Pune: For a family struggling to afford food, water and other essentials during a drought, buying notebooks and pens is an expense that must wait. But when a child goes to school without the supplies needed to study, the financial strain at home follows them into the classroom.“When drought hits, families are forced to prioritise their immediate needs, and education takes a back seat,” said Aniket Mundada, a member of Navgrah Mitra Mandal in Kasba Peth.“We want to ensure that children in these areas have the stationery they need when the new academic year begins,” he said.The mandal’s ‘Bappa Charni Ek Vahi Ek Pen Arpan’ initiative, which began with just 24 notebooks in 2017, has grown into a campaign that collected 36,000 notebooks and more than 20,000 pens during Ganeshotsav this Sept. The next task is to distribute these supplies among children in drought-prone Marathwada and other underserved parts of Maharashtra, with teachers and grassroots organisations helping identify schools in need.As of Oct 28, as many as 12 schools in Vidarbha, two in Dhule and two in Beed, had received educational material collected during Ganeshotsav. Supplies have already reached schools associated with Anandwan, Somnath Prakalp, Maharogi Seva Samiti and Lok Biradari Prakalp in Chandrapur and Wardha. They have also been distributed to Zilla Parishad schools in Shindkheda taluka in Dhule district and Shirur-Kasar taluka in Beed district.“The next phase will cover Zilla Parishad schools in Latur, Beed and Parbhani in Marathwada; Chandrapur, Wardha and Nagpur in Vidarbha; Dhule; and parts of western Maharashtra. Around 40 more schools are expected to receive supplies in the coming days,” Mundada said.The scale of this year’s collection is unprecedented for a campaign that began with a simple idea: instead of bringing flowers and other offerings to the Ganesh pandal during Ganeshotsav, devotees were encouraged to donate notebooks and pens.In 2017, the mandal collected just 24 notebooks. Over the years, the organisers gradually developed the initiative into a 10-day campaign held during every Ganeshotsav, relying largely on devotees visiting the pandal in Kasba Peth. By 2025, the collection had grown to 5,500 notebooks. This year, however, a combination of newspaper coverage and social media outreach took the initiative far beyond its usual audience.A Times of India report titled ‘Skip the flowers, bring a notebook and pen for Bappa this year’ prompted around 2,000 calls and messages from people keen to contribute. While some brought stationery to the pandal themselves, others arranged deliveries through quick-commerce platforms.“Three months before Ganeshotsav this year, we approached more than 150 content creators to make videos about the initiative. Thirty of them agreed to produce reels without charging a fee,” Mundada said.The response also crossed national borders, with contributions arriving from 11 countries across six continents, including Japan, Qatar, the UAE, Ireland, the US and the UK.Members of the South Sydney Indian Association raised 700 Australian dollars and coordinated with a vendor to procure stationery from Navneet Education. The company offered the supplies at reduced rates and also donated 72 notebooks after one of its representatives visited the mandal.The overwhelming response has brought logistical challenges alongside the generosity. Donations from people and requests from schools continue to pour in, but storage space is running short.“We verify requests from schools through phone calls and, wherever possible, visits before deciding where the material should be sent. We have had to put some contributions on hold because we do not have enough space to store such large quantities. We have noted down the donors’ details and will reach out to them when the new academic year begins,” Mundada said.In communities where drought can force families to choose between essential household expenses and their children’s education, a notebook may seem like a modest intervention. But by getting these supplies to students in drought-affected areas, the initiative hopes to ease the financial burden and help children begin the academic year equipped and ready to learn.
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