OXYGEN
Parikrma Oxygen
India’s first outdoor and nature school for children from underserved families – Parikrma Oxygen addresses four critical global crisis and over 10 SDGs:
Education in nature and the outdoors
Addressing early childhood trauma with a fresh academic approach
Increases skill-building and job opportunities
Land regeneration and water conservation
Climate change preparedness and community development
With over two decades of experience, we now address global challenges with a replicable model that can be adopted, applied and assessed for better outcomes.
Parikrma Oxygen
India’s first outdoor and nature school for children from underserved families – Parikrma Oxygen addresses four critical global crisis and over 10 SDGs:
Education in nature and the outdoors
Addressing early childhood trauma with a fresh academic approach
Increases skill-building and job opportunities
Land regeneration and water conservation
Climate change preparedness and community development
With over two decades of experience, we now address global challenges with a replicable model that can be adopted, applied and assessed for better outcomes.
Key challenges addressed by Oxygen
Land regeneration and sustainability: The over 10 acres of Parikrma Oxygen is dry scrubland that has degenerated. The land has no trees or water sources within the property and remains parched. By applying permaculture practices, scientific tree-planting modules, and community-aiding water conservation techniques, we are bringing this land back to life.
This project will involve tree planting, water conservation, and building a food forest and a lake while leaving a larger parcel of the land wild – all of which will contribute to the creation of a thriving habitat for wild species. This is not just about land regeneration, but about making a significant positive impact on the environment.
Open spaces, nature and more play: Our children come from homes in over 100 slums across Bengaluru city. Their parents are mainly daily wage labourers with average monthly incomes from INR 4000 to 6000. A typical household in the slums has an average of five people living together in about 100 square feet of space with no attached toilet or running water. Our schools, which are rented spaces, lack play areas. All of 11.5 acres of open land, Parikrma Oxygen, under the Parikrma Unbound initiative, is a temporary residential school offering no “walls” but just loads of native trees, ponds and outdoor activities and nature-inspired education to all our 1800 children and for government school children from across the state.
Counselling and mental health: Many children from underserved backgrounds exhibit suppressed anger and resentment, impacting academics and choices in life. Many are often nervous, restless, and confused. Oxygen will house 24/7 counselling and mental health care as a primary facility. Our professional child counsellors and psychologists will counsel children with behavioural issues one-on-one in a non-threatening environment, also using nature and outdoor therapy.
Growing unemployment and low-skill development
Climate change and preparedness: Children and women face the brunt of climate change the most. It’s time to educate and enable those facing the crisis first-hand to understand better and prepare for the future. Solar-powered Oxygen will be a playground for ideas and models developed by our children for sustainable living and practices.
COVID-19 and the transition to a new model in education: Parikrma believes that wholesome education aims to build children’s capacity to comprehend and be prepared for the challenges of socio-economic issues, politics, and the environmental crisis. Education must also be a process of reflection, a place of intellectual inquiry where one learns how to make sense of joy, connectedness, and social responsibility to fellow humans and other than humans.
The curriculum developed is in line with the government’s prescribed syllabus but goes beyond textbooks and examinations that the Indian education system is plagued with. What makes it different is how it is delivered, with more project work, exploration, and experimentation by the students and teachers.
Local community development and conserving culture: We will be working and learning from the local communities in the area. Right from understanding persisting cultures, aiding heritage conservation to collaborating with farmers – we will be supporting the local farmers through workshops and knowledge sharing, thereby enhancing their livelihoods and preserving their cultural heritage.
WHY PARIKRMA OXYGEN?
Crisis 1:
Our children come from homes in over 100 slums spread across Bengaluru city. Their parents are mainly daily wage labourers with average monthly incomes from Rs 4000 to 6000. A typical household in the slums has an average of five people living together in about 100 square feet of space with no attached toilet or running water.
All Parikrma schools are rented spaces close to the slums to ensure the children are regular and can walk to school. Unfortunately, we cannot afford to buy or rent large infrastructure. Hence, most of our schools are either residential houses or small establishments converted into schools – cramped classrooms with poor ventilation and a lack of open spaces. There is no play area either. The claustrophobia is real.
All 12 acres of open land, Parikrma Oxygen, under the Parikrma Unbound initiative, will witness children from each of our schools spend a few weeks at the farm around the year.
Oxygen is a temporary residential school offering no “walls” but just loads of native trees, ponds and outdoor activities and nature-inspired education to all our 1800 children.
We want our children to be close to the land as their ancestors have been. This is the genesis of creating a generation of youth who are sensitive to the environment and care for it.
Crisis 2:
With 98% of the fathers being alcoholics, the children witness much domestic abuse and violence.
With 92% of the families having some family member in jail, the children also experience fear and threats from the authorities. Children exhibit suppressed anger and resentment, impacting academics and choices in life. Many are often nervous, restless, and confused. The lack of public space in the slums leaves children confined to playing alongside large open drains that are both dangerous and unhygienic. Many studies highlight how the physical environment influences people’s attitudes and behaviour. We see the validity of such studies in our day-to-day operations in our 180sq ft classrooms.
Parikrma Oxygen will house 24/7 counselling and mental health care as a primary facility on its premises
Children, for the first time, will be introduced to new sounds and interactions: surrounded by trees and nature sounds as they watch wild species do their business. We believe that nature is the best teacher and healer, and we want our children to have access to this alternative.
Go on long walks, observe nature and what our children need most, the art and gift of stillness.
Our professional child counsellors and psychologists will counsel children with behavioural issues one-on-one in a non-threatening environment.
Crisis 3:
The need for skilling in children sustained by rote learning has been clear. The lack of adequate support for anything other than academics, like sports, is also unmistakable.
The culture of DIY (Do It Yourself) and outdoor knowledge in education is critical Parikrma Oxygen will enable:
Encourage interests & support for children seeking alternative careers
Children build their classrooms and make their tents
Grow their own food
Tend to the land and learn about soil and water
Learn and excel in outdoor sports and skills
Excel in team building activities and leadership skills
Learn music, art, theatre, poetry, pottery, among others
Parikrma Oxygen will help each child develop an interest in and awareness of the environment and the ecosystem.
Solar-powered Oxygen will be a playground for ideas and models developed by our children for sustainable living and practices.
Nature education will remain the mainstay: from understanding wildlife, the interdependence of all life forms, changing weather and its impact, and the need to conserve and consume less.
Naturalists, researchers, conservationists, and sustainable lifestyle practitioners nationwide will head these programs.
The global challenge and impact of the increase in dropouts of poor children post-COVID-19, the alarming crisis of growing mental health concerns among the youth, and the disproportionate and more significant impact of climate change on poorer communities demand out-of-the-box solutions.
Oxygen offers a solution to the pressing questions of our times. Oxygen will be a playground for ideas and models developed by our children for sustainable living and practices. Naturalists, researchers, conservationists, and sustainable lifestyle practitioners nationwide will head these programs. The school, once functional, will also be open to other government schools and low-end school children – we want children from everywhere to benefit and learn.
Its LABS will make learning and problem-solving more fun!
BREATHE LAB: Environmental and sustainable ideas will be conceptualised, action plans will be made.
THINK LAB: nature-based education and solutions
DO LAB is a place for all kinds of experiments and learning—pottery, art, music, composting, growing food, bee farming, etc.; business studies on social enterprises.
WELLNESS LAB: Therapy and interactions with professionals in a safer, natural setting.
This curriculum will be specially geared to introduce sustainability to young children between ages 5 and 18. Here’s to creating, supporting, and sustaining a generation of empathetic, progressive, and responsible individuals.
Global collaboration and local engagement are the keys. We work with experts—outdoor and team-building leaders, mental health specialists, naturalists, permaculturists, conservationists, and scientists. Children will be part of the entire journey. All teams heading the LABS will maintain an annual report on engagements and key observations with data from impact assessments.
Collaboration for implementation of ideas and impact assessment: We will be working with the University of California and Mulberry Bush, UK on children’s mental and education growth both for ideas sharing and assessments of change.
Every learning exercise will be analysed and documented to quantify change – from land changes to regeneration efforts. The children will report wildlife observations, species identification, and flora changes through images and written archival.
The impact will be documented through in-house research and by encouraging some of the best research organisations from across the globe to visit Oxygen and explore its potential as a futuristic, inclusive, nature-based social school.