As Tarini started to spend more time with the children of the slums of Rishikesh, where she’d been working for many months to provide food for people during the Covid lockdowns, she learned that the kids’ school had been closed for a long time due to Covid. The children told her that they had nothing constructive to do, as most of them had no access to online classes, and that they really wanted to keep learning. For this reason, in September of 2020 she felt a great inner calling to gather with the local girls and provide them with impromptu classes in English, art, yoga, music, and dance of various styles.

Tarini has lived in India for more than 24 years, and knows well the tragic social inequality women live with, especially in the poorest areas where the majority belong to the lowest castes and suffer intense discrimination from the rest of society. Muslims also face such discrimination. She wanted to offer a safe place for the girls to learn, where they would not be judged by anyone, and where they could develop their talents and have fun. That’s how Shakti School of Arts for Girls was born.

Tarini changed her life completely in order to keep her fledgling school going. Before March of 2020 she had lived in South India, but after meeting the girls she decided to move and settled in Rishikesh, dedicating herself completely to the cause.

When the school started back in September, 2020, Tarini didn’t have her own space for teaching, so she used to meet the girls and volunteer teachers in various public spaces, such as hallways, gardens and yoga halls. By March, 2021 the team had raised enough funds to rent their first space for Shakti School, a large hall with a small kitchen and dining room attached, a couple of bathrooms and a terrace. This space was acceptable for the first year, but Tarini really wanted a place that had multiple rooms, so that girls of varying ages and skill levels could have classes simultaneously. In April of 2022 they moved to a new building that had everything Tarini was looking for — but still needed a lot of work! As soon as the building was rented they gave it a full repainting, installed new flooring, and improved the kitchen and bathrooms. They also put a roof over a central space which had previously been open to the elements.

A year later, Tarini opened admissions and finally brought the number of girls who come to our school to over 100. The new influx of students required more space, so she decided to build a roof over the main building, and add walls also, to make it into a beautiful, professional dance space, including mirrors on the walls and an art gallery. It also doubles as an indoor playground for the small ones.

This way the girls have a lot of space to do all their activities, where they’ll be protected from the heat and rain during the summer months. Closing off the rooftop also adds a new level of security to the school, which is essential, as there is a lot of jealousy from the local teens and men regarding the education of girls.