Prerana School

Prerana School is a boarding school for Musahar girls from the Patna District in Bihar. The school is in Danapur and enables the more talented girls from village schools to continue their learning and acquire various skills that can help them find better jobs afterwards. Musahar are often referred to as rat eaters and make the rock bottom of Indian social ladder. The school is a part of Sister Sudha Verghese’s project called „Nari Gunjan“ (Women’s Voice). Sister S. Varghese had recognized that the most efficient way of helping the Musahar was to offer them education. She started to found villige schools for the girls, of which there are now more than one hundred. In 2009 I was given a chance to participate in the project and teach at the Prerana School for three months. Living in the school premises and taking part in all daily activities gave me a good opportunity to photo document the school’s daily routine. The girls’ trust let me soon witness their emotional up and downs, hear about their dreams, their anxieties, their future plans.