This organisation brings joy to low-income schools in Delhi with music

An organisation is using music to transform the lives of children studying in low-income schools

Two young people walk into a government school classroom armed with a guitar and songbook instead of textbooks and chalks. They get the children to hum some simple notes. The guitarist begins to strum. A student beats a tattoo on the wooden desk. In minutes, the classroom is resonating with joyful and not necessarily always tuneful sounds. “Music can change a child’s relationship with learning,” says Preeti Arya, co-founder of Manzil Mystics, an NGO that has evolved a unique pedagogy to use music to teach life skills and bring joy into the classroom. “It gives children an alternate form of