If the child cannot go to school,
the school must come to the child.

The railway platforms of Bhubaneswar in India have long been a breeding ground of despair, where underprivileged children of all ages have been subject to frequent abuse, starvation, child labour, and exploitationpreyed upon for the purposes of child labour and even prostitution. With a dream to reach out to these hard to reach children , Mrs. Inderjit Khurana started a social action on 7th April 1985 with a single platform school at Bhubaneswar Railway Station. The school was just a chalk boundary on the railway platform and a ‘Magic Box (a tin box with education materials, a few toys and some hygiene materials)’ On her arrival with this magic box all the children used to rush to the platform school. She used to clean their face, cut their nails and tell stories and teach basic language and number. The children learn number counting train wheels and compartments, language by listening stories, history and geography by learning about places the train reach out to.

Ruchika with just a handful of dedicated volunteers and an underpaid staff, has committed itself to extricating street children from their apparently hopeless lives by providing safety, nutrition and education, to give them an opportunity to grow into a world of endless potential and realize the dream of every human being – to lead a safe and fulfilling life. The Credo: “If the child cannot go to the school, then the school must come to the child.” Gradually, schools were opened at railway stations, truck terminals, parks, bus stops, slums, and villageswhere there was a place to sit under a shed or a tree and a source of water. Ruchika expanded its scope and reached to the children living in the slums and villages, the youth who lost their ways in searching a livelihood.