Mohalla Melodies : Kavita’s Musical Revolution

The sound of children laughing, learning, and listening had become a familiar melody on Kavita’s terrace. Her mohalla classes - an open learning space in the neighbourhood, had turned ordinary afternoons into lively sessions where learning found a new rhythm. For the children, it was something fresh and exciting; for Kavita, it was what she had been searching for all along, a way to make learning come alive again.

It all started when posted as a teacher, Kavita began noticing the empty benches in her classroom. As she tried to understand why students were staying away, the reasons revealed themselves clearly - frequent punishments from teachers, an indifferent attitude towards students, caste-based discrimination, economic hardships, and a repetitive pattern of teaching stripped of creativity or connection. These conditions had pushed students further away from learning. Determined to bridge this gap, Kavita began experimenting. She started mohalla classes right at her home - an open, joyful learning space where education found a new language through music. Using the same government-prescribed syllabus, she decided to change the method, not the material. Science lessons became songs about the solar system; civics turned into verses on rights and duties. Gradually, music became the language of learning and learning unfolded through rhythm, rhyme, and participation.

To her surprise, it worked.

Children who once refused to sit through a lesson now came eagerly, learning not through repetition but through rhythm. The transformation was visible and deeply moving. It inspired Kavita to go further, to keep experimenting and expanding her work, which was already taking a larger form. The mohalla classes were the seeds of something bigger - a collective imagination shared by Kavita and her friends, born out of their determination to create a space for reflection and innovation in education. They called it Shedo. Over time, what began as an experiment on a terrace grew into a small yet steady organisation, rooted in creativity, community, and care.

Later, Shedo joined hands with We the People Abhiyan through the campaign Har Dil Mein Samvidhan. Kavita led the initiative, and the collaboration bore rich results - songs and conversations inspired by the Constitution, including the anthem Har Dil Mein Samvidhan itself. Ideas of justice, equality, and dignity began to find voice in folk tunes and bhajans.  For Kavita, sangeet (music) and samvad (dialogue) became inseparable - the twin pillars of a pedagogy rooted in participation and values.

Her relationship with the Constitution was not limited to her professional work. Having faced discrimination and exclusion herself, she turned to it for strength and direction. She studied it closely and made it a part of her everyday practice. Her book, Maha Mahila, pays tribute to fifteen women who contributed to the making of the Constitution, figures often missing from mainstream history. “Samvidhan ko jaane, maane, aur apne vyavhaar mein laaye,” she says - know the Constitution, respect it, and live it. 

In 2023, Kavita’s journey found wider recognition when she was selected by the National Foundation for India for Ankuran, a program that brought together twenty women working on constitutional values. Representing Shedo, she shared how music could become a democratic tool which acts as a bridge between sangeet and samvad, between education and the Constitution. 

Today, Shedo continues to expand its reach. Its initiatives - Taleem for children, Community Youth Forum for young people, and Art 19 for women (which guarantees the right to freedom of speech and expression), carry forward the same vision. Challenges remain. Talking about the Constitution in communities where it feels distant or abstract is never easy. But Kavita persists, translating its language into songs, conversations, and local idioms. For children, the Constitution becomes song; for women, it becomes devotion; for everyone, it becomes dialogue.

On her terrace, the laughter still continues. Between notes and verses, between sangeet and samvad, Kavita keeps alive the idea that learning and democracy itself can begin with a song.

The above story has been written and published with the explicit consent of the individual involved. All facts presented are based on WTPA's direct interaction with the individual, ensuring accuracy and integrity in our reporting.