concep-tualization of a sophisticated evaluation schema to measure the success and weakness of the program. The overall organisational effort which culminated into the Re-Sound program allowed for several important achievements for Music Basti. Notably, the system that was devised for recruiting music teachers for the Re-Sound project was found to be extremely effective in recruiting talented and committed individuals. The strategy involved an extensive internet advertising cam-paign, attracting over a hundred applications from Delhi based musicians. Upon recruitment, the selected musicians were then trained through a rigorous teacher training program developed in part by a global organisation called MIMA MUSIC (more on their pedagogic belief and techniques below) and in house musician-mentors of Music Basti. Working in tandem, the teacher recruitment and training strategies allowed for the institution of a team of highly able teachers with shared goals and methods of pedagogy. As a whole, this allowed for a visibly more mature program of music education to evolve over the 2013-14 working year. The engagement with MIMA MUSIC also allowed for a considerable advancement in the plan for a concrete lesson plan book: with the help of MIMA, Music Basti was able to develop a series of exercises for training large groups of children into the fundamentals of music (melody, pitch, rhythm and song writing), which can be considered ‘Music Basti’s Best Practices’.

Photo: ReSound Music program at Vidya community centre, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase 1. Photo by: Mohit Kapil

The Re-Sound project was wrapped up with an end of the year production which was held at the India Habitat Centre. This performance also marked a significant achievement as it was the first one which was completely choreographed and performed by the children themselves, with-out the help of any professional acts. The experi-ence of taking responsibility and initiative for the performance was important in instilling a sense of self-confidence and collective achievement in the children. Importantly, the performance also marked a success for the pedagogic methods employed during the Re-Sound program, which made song writing a critical component of its lesson plan – as a result many of the songs performed by the children at the Re-Sound end of the year concert were written by the children themselves. Significantly, the children displayed an acute capacity to represent their own voices and identities to a larger public through the concert – an achievement which Music Basti can proudly herald as a major step towards its goal of ensuring emancipation and self-determination for children and youth at risk.

A few challenges for the Music Basti program persist and need to be rectified in the future. To a large extent, the success of Music Basti’s music programs with children at risk depends on the structural conditions of the care centers that it engages with. It will be seen in this report that in the centers which enjoy more material resources and organisational capacities, Music Basti is able to implement a systematic program in accordance with its annual design leading to far greater results than what is achieved in resource-weak centers which are not able to ensure such systematic collaboration. Nevertheless, it is up to Music Basti to find some resolution to the problems in resource-weak centers – this report provides some suggestions for such resolutions that may be discussed further by team members and imple-mented in the new working year. A few minor changes need to be made in the training program for teachers and a more sophisticated approach towards lesson development needs to be made in the discussions prior to the inauguration of the new working year. As has already been stated, the MIMA training program and the Re-Sound program allowed for significant advancements in this respect and the collection of ‘Best Practices’ need to be reflected upon and added to for the compilation of a yearly lesson plan. This will

This report provides a brief history of the founding philosophy of Music Basti, a description of its paradigms of evaluation, an empirical analysis of its activities in the year 2013-14 while charting out the chalenges that were faced as a matter of course and recommends measures for their redressal in the future. The crux of the report analyses Re-Sound, a project Music Bastiembarked upon in the summer of 2013, and was constitutive of the teaching curricula for the rest of the working year.


Photo: ReSound Music program at Vidya community centre, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase 1. Photo by: Mohit Kapil

Students taught throughthe ReSound program

in the NCRin 2013-14

Students enjoyedlearning the intricacies

of music elementsand writing songs

together

OVER 100

Students said the programme gave

them more

CONFIDENCE

The Re-Sound project was wrapped up with an end of the year production which was held at the India Habitat Centre. This performance also marked a significant achievement as it was the first one which was completely choreographed and performed by the children themselves, with-out the help of any professional acts. The experi-ence of taking responsibility and initiative for the performance was important in instilling a sense of self-confidence and collective achievement in the children. Importantly, the performance also marked a success for the pedagogic methods employed during the Re-Sound program, which made song writing a critical component of its lesson plan – as a result many of the songs performed by the children at the Re-Sound end of the year concert were written by the children themselves. Significantly, the children displayed an acute capacity to represent their own voices and identities to a larger public through the concert – an achievement which Music Basti can proudly herald as a major step towards its goal of ensuring emancipation and self-determination for children and youth at risk.

A few challenges for the Music Basti program persist and need to be rectified in the future. To a large extent, the success of Music Basti’s music programs with children at risk depends on the structural conditions of the care centers that it engages with. It will be seen in this report that in the centers which enjoy more material resources and organisational capacities, Music Basti is able to implement a systematic program in accordance with its annual design leading to far greater results than what is achieved in resource-weak centers which are not able to ensure such systematic collaboration. Nevertheless, it is up to Music Basti to find some resolution to the problems in resource-weak centers – this report provides some suggestions for such resolutions that may be discussed further by team members and imple-mented in the new working year. A few minor changes need to be made in the training program for teachers and a more sophisticated approach towards lesson development needs to be made in the discussions prior to the inauguration of the new working year. As has already been stated, the MIMA training program and the Re-Sound program allowed for significant advancements in this respect and the collection of ‘Best Practices’ need to be reflected upon and added to for the compilation of a yearly lesson plan. This will

INTRODUCTIONMusic Basti was set up in 2008 to address the predicaments confronting children ‘at-risk’, particularly those affecting former street children, in the city of Delhi. The urgency of this cause became blatant as a result of the clear contradictions that existed in the city: on the one hand, Delhi, the centre of political power, was evidently characterised by increasing wealth and luxury, while on the other hand a parallel movement could be noticed which saw the dislocation of large masses of people and theirfamilies. Consequently, it was felt that there was a need to take at least a few measures to dissolve the disparity in resources available to different groups and ensure that the fulcrum of India’s democracy displayed some measure of equal rights and access. It is here that Music Basti made a decided effort to intervene through a ‘community based music approach’ which sought the active collaboration of music professionals, child welfare organizations, rehabilitation centers and of course children and youth who had been marginalised by a series of socio-economic factors but were now in different stages of upliftment.

This initiative has had several benefits: it has strengthened and widened the scope of several existing institutions and structures that deal with the rehabilitation of children, it has created a large network of volunteers and concerned artist-activists who actively engage with the program, and it has disseminated crucial skills of creativity and empow-erment to children and youth ‘at-risk’ (more on the benefits of music for empowerment below).

introductionTO music basti

The overall goal of the project has been to create a shared community that dissolves the gap between those who have access to the tools of political and social mobility and those who are deprived of these advantages. Thus, the project is not limited to the involvement of musicians and volunteers into the agenda of upliftment but more importantly the reorienta-tion of those deemed ‘at risk’ into social and political life by making tools accessible to these groups for the self-articulation of their identities and rights. It is with this in mind that we frame our mission statement thus, Music Basti envisions a world where the universal rights of all children are recognized and practiced. The mission of the project is to raise the voices of at-risk children and youth through the arts, in particular through music and media, to promote enhanced access to opportunities in education, health, leisure, and also wellbeing and development.

Photo:ReSound Students from music program at Vidya community centre, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase 1. Photo: Asad Ali

to judge the effective strategies from the not so successful ones or amend them so that they can become more beneficial to the children. This then has the potential of providing some help to the field of arts based programs as a presentation of ‘best practices’ – a tool book that can be harnessed by any startup program or even an existing initiative. In addition the evaluation methodology itself allows the program to develop its participatory

structure as it allows children and teacher-members to provide feedback and be involved in the development of the curriculum of activities. It thus creates an atmosphere of collaboration, which is integral to the project of creating a community of shared views and voices, in addition to making the program itself a dynamic and ever changing project.

the organisation as well as measure what activities have not been so successful and why this was so. Of course, as with any engagement with social work, this evaluation schema does not aim to provide a scientific analysis of activities and results, but instead it is aimed at providing a guiding thread for the program and the different members and volunteers who come in and out on a short term or long term basis. In this way the documentation effort

at Music Basti allows for a clarification of the program goals and philosophy so that new members can quickly get accustomed to the team and learn the ropes of engaging with children at-risk easily. It is also helpful for long term members to refer back to a set of documents to refresh their memories regarding program philosophies as well as past achievements and failures. In addition to clarifying the program objectives and monitoring its activities, the evaluation framework is a key ensuring a gradual improvement in its activities and results: it allows program members

3.1 Background: Why Evaluate?As mentioned in the previous section, one of the hindrances to the sophisticated evolution of any arts based program concerned with children at risk is the resources available to measure the success or failure of its many activities and the program as a whole. While there are hundreds of arts based programs in

the world, most of them rely on anecdotal evidence as a foundation to present their key findings. Consequently there is little ‘hard evidence’ available in the field to rely on that can provide guidance to other initiatives conducting similar activities. This deficit does not also allow for any sharing of perspectives among different organisations or for any solidarity to emerge.

Since its beginning in 2008, Music Basti has felt the need to develop a framework to evaluate its internal and external activities in order to record the activities that have successfully addressed the goals of

3.EVALUATION

It thus creates an atmosphere of collaboration, which is integral to the project of creating a community of shared views and voices.

to impart musical skills to children. Having once learned these skills and with the goals list in mind, the team then develops a rough curriculum of activities (lesson plan) that will be implemented throughout the year – this is intended to provide some cohesiveness to the activities that will be conducted in different homes for children by different teams of teachers. The table below provides an overview of the list of goals that were developed by the MB team for the year 2013-14:

assembles for a short training period to develop both the technical side of the teaching program as well as the vision for the coming year. The team thus agrees on a list of goals to be accomplished within the year, which incorporates both musical as well as social/life skills as milestones. During this period the team also undergoes a brief musical training program (conducted in 2013by MIMA) in which new as well as returning music teachers are taughtdifferent types of possible musicalactivities that could be undertaken

3.2 Implementation: Understanding the-Evaluation Framework With the above objectives in mind, Music Basti has implemented a concrete system to evaluate its activities which incorporates the suggestions of the children as well as the volunteer teachers who are both engaged in the program. The framework that Music Basti (MB)follows is a simple one: at the beginning of the cycle the MB team

After this initial training period the program goes into effect. At every step the student’s progress is recorded in terms of both achievements with regard to their retention of the technical sides of music (melody, pitch, rhythm etc.) as well reception to life skill lessons (taught indirectly through music activities or directly through song lyrics etc.). Teachers keep a weekly log of activities to record these achievements. At the end of the year a music evalua-tion test is conducted by music professionals at every home, to discern the progress made. Teachers also provide comprehensive feedback regarding the program – achievements made, challenges, anecdotal evidence etc. – and provide suggestions for the next year. In addition to this at the end of the year, a student feedback session is conducted at each home to take on board the suggestions of the students themselves: how did they feel about the program? What activities did they enjoy the most and which ones were cumbersome? What would they like out of the program next year? Students are also encouraged to record their statements – positive or negative – through written or visual blogs. In this way Music Basti aims to document their perspectives and give their voices some publicity in the national and international domain.

The above description of the annual timeline is not a rigid framework. While the evaluation schema remains the same, different activities and opportunities every lead to a difference in the way the activities are conducted or plotted within the annual cycle. The next section gives an overview of the activities that were conducted in the year 2013-14.

Goal Overview

Table 1: Program Goals developed for ReSound 2013-14

Build musical skills & appreciation for music

• Build a repertoire of songs with social relevance and cultural values for MB. Teaching said songs to the children.• Introduce/inculcate technical music skills: for e.g. Listening to the components of a song, beat, melody, tempo, dynamics, ability to sing-back, performance skills, group singing skills, types of rhythm, harmony, scales and sargam. • Storytelling: Creative expression through music.• Ability to create own music.

Building and social life skills• Respect & empathy for one another. • Confidence: inculcated through group singing exercises or singing before an audience.• Cooperation in a group.

Develop a sense of achievement andprogress throughout the program

• Regular performances to showcase the project, and also to encourage goal oriented learning.

Build a sense of community• Group singing.• Involve parents/community by inviting them for performances.• Community storytelling through music.

Understand the value of music

• Creativity and writing, ability to express oneself.• Communication & sharing of ideas.• Ability to understand connection of music and personal development firsthand.• Understand culture & and diversity through music and language.

4.ACTIVITIES 2013-2014In the year 2013-14, apart from the regular team training schedule and weekly lessons (in accordance with the curriculum), many other opportunities allowed for a holistic structuring of the music lessons.

1. Teacher training and capacity building for musician-cum-teachers (Collaborations with MIMA and Ethno India): In July 2013, Music Basti hosted the MIMA Music Weekend (26th-28th July, 2013), led by Kevin Wenzel (Executive Director, MIMA Music) and Caleb Dance (a senior trainer for MIMA, otherwise the “Minister of Play”) for 25 musicians in New Delhi, selected to be part of Music Basti’s teaching staff for 2013-14, teaching the “Re-Sound”, music learning program, over 30 weeks beginning in August 2013, in selected communities in Delhi including Mehrauli, Okhla Industrial Area Phase 1, Kapashera slum (near Gurgaon), Papankalan slum (Dwarka Sector 3) and Mahipalpur (near Vasant Kunj). Our Teaching Artists for Re-Sound were selected from the NCR through a process of open applications, interviews and auditions in July 2013. MIMA Music is an educational nonprofit based in New York City, USA with ongoing programs in North America, South America, and Europe. MIMA has invented a method that uses music improvisation to help people create, communicate, and cultivate a better understanding of themselves and the world around them. The MIMA Method involves a cyclical process: inspire, transform, create, and celebrate. The objective of the MIMA training was to equip musicians with improvisational teaching techniques, strategies for group song writing and build a community for Music Basti teaching artists (Website: www.mimamusic.org). Apart from its collaboration with MIMA, Music Basti also partnered with Ethno India, which allowed Music Basti to propose two musicians who we deemed to be of exceptional caliber to receive the Shri Netar Kapur scholarship to develop their musical skills through the Ethno Music training program. This year the proud recipients from Music Basti were Neeti Pandey and Shaheen Salmani.

2. Re-Sound 2013-14: Re-Sound was a 30-Weeks Music Program that was introduced by Music Basti in 2013. The objective of the program was to introduce key elements of music including appreciation, listening and song writing through a creative and fun methodology, focusing on voice and group learning, with at-risk children and youth in the NCR. The project, designed for beginners aged 10-15 years of age, worked with over 100 children across selected non-governmental organization partners working for education, rehabilitation and child welfare in communities including Okhla Industrial Area, Mehrauli, Kapashera, Papankalan Dwarka, and Mahipalpur. Re-Sound was led by a select and trained group of 20 musicians working as Teaching Artists through the program. In addition to group music workshops on a monthly basis and the song writing and recording projects implemented during the Re-Sound program, Music Basti also organised numerous concerts and public performances, including an end of the year public showcase at the India Habitat Centre (IHC) Amphitheatre.

3. Performance Programs: Children engaged in the Re-Sound program performed their music and songs at internal venues such as their residential schools, community centers, as well as at public venues at events organised by Music Basti. On April 20th, 2014, Music Basti organised ‘Re-Sound, The concert’ which celebrated children's music and voices from all the rehabilita-tive Homes that Music Basti engages with in Delhi. The event was hosted by Music Basti featuring performances by students from Okhla Industrial Area, Papankalan Dwarka, Kapashera and Meh-rauli, where we proudly work with partners including Dil Se Cam-paign, Society for Labour and Development's Tarang Kala Kendra, and Vidya. This concert marked the close of the Re-Sound music learning program being run in these communities between August 2013-April 2014. Children who participated in the event performed their original songs, which they had composed during the Re-Sound program.

4. Exposure Programs: Music Basti organised events for children to visit concerts in public venues as well as set up work-shops at the children’s Centre/Home, which were led by local, national and international musicians. This was done in collabora-tion with organizations such the American Center, Global Music Institute, MTV India and CRY with the aim of exposing the students to a global understanding of different forms of music.

5. Research and Curriculum Development: Utilizing the Re-Sound program as its foundation, Music Basti is/has been developing a content-framework through the course of the curriculum with a focus on an integrated approach to introducing rhythm, melody and singing, song-writing and performance for beginner or children at-risk who have a limited access to formal education. Throughout the program, there has been a focus on promoting the life skills of confidence, communication, cooperation and creativity and Music Basti has taken this as an opportunity to develop a holistic curriculum which can be used more concretely in the future and as a model by other organisations. At this stage curriculum development is a work in progress at Music Basti.

5.1 Overview: Progress & Best PracticesIn the year 2013-14, Music Basti took some decided steps forward towards its overall goals.

Teacher Recruitment and Training:A completely new system of recruiting professionally trained music teachers was implemented this year, which marks a significant departure from our past practice of recruitment and we find it worth reproducing in the following years. Re-Sound, our 9-month music program, was inaugurated with a publicized call for applications – specifically aiming at young music professionals. The call received over 100 applicants, after which, on grounds of merit and exceptional credentials we shortlisted a group of musicians and led them through rigorous interview and audition sessions to select the final candidates. The selected musicians were then taken through an initial training program which was implemented by the MIMA team in accordance with their globally successful

5.Key Observationsand Recommendations for improvement

training framwork called the ‘MIMA method’. Over the duration of ten years MIMA has developed a method of music teaching which emphasizes improvisation as a technique to harness the creative energy in groups of students in order for them to recognise and realise their music potential for themselves. It is for this reason that they follow a cyclical process by which music teachers are taught how to inspire their students, transform their thought and creative processes, help them channel these energies to create music, and celebrate theirtogetherness through the process at work in a particular workshop. In short, MIMA follows the motto: inspire, transform, create, and celebrate. The musicians who were selected through the application procedure were taught how to use several mediums to impart the fundamentals of music to students so that they could realise these concepts for themselves (with a little theoretical nudge from the instructors). For example, the Music Basti team members were taught how to use their bodies to teach the fundamentals of rhythm and tempo to a group of students. Other exercises such as the ‘name game’ helped teachers to convey basic lessons of melody in a fun way. Both of these exercises – among many others – also sought to help music instructors learn to teach students in large groups in a way that would be inclusive and participative: exercises such as these help to break down barriers such as shyness and boredom

In the year 2013-14, Music Basti took some decided steps forward towards its overall goals.

Teacher Recruitment and Training:A completely new system of recruiting professionally trained music teachers was implemented this year, which marks a significant departure from our past practice of recruitment and we find it worth reproducing in the following years. Re-Sound, our 9-month music program, was inaugurated with a publicized call for applications – specifically aiming at young music professionals. The call received over 100 applicants, after which, on grounds of merit and exceptional credentials we shortlisted a group of musicians and led them through rigorous interview and audition sessions to select the final candidates. The selected musicians were then taken through an initial training program which was implemented by the MIMA team in accordance with their globally successful

training framwork called the ‘MIMA method’. Over the duration of ten years MIMA has developed a method of music teaching which emphasizes improvisation as a technique to harness the creative energy in groups of students in order for them to recognise and realise their music potential for themselves. It is for this reason that they follow a cyclical process by which music teachers are taught how to inspire their students, transform their thought and creative processes, help them channel these energies to create music, and celebrate theirtogetherness through the process at work in a particular workshop. In short, MIMA follows the motto: inspire, transform, create, and celebrate. The musicians who were selected through the application procedure were taught how to use several mediums to impart the fundamentals of music to students so that they could realise these concepts for themselves (with a little theoretical nudge from the instructors). For example, the Music Basti team members were taught how to use their bodies to teach the fundamentals of rhythm and tempo to a group of students. Other exercises such as the ‘name game’ helped teachers to convey basic lessons of melody in a fun way. Both of these exercises – among many others – also sought to help music instructors learn to teach students in large groups in a way that would be inclusive and participative: exercises such as these help to break down barriers such as shyness and boredom

because they constantly involve each student in the group, hence holding them to rapt attention, even while the action focuses on an individual student. In addition to this initial training program, the selected music teachers were also led through an on-going program of training led by in-house music professionals, Chayan Adhikari and Adhir Ghosh – mentors who have engaged with the Music Basti program for many years. Through these ongoing trainings sessions, the team members were taught some basic exercises in Hindi and other exercises that have proven effective over the years. A list of popular exercises has been provided under the sub-heading ‘curriculum development’ in section 5.3 of this report. The process of teacher recruitment and training that was carried out in 2013-14 has been an important advancement from previous years and has resulted in a lot of positive feedback from students who have shared their increasing interest in music, their joys of exploring music together and their eagerness to carry on learning through the program. It can be said that a lot of these positive results are due to the intensive investment that had been laid out in the training procedures: both at the initial moment by MIMA and the ongoing training process carried out by Chayan Adhikari and Adhir Ghosh. Now that the framework for a training program has been set, the task is to better hone the systems to cater to the challenges that still exist (See section 5.3 for recommendations to bolster the training framework).

because they constantly involve each student in the group, hence holding them to rapt attention, even while the action focuses on an individual student. In addition to this initial training program, the selected music teachers were also led through an on-going program of training led by in-house music professionals, Chayan Adhikari and Adhir Ghosh – mentors who have engaged with the Music Basti program for many years. Through these ongoing trainings sessions, the team members were taught some basic exercises in Hindi and other exercises that have proven effective over the years. A list of popular exercises has been provided under the sub-heading ‘curriculum development’ in section 5.3 of this report. The process of teacher recruitment and training that was carried out in 2013-14 has been an important advancement from previous years and has resulted in a lot of positive feedback from students who have shared their increasing interest in music, their joys of exploring music together and their eagerness to carry on learning through the program. It can be said that a lot of these positive results are due to the intensive investment that had been laid out in the training procedures: both at the initial moment by MIMA and the ongoing training process carried out by Chayan Adhikari and Adhir Ghosh. Now that the framework for a training program has been set, the task is to better hone the systems to cater to the challenges that still exist. (See section 5.3 for recommendations to bolster the training framework).

Photos:Left: Teachers Training Program with MIMA Music Inc., July 2013.Right: Kevin Wenzel, Exexutive Director and Caleb Dance, Teaching Artist, of MIMA Music, Inc.

5.1 Overview: Progress & Best PracticesSong-writing projects and Re-Sound Concert: As a result of a successful training program, teachers were able to learn effective ways of imparting the skills of writing songs – both individually and as a group – to their students. While song writing has always been central to the Music Basti curriculum it has never been as successful as it was during the Re-Sound program conducted during the last year (2013-14). Since, song writing is integral to the Music Basti initiative to help children and youth at risk develop the ability to represent themselves and their desires to a wider a public, the achievement in the past year is considerable. For the first time, children wrote songs that were well structured and both musically and lyrically proficient. The Re-Sound concert that was held on 20th April 2014 featured many of the children’s songs. This concert was in itself an achievement in many ways: it was the first concert hosted by Music Basti where the children were responsible for all the acts and had to prepare and perform in each segment of the concert. The concert was a huge success. Perhaps the most significant positive outcome of the Re-Sound concert was to help the students feel a sense of achievement in themselves – all students, especially the students from Umeed (care centre run by Dil Se in Mehrauli, Delhi) shared how much of a confidence boost they received from having undertaken the task of visualizing the performances, writing and preparing the songs with each other and pulling it off perfectly at the final moment on the day of the concert.

Development in Evaluation Framework: In the past year, Music Basti framed a concrete evaluation schema and implemented it successfully on a series of levels. We have explained the evaluation process in Section 3 of this report. Music Basti had been developing these mechanisms for the last 4 years – a long and experimental process which has culminated into a proper framework over the last year. The entire Re-Sound program followed the protocol of weekly reports by team members, who shared their progress and limitations through these documents. This was significant in ensuring the smooth functioning of the program and ironing out difficulties immediately as they appeared. In addition an end-of-the-year music test was conducted by music professionals Adhir Ghosh and Chayan Adhikari to measure the progress – both musical and life skills – of the students through the Re-Sound program. Since they have both been engaging with the music program over the years they were also able to notice the overall progress the children had made in the last year. The music test was successful and the evaluators reported a significant increase in confidence among the students in most centres and were able to suggest concrete recommendations for improvement in the program for the next year. The program monitoring schema, although sometimes an arduous and exhaustive enterprise, has led to significant improvements in the Music Basti program and this in itself is an important achievement made in this year.


5.1 Overview: Progress & Best PracticesSong-writing projects and Re-Sound Concert: As a result of a successful training program, teachers were able to learn effective ways of imparting the skills of writing songs – both individually and as a group – to their students. While song writing has always been central to the Music Basti curriculum it has never been as successful as it was during the Re-Sound program conducted during the last year (2013-14). Since, song writing is integral to the Music Basti initiative to help children and youth at risk develop the ability to represent themselves and their desires to a wider a public, the achievement in the past year is considerable. For the first time, children wrote songs that were well structured and both musically and lyrically proficient. The Re-Sound concert that was held on 20th April 2014 featured many of the children’s songs. This concert was in itself an achievement in many ways: it was the first concert hosted by Music Basti where the children were responsible for all the acts and had to prepare and perform in each segment of the concert. The concert was a huge success. Perhaps the most significant positive outcome of the Re-Sound concert was to help the students feel a sense of achievement in themselves – all students, especially the students from Umeed (care centre run by Dil Se in Mehrauli, Delhi) shared how much of a confidence boost they received from having undertaken the task of visualizing the performances, writing and preparing the songs with each other and pulling it off perfectly at the final moment on the day of the concert.

Development in Evaluation Framework: In the past year, Music Basti framed a concrete evaluation schema and implemented it successfully on a series of levels. We have explained the evaluation process in Section 3 of this report. Music Basti had been developing these mechanisms for the last 4 years – a long and experimental process which has culminated into a proper framework over the last year. The entire Re-Sound program followed the protocol of weekly reports by team members, who shared their progress and limitations through these documents. This was significant in ensuring the smooth functioning of the program and ironing out difficulties immediately as they appeared. In addition an end-of-the-year music test was conducted by music professionals Adhir Ghosh and Chayan Adhikari to measure the progress – both musical and life skills – of the students through the Re-Sound program. Since they have both been engaging with the music program over the years they were also able to notice the overall progress the children had made in the last year. The music test was successful and the evaluators reported a significant increase in confidence among the students in most centres and were able to suggest concrete recommendations for improvement in the program for the next year. The program monitoring schema, although sometimes an arduous and exhaustive enterprise, has led to significant improvements in the Music Basti program and this in itself is an important achievement made in this year.

of students said theyhave learned how to work

better in a group.

of students now feel confident performing

on stage in front ofan audience.

of students said they wouldbe able to continue learning

music if Music Basti wereunable to continue

its program.

86%

20%

95%

5.2 Challenges and KEY OBSERVATIONS Structural Problems in engaging with resource-weak Centers for childrenand youth at risk: One of the biggest challenges confronting any program (arts-based or otherwise) wishing to engage with rehabilitative residential child welfare centers and community based organizations is having to negotiate with the structural challenges of such organizations. In residential based centers the staff or caregivers that are responsible for the primary care (food, shelter, clothing) of children at-risk confront multiple and quotidian challenges in their work and depending on the structural strength of their organisation this can either lead to a hindrance affecting the success of an add-on music program; inversely, a well organised and resource rich center can aid and enrich a music curriculum such as Music Basti’s Re-Sound program to a great extent.

CONTD..

*50 participants surveyed as part of the annual evaluation.**40 participants surveyed as part of the annual evaluation.***49 participants surveyed as part of the annual evaluation.

Photos: Concert by 'Corn Potato String Band' at Vidya community centre, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase 1 (August 2013). Photo by: Harleen Sidhu


Structural Problems in engaging with resource-weak Centers for children and youth at risk: One of the biggest challenges confronting any program (arts-based or otherwise) wishing to engage with rehabilitative residential child welfare centers and community based organizations is having to negotiate with the structural challenges of such organizations. In residential based centers the staff or caregivers that are responsible for the primary care (food, shelter, clothing) of children at-risk confront multiple and quotidian challenges in their work and depending on the structural strength of their organisation this can either lead to a hindrance affecting the success of an add-on music program; inversely, a well organised and resource rich center can aid and enrich a music curriculum such as Music Basti’s Re-Sound program to a great extent. Since Music Basti engages with different types of organisations the degree of positive results is clearly reflected in this disparity of the structural conditions of these residential centers. Thus, centers run by the Vidya (at Okhla and Dwarka) having slightly more resources available to them than the centers run by the Dil Se campaign (Okhla and Mehrauli) seem to provide a more suitable setting for the music instruction leading to a more effective program. Then again a center such as Tarang Kala Kendra (Kapashera, Gurgaon) seems to provide a far more ideal setting for the success of a music program than the community centers run by Dil Se. The reason for this is perhaps that unlike Dil Se, Tarang Kala Kendra is not a

rehabilitative home but a center specifically created for cultural empowerment. Hence, the much needed atmosphere and resources that are available at Tarang cannot be matched by a rehabilitative program such as the Dil Se campaign – although it must be reiterated that the condition in the homes run by Vidya are far more amenable for cultural training programs than are the centers run by the Dil Se campaign. In the year 2013-14, the structural weaknesses of the Dil Se centers in particular affected some aspects of the music program: it was found, for example, that a disorganized time schedule in the centers resulted in children who had initially signed up as part of the music group to be inconsistent in their attendance. This naturally meant that the MB team instructors were at a loss for how to go through the entire curriculum planned at the beginning of the cycle and measure its progress through the course of 8-9 months. Even where some consistency had been established, at times such as in the Vidya center at Okhla, rooms of sufficient size (to accommodate at least 40 children) were not always available for practice. At the same center there was no proper way of storing musical instruments and they would get damaged. On a few occasions instructors could not access the instruments, as the staff that had the keys to the almirah in which they were stored were not present at the Home. Most significantly however, team leaders especially those working at the Dil Se Campaign’s Khushi Home in Okhla complained about a complete lack of communication between themselves and the center’s staff – instructors were always at a loss for gauging the correct times to conduct their weekly sessions and often even when instructors did indeed manage to communicate with the Home staff the message of a scheduled music class would not be conveyed to the students – so that when the instructors arrived at the appointed hour the concerned children could not be found at the Home or were engaged in some other activity. This lack of communication was a major problem when coordinating

Since Music Basti engages with different types of organisations the degree of positive results is clearly reflected in this disparity of the structural conditions of these residential centers. Thus, centers run by the Vidya (at Okhla and Dwarka) having slightly more resources available to them than the centers run by the Dil Se campaign (Okhla and Mehrauli) seem to provide a more suitable setting for the music instruction leading to a more effective program. Then again a center such as Tarang Kala Kendra (Kapashera, Gurgaon) seems to provide a far more ideal setting for the success of a music program than the community centers run by Dil Se. The reason for this is perhaps that unlike Dil Se, Tarang Kala Kendra is not a rehabilitative home but a center specifically created for cultural empowerment. Hence, the much needed atmosphere and resources that are available at Tarang cannot be matched by a rehabilitative program such as the Dil Se campaign – although it must be reiterated that the condition in the homes run by Vidya are far more amenable for cultural training programs than are the centers run by the Dil Se campaign. In the year 2013-14, the structural weakness-es of the Dil Se centers in particular affected some aspects of the music program: it was found, for exam-ple, that a disorganized time schedule in the centers resulted in children who had initially signed up as part of the music group to be inconsistent in their atten-dance. This naturally meant that the MB team instruc-tors were at a loss for how to go through the entire curriculum planned at the beginning of the cycle and measure its progress through the course of 8-9 months. Even where some consistency had been established, at times such as in the Vidya center at Okhla, rooms of sufficient size (to accommodate at least 40 children) were not always available for practice. At the same center there was no proper way of storing musical instruments and they would get damaged. On a few occasions instructors could not access the instruments,

as the staff that had the keys to the almirah in which they were stored were not present at the Home. Most significantly however, team leaders especially those working at the Dil Se Campaign’s Khushi Home in Okhla complained about a complete lack of communication between themselves and the center’s staff – instructors were always at a loss for gauging the correct times to conduct their weekly sessions and often even when instructors did indeed manage to communicate with the Home staff the message of a scheduled music class would not be conveyed to the students – so that when the instructors arrived at the appointed hour the concerned children could not be found at the Home or were engaged in some other activity. This lack of communication was a major problem when coordinat-ing external public performances.

• Team Training: Most team members thorough-ly enjoyed and gained from the MIMA music training workshops and those conducted by music professionals (Adhir Ghosh and Chayan Adhikari). A few members suggested that the technical aspects of the training could be prolonged and perhaps a few more fun exercises could be taught in the Hindi language. The main areas in which the training seems to have enriched the team members understanding of music pedagogy is: in realising the main components of the musical structure that need to be understood separate-ly and taught together – melody, pitch and rhythm; learning how to teach music to a group through fun and relevant exercises; learning how to teach music through words, language, visual aids and stories.

• Curriculum Development: An analysis of the teacher weekly reports reveals that most instructors implemented similar activities and strategies to teach the basic elements of music education. The popular

external public performances.

Team Training: Most team members thoroughly enjoyed and gained from the MIMA music training workshops and those conducted by music professionals (Adhir Ghosh and Chayan Adhikari). A few members suggested that the technical aspects of the training could be prolonged and perhaps a few more fun exercises could be taught in the Hindi language. The main areas in which the training seems to have enriched the team members understanding of music pedagogy is: in realising the main components of the musical structure that need to be understood separately and taught together – melody, pitch and rhythm; learning how to teach music to a group through fun and relevant exercises; learning how to teach music through words, language, visual aids and stories.

Curriculum Development: An analysis of the teacher weekly reports reveals that most instructors implemented similar activities and strategies to teach the basic elements of music education. The popular exercises were: the ladder notation exercise for teaching the sargam, variations on the sargam, Vee fi fo fum, the Hokey Pokey, the ‘Chai paani doodh cheeni’ song taught by Adhir and Chayan, song and poem writing exercises, instrument showcasing, name game (step-rhythm exercise) and breathing exercises (chanting the word ‘om’ or sustaining the note sa). The ladder exercise, Vee fi fo fum and the name game seemed to have been particularly effective. In a few cases – again in the Dil Se homes in Mehrauli and Okhla – there was some difficulty in abiding by a well-planned curriculum and it seems that in Umeed Home for Boys, classes would soon devolve into informal conversations about favourite music and the intricacies of guitar and percussion instruments. Team instructors at these homes complained at the lack

of a formal curriculum/lesson book and the lack of knowledge about the state of affairs in other Homes with other teams. They felt a greater conversation between teams might have led to a greater sharing of ideas. On the whole, while there was a significant advancement in the development of a curriculum that could be universally applied, there is need for more effort in achieving a concrete framework. However, this is a long process that can only be remedied through continued work with the children as every year gives the Music Basti team more experience and importantly a new understanding of the best and most effective exercises.

Student Feedback: Most student feedback suggests a positive review of team performances. However, girls at the Dil Se Campaign’s Khushi Home complained that the classes were irregular and shared their irritation at the change in teachers every year – it should be noted that this was the center in which the Music Basti team members had most difficulty in communicating with the staff who worked at the center and this is perhaps led to quite a number ofcancellations. It is also possible that the children who shared their dissatisfaction at the irregularity of classes were not informed that a music class would be held at an appointed time leading them to some other activity when in fact the class was held on that given day – for example, the teachers who engaged with this center shared in their feedback that on many occasions some of the more enthusiastic children could not be found at the Home (or were still at evening school) at the time of the class. Students mostly enjoyed the fact that the music programs were a joint venture where they learned the intricacies of music elements and wrote songs together. They also shared their pleasure of performing in public and said that it had given them more confidence in being able to perform in other areas of their lives.

exercises were: the ladder notation exercise for teach-ing the sargam, variations on the sargam, Vee fi fo fum, the Hokey Pokey, the ‘Chai paani doodh cheeni’ song taught by Adhir and Chayan, song and poem writing exercises, instrument showcasing, name game (step-rhythm exercise) and breathing exercises (chant-ing the word ‘om’ or sustaining the note sa). The ladder exercise, Vee fi fo fum and the name game seemed to have been particularly effective. In a few cases – again in the Dil Se homes in Mehrauli and Okhla – there was some difficulty in abiding by a well-planned curriculum and it seems that in Umeed Home for Boys, classes would soon devolve into informal conversations about favourite music and the intricacies of guitar and percus-sion instruments. Team instructors at these homes complained at the lack of a formal curriculum/lesson book and the lack of knowledge about the state of affairs in other Homes with other teams. They felt a greater conversation between teams might have led to a greater sharing of ideas. On the whole, while there was a significant advancement in the development of a curriculum that could be universally applied, there is need for more effort in achieving a concrete frame-work. However, this is a long process that can only be remedied through continued work with the children as every year gives the Music Basti team more experience and importantly a new understanding of the best and most effective exercises.

• Student Feedback: Most student feedback suggests a positive review of team performances. However, girls at the Dil Se Campaign’s Khushi Home complained that the classes were irregular and shared their irritation at the change in teachers every year – it should be noted that this was the center in which the Music Basti team members had most difficulty in communicating with the staff who worked at the center and this is perhaps led to quite a number of cancella-

tions. It is also possible that the children who shared their dissatisfaction at the irregularity of classes were not informed that a music class would be held at an appointed time leading them to some other activity when in fact the class was held on that given day – for example, the teachers who engaged with this center shared in their feedback that on many occasions some of the more enthusiastic children could not be found at the Home (or were still at evening school) at the time of the class. Students mostly enjoyed the fact that the music programs were a joint venture where they learned the intricacies of music elements and wrote songs together. They also shared their pleasure of performing in public and said that it had given them more confidence in being able to perform in other areas of their lives.

• Funding challenges: At present, Music Basti does not have mechanisms for ensuring donor account-ability in cases when donors who have pledged support do not meet their financial commitments. The "ReSound" one-year program was conceptualised by IDEA for April 2013 - March 2014, with the pledged funding of 30 lakhs from OML Pvt. Ltd., however, only less than 30% of this was received by the end of the year. This greatly impacted the planning and desired outcomes of the program, resulting in IDEA not being able to retain full-time staff, delaying salaries and payments to staff and teachers, as well as scaling down activities with students. Midyear, fundraising was also extremely challenging for the on-going program activi-ties. With the support of volunteers and the patience and commitment of the Music Basti staff team, small grants of additional funding were obtained to continue the program and meet the outcomes designed for ReSound.

5.3 Recommendations for ImprovementDealing with structural limitations


Dealing with structural limitations at the Home: As has been observed above, the disparity in the success of the music programs depends to a large extent on the nature of the setting in which the music workshops are held. It has been noticed that at a cultural center such as Tarang (in Kapashera, Gurgaon) the program is more effective than in the Home setting of the Vidya and Dil Se. There are some notable reasons for this: being a cultural center Tarang is more amenable to a music program and the staff is pro-active in aiding and collaborating in the music program. For example, the staff of their own initiative purchased a harmonium for melody practice and percussion instruments for rhythm exercises. They also implemented a rule whereby students could fill a form out to borrow instruments and take them home for practice. Tarang also organised a follow-up session with the children to recap what had been taught by the MB music instructors that week. In addition to all this they also involved the music program into their own cultural activities such as the children’s day play. Most

effectively, Tarang prepared a list of children who had been enrolled in the music program thus ensuring a consistent attendance in the music programs (of course, at the end of the day, attendance in class – even at Tarang – remained a question of the child’s own willingness to attend). The only way of recreating such a setting in the centers for children at-risk is to create a music group at each center with an upper limit of 10-15 students who are keen learning music. This will ensure that a set curriculum can be created, implemented to the satisfaction of the instructor and evaluated accordingly. In the absence of this policy, large classes are held with constantly changing mix of students hindering the ability of the instructor to teach the elements of the music in any significant measure and in a way that would be relevant to the children’s lives (instructors have also complained about their inability to control such large numbers of children in one workshop). If, as is expected, many children sign up for the class on the first day perhaps the instructors could conduct a quick interview and audition with the students to ascertain their ability and their degree of earnestness. Lastly, as far as issues with the Home staff (mostly in Dil Se Homes) persist, this issue cannot be resolved apart from a mutual understanding from both parties regarding their expectations from each other. There is an urgent need to recreate the experience of a cultural center in the residential spaces so that the workshops are taken

As has been observed above, the disparity in the success of the music programs depends to a large extent on the nature of the setting in which the music workshops are held. It has been noticed that at a cultural center such as Tarang (in Kapashera, Gurgaon) the program is more effective than in the community or home setting of Vidya and Dil Se. There are some notable reasons for this: being a cultural and arts learning center Tarang is more amenable to a music program and the staff is pro-active in aiding and collaborating in the music program. For example, the staff of their own initiative purchased a harmonium for melody practice and percussion instruments for rhythm exercises. They also implemented a rule whereby students could fill a form out to borrow instruments and take them home for practice. Tarang also organised a follow-up session with the children to recap what had been taught by the MB music instruc-tors that week. In addition to all this they also involved the music program into their own cultural activities such as the children’s day play. Most effectively,

Tarang prepared a list of children who had been enrolled in the music program thus ensuring a consis-tent attendance in the music programs (of course, at the end of the day, attendance in class – even at Tarang – remained a question of the child’s own willingness to attend). The only way of recreating such a setting in the centers for children at-risk is to create a music group at each center with an upper limit of 10-15 students who are keen learning music. This will ensure that a set curriculum can be created, imple-mented to the satisfaction of the instructor and evaluated accordingly. In the absence of this policy, larger classes are held with constantly changing mix of students hindering the ability of the instructor to teach the elements of the music in any significant measure and in a way that would be relevant to the children’s lives (instructors have also complained about their inability to control such large numbers of children in one workshop). If, as is expected, many children sign up for the class on the first day perhaps the instruc-tors could conduct a quick interview and audition with the students to ascertain their ability and their degree of earnestness. There is an urgent need to recreate the experience of a cultural center in the residential spaces so that the workshops are taken seriously. It should be understood that for a few hours on a certain day a particular room in the residential center would be a ‘music room’ and the workshops should be conducted there with the same priorities as any other

This report has been an attempt to delineate the philosophy by which Music Basti was founded in 2008, how it operates to this day, present an overview of its methodologies of evaluation and lastly, provide an empirical analysis of its work in the year 2013-14. This report is intended to contribute to the resources available to organisa-tions and initiatives that aim to work with children and youth at-risk anywhere in the world. By advocating its belief in a ‘community led music approach’ this report has aimed to also shift the paradigms through which the upliftment of marginalised groups – especially children – should be carried out. In this way the report itself is a community document aiming to share its vision of change with a broader fraternity of concerned citizens so that we may progress as a community of equal beings with shared rights and a shared claim on the future. More specifically, as part of its concerted efforts in the last year, this report represents the culmination of a program instituted in the summer of 2013 which aimed to develop methods of evaluating art based programs and is a decided move forward in developing a concrete curriculum of music education which incorporates the tools to social emancipation.

CONCLUSION

class. Some adequate means for storing simple instruments like percussions and guitars should be arranged at the Homes.

Team Training: As suggested by some team members a slightly more prolonged music-training period may provide a much stronger foundation for the music program. The benefits of such an exercise can already be seen at a number of the Homes where the training exercises were successfully implemented. Team members especially mentioned that a little more stress on group song writing exercises could have benefitted their pedagogy. They also mentioned that training in a few more exercises in Hindi would have helped. In addition to the technical side of the music training period there is another issue which is of importance: in teaching teams that consisted of up to 3 members there seemed to be difference in approach to pedagogical attitude. One member mentioned that she did not approve of her colleague’s ‘disciplinary’ approach while recommending her own friendly, ‘elder sister’ strategy of reaching out to the students. These differences will only cause a hindrance to the effective transmission of musical and life skills knowl-edge. Music Basti will need to incorporate a segment on ‘how to approach children at-risk’ so that there is a clarity of pedagogical and attitudinal vision. Perhaps an old teacher can mentor the new ones into this—

teaching them a bit about what to expect in the centers and how to tackle the challenges of working with children at-risk. This can be done through training exercises as well.

Curriculum Development: With regard to the demand from a few teacher-members for a more concrete lesson plan: Music Basti has been working on developing this for a few years and by the year 2014-15 a more concrete document should be avail-able for use. Since there is a great disparity in the condition of the different community centers, and a few members have complained about not having enough of a forum to share ideas about exercises and conquering challenges faced in the community centers, there needs to be some space opened up in the monthly meetings to meet this need. This will also be a good way for instructors to map their progress vis-à-vis the other teams. The lesson plan to be imple-mented will also help different team members to be on the same page and progress together towards similar goals and achievements. The rough lesson plan will also ensure that the students will not face a complete break between old and new dispensations of instructors – something they have suggested be improved, in their feedback forms.

Music Basti has always operated with the belief that at-risk children and youth have every right to enjoy their childhood and exercise their self-determination through a dignified and healthy development towards mature adulthood. Through an engagement with community led music projects, at-risk children and youth have opportunities to create and participate in projects that help them explore their voices and promote their right of expression. The activities of the program help the youth to build skills in leadership, communication, confidence, teamwork and collaboration. The friendships and collaborations that the children make with older musicians and volunteer-professionals – who acting as role models – expose the children to different walks of life, each with a different set of required skills, enhance the child’s knowledge and understanding of available opportunities in the world, opening up new horizons for their possible futures. Music Basti projects also simultaneously work to nuance the child’s consciousness on child rights, especially in terms of their right to education and expression.

Music Basti finds its inspiration for the use of music in social upliftment from the many and diverse humanitarian contexts in which it has had a positive influence. For instance, music has been utilized to promote non-discrimination (The Resonant Community in Norway), to promote united international action against poverty (Live8 concerts held internationally), to promote economic sustenance and livelihoods (El Sistema in Venezuela), to promote human rights (in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, USA), and to improve emotional and social wellbeing (Sound It Out, UK). Developing linkages between the outcomes of such kinds of programs in relation to improved health is an area that requires more attention and research – in part, Music Basti’s aim through its activities and year round reports is to contribute to this paucity of information by developing a data set vis-à-vis the problems confronting children ‘at-risk’, state the challenges of working with such demographic groups and provide an analysis of successful methods that could be applied to eliminate the barriers to political mobility for children and youth who have been marginalised to the peripheries of our shared social life.

Music Basti has a twofold focus: to provide music instruction together with exposure to different types of art forms and advocate for a change in program-models of rehabilitation. The latter agenda is connected to Music Basti’s vision of change which proposes that the pragmatic fulfillment of our aspirations need to take into account not just the dissemination of ‘basic skills’ but also creativity,

ANNEX A: This report provides a brief history of the founding philosophy of Music Basti, a description of its paradigms of evaluation, an empirical analysis of its activities in the year 2013-14 while charting out the chalenges that were faced as a matter of course and recommends measures for their redressal in the future. The crux of the report analyses Re-Sound, a project Music Bastiembarked upon in the summer of 2013, and was constitutive of the teaching curricula for the rest of the working year.


MUSIC BASTI PROJECT BACKGROUND

Music Basti has always operated with the belief that at-risk children and youth have every right to enjoy their childhood and exercise their self-determination through a dignified and healthy development towards mature adulthood. Through an engagement with community led music projects, at-risk children and youth have opportunities to create and participate in projects that help them explore their voices and promote their right of expression. The activities of the program help the youth to build skills in leadership, communication, confidence, teamwork and collaboration. The friendships and collaborations that the children make with older musicians and volunteer-professionals – who acting as role models – expose the children to different walks of life, each with a different set of required skills, enhance the child’s knowledge and understanding of available opportunities in the world, opening up new horizons for their possible futures. Music Basti projects also simultaneously work to nuance the child’s consciousness on child rights, especially in terms of their right to education and expression.

Music Basti finds its inspiration for the use of music in social upliftment from the many and diverse humanitarian contexts in which it has had a positive influence. For instance, music has been utilized to promote non-discrimination (The Resonant Community in Norway), to promote united international action against poverty (Live8 concerts held internationally), to promote economic sustenance and livelihoods (El Sistema in Venezuela), to promote human rights (in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, USA), and to improve emotional and social wellbeing (Sound It Out, UK). Developing linkages between the outcomes of such kinds of programs in relation to improved health is an area that requires more attention and research – in part, Music Basti’s aim through its activities and year round reports is to contribute to this paucity of information by developing a data set vis-à-vis the problems confronting children ‘at-risk’, state the challenges of working with such demographic groups and provide an analysis of successful methods that could be applied to eliminate the barriers to political mobility for children and youth who have been marginalised to the peripheries of our shared social life.

Music Basti has a twofold focus: to provide music instruction together with exposure to different types of art forms and advocate for a change in program-models of rehabilitation. The latter agenda is connected to Music Basti’s vision of change which proposes that the pragmatic fulfillment of our aspirations need to take into account not just the dissemination of ‘basic skills’ but also creativity,

Photo: Concert by 'Lucy Swann and Droolian" at Ummeed AmanGhar, Dil Se Campaign, Mehrauli (2010). Photo by: Mohit Kapil

critical thinking and an inquisitive spirit. Music Basti purports that education should never be just the promulgation of utilitarian tools, but a platform for children to be able to explore the world and its material with the approach that they feel comfortable and excited by. In this way the use of music as a tool for change and upliftment expands the existing trends in healthcare; hence, music has the ability to cater not only to everyday healthcare concerns vis-à-vis children, such as developmental disabilities , communication and emotional expressivity in children who have experienced abuse and fostering resilience in early childhood but also develop a social network that transcends the boundaries of class and generational divisions.

It is through a community-based approach that Music Basti has attempted to engender a larger change in societal attitudes. Music Basti has thus, through the years, reached out to over 500 at-risk children and youth, covering over 5 communities in Delhi with the help of the action and voluntary engagement of over 200 musicians and artists. Since children’s development is the outcome of community values – its shared norms and practices – it is important that as our community progresses it also becomes inclusive of the multiple voices that constitute our shared spaces. Music Basti uses a ‘Community Arts Approach’, as part of a conscious effort to work with and enter into a dialogue with children through collaborative arts-based activities and projects. Through these activities, strong bonds are built with positive thinking adult artists – friends – whose several achievements in art and intellectual activities foster enthusiastic and motivating value beliefs in the children who pool resources together as equals. Through such a communal activity, which is a learning process for both the adult and child participant, a sense of shared community is created especially on occasions of joint participation in public showcases and performances. Creating this support system is often critical for the promotion of positive attitudes and beliefs among children, in the absence of a stable family atmosphere and family income, housing, healthcare, legal protection and nutrition. These activities work to nurture the potential that exists in all communities to be creative and to find a voice to express their concerns through the use of art forms.

Over the years that Music Basti has been active, it has been hindered in its objective by the lack of any existing evidence pertaining to tools to evaluate the success of art-based programs dealing with upliftment. This has led Music Basti to develop its own evaluation schemas and offer its own methods to do the same. The development of this information order is just one of the ways in which we have committed ourselves to intervene in and help to expand the existing models of rehabilitation. This annual report is hence, a part of this documentation effort and we take this as an opportunity to reflect on our year-long activities. It is hoped that this report will be helpful to other programs involved with the upliftment of children and will contribute to the resource pool that is available for such initiatives.

Confidence

Creativity

Communication

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critical thinking and an inquisitive spirit. Music Basti purports that education should never be just the promulgation of utilitarian tools, but a platform for children to be able to explore the world and its material with the approach that they feel comfortable and excited by. In this way the use of music as a tool for change and upliftment expands the existing trends in healthcare; hence, music has the ability to cater not only to everyday healthcare concerns vis-à-vis children, such as developmental disabilities , communication and emotional expressivity in children who have experienced abuse and fostering resilience in early childhood but also develop a social network that transcends the boundaries of class and generational divisions.

It is through a community-based approach that Music Basti has attempted to engender a larger change in societal attitudes. Music Basti has thus, through the years, reached out to over 500 at-risk children and youth, covering over 5 communities in Delhi with the help of the action and voluntary engagement of over 200 musicians and artists. Since children’s development is the outcome of community values – its shared norms and practices – it is important that as our community progresses it also becomes inclusive of the multiple voices that constitute our shared spaces. Music Basti uses a ‘Community Arts Approach’, as part of a conscious effort to work with and enter into a dialogue with children through collaborative arts-based activities and projects. Through these activities, strong bonds are built with positive thinking adult artists – friends – whose several achievements in art and intellectual activities foster enthusiastic and motivating value beliefs in the children who pool resources together as equals. Through such a communal activity, which is a learning process for both the adult and child participant, a sense of shared community is created especially on occasions of joint participation in public showcases and performances. Creating this support system is often critical for the promotion of positive attitudes and beliefs among children, in the absence of a stable family atmosphere and family income, housing, healthcare, legal protection and nutrition. These activities work to nurture the potential that exists in all communities to be creative and to find a voice to express their concerns through the use of art forms.

Over the years that Music Basti has been active, it has been hindered in its objective by the lack of any existing evidence pertaining to tools to evaluate the success of art-based programs dealing with upliftment. This has led Music Basti to develop its own evaluation schemas and offer its own methods to do the same. The development of this information order is just one of the ways in which we have committed ourselves to intervene in and help to expand the existing models of rehabilitation. This annual report is hence, a part of this documentation effort and we take this as an opportunity to reflect on our year-long activities. It is hoped that this report will be helpful to other programs involved with the upliftment of children and will contribute to the resource pool that is available for such initiatives.

Collaboration

ANNEX B: Annual Activities Overview

MAY & JUN 13’

JUL 13’

1. Creation of Delhi based team for management and development of the program. 2. Strategic planning and partnerships development for activities with children and musicians.3. Development of an NCR wide recruitment strategy for musicians to be completed.4. Creation of film & media partners for documentation.5. Identification and selection of up to 100 children and youth for participation in activities to be completed.

APR 13’

1. Applications process, auditions and selection of 20 musicians completed. 2. Development of tools program content, monitoring and evaluation completed.3. Planning and selection of Partners for 1 weeklong specialized community music teachers training for selected 20 artists (August 2013 tentatively).4. Launch of Music Basti’s new website.

1. Orientation for selected 20 musicians.2. Orientation and meetings with selected students and participants at selected partners’ implementation centers. 3. Completion specialized community music teachers training for selected 20 artists (August 2013 tentatively).

AUG 13’

1. Placement of music teachers/trainers at centres for children and/or youth for first of the two teaching phases, i.e., August – November 2013.2. Supervision and documentation of teachers/ trainers activities as per the Music Content Framework.

SEP &NOV 13’

1. Implementation of music activities by music teachers/trainers at centres for children and adolescents. 2. Implementation of mid-year assessment for Research in November.3. Review of program content and methods.

1. Continued implementation music activities by music teachers/trainers at centres for children and adolescents.2. Implementation of final-year assessment in April 2014.3. Completion of annual ReSound students concert.4. Completion of documentation activities.

DEC 13’APR 14’

Photo: Workshop at Kilkari Aman Ghar, Dil Se Campaign, Kashmere Gate (2009). Photo by: Shiv Ahuja

DONORS AND GRANTSApril 2013 - March 2014

ANNEX C: PARTNERS

for ReSound program implementation (July 2013 – April 2014):

We are deeply grateful to our donors in 2013-14, including OML Pvt. Ltd., EFICOR, Cornerstone on Demand Foundation, Global Family Care Network, Andrew Dubber, LeanPub and "The 360 Deal", Vishal Dadlani, Balaji Films, and Sony Music Pvt. Ltd.

Music Basti activities are implemented with at-risk children and adolescents in low-income and resource poor communities, fees for the same are not charged to students or partner organisations.

All financial support is therefore fundraised for student learning material and instruments; staff and teachers salaries; teachers training and capacity-de-velopment programs; evaluation and administration costs of the program.

1. Aman Biradari and Center for Equity Studies’ “Dil Se Campaign” residential school centers in Mehrauli for boys (16), and Okhla Industrial Area Phase 1 for girls (22).

2. Vidya (Integrated Development for Youth and Adults) community centers in Pappankalan resettle-ment colony in Dwarka Sector 3 (20), and Okhla Industrial Area Phase 1 (40).

3. Tarang Kala Kendra, cultural learning center of the Society for Labour and Development in Kapashera (20).

Partners for training of teachers (July 2013):MIMA Music Inc. New York based international NGO that hosts song-writing programs at-risk youth and produces live concerts. Over the last 10 years, MIMA has hosted programs in over 25 countries and created songs with thousands of students.

Partners

ANNEX D: List of staff and teachers

ReSound program staff, teachers and volunteers:

1. Faith Gonsalves, Projects Director2. Adhir Ghosh, Program Coordinator3. Chayan Adhikari, Program Coordinator4. Harleen Sidhu, Media Coordinator5. Abhishek Sekhri, Teacher6. Amna Majeed, Teacher7. Anirudh Varma, Teacher8. Ankur Prakash, Teacher9. Ashim Bery, Teacher10. Ishaan Gandhi, Teacher11. Ipshita Roy, Teacher12. Kamakshi Khanna, Teacher13. Pakhi Sinha, Teacher14. Prateek Kuhad, Teacher15. Rohan Patankar, Teacher16. Shaheen Salmani, Teacher17. Shantanu Chaudhary, Teacher18. Tarana Marwah, Teacher19. Yugank Mishra, Teacher20. Abhishek Mathur, Volunteer21. Asad Ali, Volunteer22. Laura Grime, Volunteer23. Denny George, Volunteer24. Himanshu Bablani, Volunteer25. Appurva Rekhi, Volunteer26. Ankit Singh, Volunteer27. Aparna Dubey, Volunteer28. Nolan McFadden, Volunteer29. Pranav Pahwa, Volunteer30. Pattie Gonsalves, Volunteer

Photo: Workshop with Clowns Without Borders at Ummeed Aman Ghar, Dil Se Campaign, Mehrauli (March 2012). Photo by: Vidyun Sabhaney

Documents

MUSIC BASTI ANNUAL REPORt 2013-14 BASTI ANNUAL REPORt 2013-14 [email protected] 91 - 011- 46524123. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... Society for Labour and Development’s Tarang …