A 40-Year-Old Dharavi School Needs Its Land. This 19-YO Is Leading the Fight

For 560 children at New Life School in Dharavi, Mumbai, the future of their education depends on one question: will their school continue to exist where it stands today?

The preschool has been educating children in the neighbourhood for four decades. Yet, throughout its 40-year history, it has never owned the land on which it operates. Now, as Dharavi undergoes redevelopment, securing that land has become central to ensuring the school’s future.

An effort to help the institution do so has brought together an unlikely group: a 19-year-old college student, his friends and a community determined to preserve access to education for the neighbourhood’s children.

Daniel Gupta, a third-year advertising and media student at Mumbai University, is leading the effort through an initiative called Dharavi Rising. After raising Rs 22 lakh against an initial target of Rs 20 lakh for the school’s expansion, the team has now set its sights on a much larger goal: Rs 1.5 crore to help the school secure its land and continue serving children in the neighbourhood.

For Daniel, the initiative is about more than keeping a school open. It is also an attempt to change how people see Dharavi, a neighbourhood often discussed through the lens of overcrowding, poverty and redevelopment, rather than through the lives, aspirations and institutions of the people who call it home.

And he is learning to take on this challenge while still attending college, without any prior fundraising experience or an established professional network.

Building a movement around a school

Daniel’s connection with New Life School began through a friend whose parents run the institution.

Learning about the school’s four-decade-long journey also brought him face to face with a pressing question: how could an institution that had served generations of children secure a future for the next ones?

“People are often surprised when they learn that this school has been running for 40 years without owning its land. We want more people to know that it exists and understand why securing its future matters,” Daniel says.

What began as an effort to support the school gradually took shape as Dharavi Rising, an initiative that brings together young people and the wider community to address the institution’s long-standing challenges.

For the teachers, the campaign offers an opportunity to draw attention to a school that has continued to serve children despite the uncertainty surrounding its future.

“We wholeheartedly support Daniel’s mission to secure the future of our school in Dharavi. We want to do everything we can to ensure that the children’s education continues without disruption,” say teachers Kelsi Rani Raja and D. Packia Hincy.

Their support also reflects a practical concern for families who depend on accessible schooling. The team wants to preserve an institution that parents can afford, rather than see its future compromised by the changes taking place around it.

From Rs 20 lakh to Rs 1.5 crore

When Daniel and his college friends began working on Dharavi Rising in November 2025, the idea was to find creative ways for young people to contribute to a cause.

Daniel was just 19 when he took on the responsibility of building the initiative. With no previous experience in fundraising or social-impact work, he had to learn how to approach potential donors, understand funding mechanisms and communicate the school’s needs.

The team’s first fundraising effort set a target of Rs 20 lakh for the school’s expansion. They eventually raised Rs 22 lakh, marking an important milestone for a student-led initiative.

However, the initial achievement was only a starting point. The larger challenge of securing the land on which the school stands remained.

This prompted the team to launch Dharavi Rising 1.5, with a fundraising target of Rs 1.5 crore to help secure the school’s future.

The new campaign takes on a more ambitious, long-term challenge: ensuring that an institution that has educated generations of children can continue to do so.

Learning to navigate an unfamiliar challenge

Taking on a fundraising campaign of this scale meant Daniel had to understand several areas beyond his college curriculum, including corporate social responsibility (CSR) funding, institutional philanthropy and campaign strategy.

“I had absolutely no prior experience in any of this, so I needed guidance. I realised there would genuinely be no better tool than ChatGPT,” he says.

Daniel had been using the AI tool even before starting Dharavi Rising. Like many students, he initially turned to it for help with college presentations and assignments. But as the initiative took shape, his questions became more specific.

How does CSR funding work? What policies should he understand? How could he explain the initiative to potential supporters? What would a fundraising campaign need to communicate to people who knew little about the school?

ChatGPT became one of the tools he used to work through these questions.

“I used it to explore naming and branding ideas, work on campaign strategy, understand broad fundraising and CSR concepts, and develop outreach material. I also used it to identify website requirements and organise my thinking about how to present Dharavi Rising to prospective donors,” he tells The Better India.

The tool helped him break down an unfamiliar and complex task into smaller, more manageable steps. He also used AI-generated text in donor communications.

Daniel estimates that ChatGPT saves him two to three hours a day, helping him balance college with the demands of organising the campaign and communicating with potential donors.

However, he recognises that AI cannot replace the judgement and effort required to run an initiative of this nature. He says he rejects suggestions that do not align with Dharavi Rising’s objectives and is careful about the information he shares with the tool.

He also acknowledges that he has not followed a systematic process to independently verify all the guidance generated by ChatGPT.

Ultimately, the campaign continues to depend on people: the school staff who understand its needs, the families whose children attend it, the friends supporting the initiative and the donors willing to contribute.

Keeping education within reach

For New Life School’s teachers, the central concern remains the children.

The campaign is not simply about raising money for a building or an expansion. It is about helping secure the future of an educational institution that has remained accessible to families in the neighbourhood for four decades.

The challenge now is to build on the team’s initial achievement and reach enough people to support the school’s longer-term needs.

For Daniel, the effort also carries a larger purpose: changing perceptions of Dharavi and highlighting the aspirations, initiatives and community institutions that exist within the neighbourhood.

“My work with Dharavi Rising began with a desire to change perceptions of a neighbourhood. It has since developed into a concrete effort to help protect one of its educational institutions. Yes, AI has helped me navigate some of that unfamiliar territory, but the purpose of all our work remains rooted in the school and the children it serves,” Daniel says, pointing at the colourful artwork-laden boards in the classroom where he was sitting during a conversation with The Better India.

For the 560 children who attend New Life School, the goal is simple: to ensure that a school that has been part of their neighbourhood for decades can continue to be part of their future.

This Children’s Day, those who wish to support Daniel’s efforts to secure the future of New Life School and its 560 children can contribute by visiting dharavirising.com and making a donation.

Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: thebetterindia.com