From bridging learning gaps among children at risk of dropping out to preparing academically motivated students for STEM careers, Aarshiya Das and her co-founders, Sayed Mohammad Shoeb and Hasnain Naqvi, are building a community-led education model focused on helping families move towards greater economic opportunity.
For Aarshiya Das, working in the social sector was a decision she made long before she knew exactly what form that work would take. Originally from Kolkata, she grew up in a family with a history of activism and says her upbringing taught her to put people before herself. Her family came to India during Partition, and she grew up in a refugee colony, experiences that shaped her understanding of community and responsibility.
She pursued a master’s degree in literature from Calcutta University. During her second year, she discovered the Teach For India Fellowship, applied in 2020 and moved to Pune. The fellowship introduced her to the complexities of education inequality and eventually shaped the direction of her work.
From Teach For India To Building Panaah Communities
Aarshiya’s fellowship experience helped her understand that improving access to quality education involves much more than what happens inside a classroom. Infrastructure, school administration, teachers’ capacity and the environment children return to after school can all influence learning.
That understanding eventually led Aarshiya and her fellow Teach For India alumni to build Panaah Communities. Aarshiya is Co-Founder and Director, Panaah Solvers, alongside co-founders Sayed Mohammad Shoeb, Co-Founder and Executive Director, and Hasnain Naqvi, Co-Founder and Director, Panaah Scholars. The organisation began in 2021 as community centres during the COVID-19 pandemic, when schools were closed and the founders wanted to maintain face-to-face engagement with children. It was incorporated as CFCL Education Foundation, a Section 8 company, in May 2023.
After schools reopened, the team realised that the need for support within communities remained. Aarshiya says children spend only around five hours at school before returning to environments that may expose them to challenges such as substance abuse and domestic violence.
Bridging Learning Gaps And Preventing Dropouts
Panaah Communities currently runs programmes for children and youth through two primary educational pathways. In academic year 2025–26, it reached 1,115 children and young people across five vastis in Pune, one Zilla Parishad school in Mahabaleshwar and one partner school in Pune.
The first pathway – Panaah Solvers focuses on children and families in the bottom 20% of their classrooms who face significant learning gaps. Some students in Grades 7 to 10 arrive unable to read basic words or perform elementary mathematical operations. The organisation works with them from foundational concepts, including phonemic awareness and basic mathematics.
The programme also supports children who have already dropped out or are at high risk of leaving school. Aarshiya teaches a batch of 16- and 17-year-olds who struggle with reading, writing and comprehension, while the organisation works to keep vulnerable students connected to education. Since 2023, 141 teenagers who had dropped out of school re-entered the education system through Panaah; 71 stayed to sit their board examinations and 56 passed and secured admission to Grade 11 in 2025-26. The larger vision is to make Pune a dropout-free city.
The second pathway – Panaah Scholars focuses on the top 5% of academically motivated children from low-income communities and PMC government schools. Panaah Communities identifies high-performing students from Grade 5 onwards and prepares them for STEM career pathways, including JEE and NEET.
Education As A Pathway Out Of Poverty
For the founders, both programmes are connected by a larger objective: helping families access greater economic opportunity through education.
For students in the “Panaah Solvers” programme, the focus extends beyond academics to complex problem-solving, empathy, creation and advanced communication. The organisation stays with these students after Grade 10 until they land a job.
For “Panaah Scholars”, the pathway is designed to help academically strong students access top-tier universities in India.
Panaah Communities remains focused on Pune, where there are around 564 identified slum settlements, with 1.5 lakh families concentrated in the top 10 slums. Rather than expanding randomly, the organisation aims to work deeply with 2,000–2,500 families across 10 Pune communities by 2026, and to reach 30,000 families in Pune by 2036 through its partnership with the Pune Municipal Corporation.
Building Aspiration Within Communities
One of the organisation’s biggest challenges is building aspiration. Aarshiya says families may find it difficult to imagine their children earning significantly higher incomes, while parents can sometimes hesitate when the organisation tries to prevent a child from dropping out.
Panaah Communities hires extensively from within the communities it serves. 11 out of 110 team members are women, most of them from these very communities, and four of its five centres are led by women from the community. These women become role models, while continuous training and upskilling help maintain the quality of education.
The organisation also commits to engaging with each family for five to seven years. Home visits and relationship-building form a central part of this approach. Aarshiya says parent-teacher meeting attendance consistently crosses 70% in their programmes.
From Pune To A Larger Vision
Aarshiya’s community-focused work began before Panaah Communities. During her graduation years, she was involved with a student organisation that established libraries and laboratories in rural West Bengal schools. The Sundarbans was one of its major hubs, with facilities established in five schools.
Today, her focus remains on Pune and on building depth rather than expanding rapidly. The organisation aims to work with 30,000 families over the next decade. Aarshiya says these families currently earn around ₹15,000 to ₹25,000 per month, and the organisation hopes education can help them reach ₹1 lakh to ₹1.25 lakh per month by 2031, driven by two members of each family entering sustained jobs at ₹45,000 to ₹50,000 a month.
The Logical Indian’s Perspective
Aarshiya’s journey highlights how education interventions can extend beyond classrooms when they are rooted in the realities of families and communities.
From foundational learning and dropout prevention to supporting academically motivated students towards STEM pathways, Panaah Communities is addressing different educational needs while maintaining a focus on low-income communities.
Its approach also shows why sustained engagement matters. Preventing a child from dropping out may require working with students, parents, educators and communities over several years.
For Aarshiya, education is ultimately a pathway towards greater opportunity. By combining foundational learning, academic acceleration, family engagement and community-based support, Panaah Communities is working towards a model where children can remain in education, pursue meaningful career pathways and help their families move towards greater economic security.
If you’d like us to feature your story, please write to us at csr@5w1h.media.
