I worked with Doosra Dashak (literally, the second decade), an NGO based in Rajasthan, as a part of my final thesis project at the National Institute of Design. The NGO works in the field of providing holistic education to boys and girls in the age group 11 to 20 years at the grass roots level in different parts of rural Rajasthan.
My project was aimed at creating educational booklets, which will be used as teaching aids at the residential educational camps organised by DD. There was a need to re-look at the learning material provided to adolescents in the camps as it was failing to appeal to most first generation learners.
A comparative study of the existing teaching and learning materials was done to identify its strengths and shortcomings. Along with this the context in which these materials would be used was also looked at. I conducted workshops with officials and teachers of DD, where all the material available for Social Studies (the chosen subject) was reviewed. There were discussions with the teachers as well as the target group, and their feedback was recorded. I also visited residential camps in different remote parts of Rajasthan, doing a visual study of the field scenario to improve the visual depiction of subjects. Various illustrations, visual styles and methods were explored. Field-testing was used to pick the most appropriate style. As this was a participatory process, the target audience felt more in control of their books and hence their own education.
Considering the fund limitations of DD, the idea was to develop a sustainable system for producing the booklets with locally available resources and to develop a design that could be followed, for all future booklets for use at DD. Rigid formats were avoided for the inner pages, but the covers of the booklets were similar to each other to provide a common language, creating uniformity while leaving scope for creativity. Three booklets with three diverse approaches were developed to serve as a reference for all future booklets.
The material that was redesigned and developed for Doosra Dashak. From a system of covers that help in identifying booklets of a subject to cheap production was considerd. Some booklets were co-created with the adolecscents.
Adolescents at a Residential Camp organised by Doosra Dashak where they are taught basics of Math, Science, Hindi, Civics, Reproductive Health etc.
At a workshop testing materials generated.
A typical day at the girls residential education camp.
A library centre. A typical scenario and context where the books could be used.
The material that existed in Doosra Dashak which was redesigned and re-edited for adolescents.
Some drawings on balanced diet, safe drinking water and malaria created by adolescents at camps during a workshop.
Different illustration styles tried for different books.
Simple easy to follow guidelines were created for anyone who might want to further add into these materials. The covers had a certain format while the content insiade can be recreated to accomodate the diversity and flexibility which these booklets will have to address in such a context.
