POLICY Archives - The Opentree Foundation - India’s Leading NGO for Play and Play-Based Learning

Category: POLICY

July 15, 2026

Protect Play, Protect Childhood — District-Level Roundtable, Ahilyanagar

12 years of on-ground work reflected in a landmark decision by the Ahilyanagar Zilla Parishad: all schools across the district began the new academic year with an Hour of Play—and why this marks an important milestone for play-integrated education in Maharashtra.

On 11 June 2026, the International Day of Play, we convened Protect Play, Protect Childhood, a district-level roundtable with our partner, Snehalaya at the Ahilyanagar Gymkhana. The conversation brought together government leaders, educators, civil society organisations and CSR partners around a shared question:

What would it take for every child to experience play as part of school?

The room included Shri. Anand Bhandari, IAS, CEO, Ahilyanagar Zilla Parishad, Shri. Satyajeet Sudhir Tambe (Member of Legislative Council, Maharashtra), Ms. Rashmi Nagori (Head, ESG and CSR, Nuvama Group), Mrs. Shraddha Deshmukh and Mr. Rohit Deshmukh (Sanskriti Samvardhan Mandal, Nanded), Ms Shweta Chari (Co-founder and CEO, TOF), Dr. Girish Kulkarni (Founder, Snehalaya), and Mr. Devendra Naik (Founder, NoMoBo, and Trustee, TOF), who moderated the discussion.

Rather than focusing on a single programme or intervention, the roundtable built the case for play-based learning from four complementary directions: what children need to thrive, how rapidly childhood is changing, what schools are meant to offer beyond academics, and what it takes for change to last inside public systems.

The discussion culminated in the declaration of a district-wide initiative by Shri Anand Bhandari, IAS, CEO, Zilla Parishad, Ahilyanagar.

पहिला दिवस शाळेचा, एक तास खेळाचा. (Day 1 of school, 1 Hour of Play)

With that announcement, every government school in Ahilyanagar was mandated to celebrate the new academic year with an hour of play.

On 15 June 2026, children across 1000+ Zilla Parishad schools in Ahilyanagar were welcomed to school with a joyful hour of Play, a day they will cherish for a long time to come. Principals, teachers and school staff enthusiastically planned games and activities, decorating classrooms with posters and banners.

TOF’s team collaborated with all Block Education and Block Development Officers across all 14 blocks to support implementation, drawing on more than 350 free activities from Playpedia.in, TOF’s open-source library of low-resource play ideas. Following the success of the initiative, Shri Bhandari also directed that schools across the district undergo Playpedia sensitisation sessions led by TOF.

For The Opentree Foundation (TOF), the roundtable and the पहिला दिवस शाळेचा, एक तास खेळाचा initiative (Day 1 of school, 1 Hour of Play) represent a powerful, significant step in its journey towards realising the Right to Play in India. This was a historic moment – the first time a government institution in Maharashtra had taken ownership towards integrating Play-based learning into schools at a scale — the systemic shift TOF has been working towards for over two decades, reflected in the room through voices across the system.

The roundtable began with a welcome by children from Snehalaya’s Balbhavans, setting the tone for a discussion centred on children’s voices and experiences.

Shweta Chari, Co-founder and CEO of TOF, argued that play is not an extracurricular activity, but the foundation on which children develop the creativity, empathy and problem-solving skills needed to become thriving adults as well as contributing citizens.

Shri. Satyajeet Sudhir Tambe reflected on the rapidly changing nature of childhood, emphasising that schools must intentionally nurture these abilities, while Shri Anand Bhandari shared his vision of schools as places of joy, creativity and confidence.

Shri Satyajeet Sudhir Tambe spoke about the speed at which childhood is changing, arguing that schools must evolve just as quickly.

“Any muscle you don’t use stops working. If we don’t give children regular opportunities to use their cognitive and creative skills, those skills will disappear.”
-Shri. Satyajeet Sudhir Tambe

“Schools should be the heart of a child’s happiness—spaces of joy, creativity and confidence, where every child grows up with a teacher they remember all their life.”
– Shri. Anand Bhandari, IAS, CEO, Ahilyanagar Zilla Parishad

Rashmi Nagori, Head of ESG and CSR at Nuvama Group, challenged the false divide between play and education. She called for play to be recognised as an essential investment in children’s learning and development, reminding the room that “Play is learning.”

Bringing these ideas into practice, TOF’s long-standing partners, Snehalaya and Sanskriti Samvardhan Mandal, shared how Play2Learn had transformed classrooms by replacing fear with trust, strengthening teacher-child relationships, and helping children engage more confidently in learning. As Dr. Girish Kulkarni, Founder of Snehalaya, reflected, “Nothing we tried worked until Play reached these children—it was as though Play helped us find a way to connect with them.”

The roundtable was also the first ever felicitation of Ahilyanagar’s Play champions and Leaders – teachers and principals from our partner schools who have embedded Play-based learning in classrooms across Ahilyanagar.

The session concluded with an interactive Play reflection led by TOF Trustee Devendra Naik, inviting participants to collectively envision the future of Play-based learning in Maharashtra.

The roundtable also opened new systemic pathways at a district and state level:

Expanding the Play2Learn programme Municipal Council schools in Sangamner
Embedding play-based learning into the district’s School Development Plans
Introducing TOF’s School Readiness Play Programme into Anganwadis and expanding Play2Learn into secondary schools in the district
Deepening partnerships with Gram Panchayats and School Management Committees.
Possible alignment with Maharashtra’s proposed Future Generations Wellbeing Bill with evidence on play and child wellbeing.

Each of these pathways represents an opportunity to move closer to institutionalising Play-based learning in government systems, and towards making Maharashtra the first state in India to have a government-adopted, scalable model for Play-integrated schools.

For over two decades, The Opentree Foundation has worked to demonstrate that Play is fundamental to how children learn, grow and thrive. The roundtable and declaration in Ahilyanagar represent a district where years of evidence, partnerships and trust have translated into system-wide action.

The vision has always been larger than a single programme or district. It is to build a future where every child in India, regardless of where they are born or which school they attend, experience learning that allows them to be themselves, feel joyful, curious, excited, and prepares them to thrive as adults in their future.

Ahilyanagar has shown that this future is possible. Now, the work begins to make it the norm, across Maharashtra, and India.

EVENTSIMPORTANCE OF PLAYPOLICY

July 6, 2026

From Classrooms to National Conversations: Contributing to India’s National Dialogue on Play-Based Learning

For over two decades, The Opentree Foundation has worked towards a vision of integrating play-based learning into India’s public education system. While the National Education Policy 2020 increasingly recognises the importance of joyful and experiential learning, lasting change depends on something much bigger: an ecosystem of educators, practitioners, children, institutions, and government working together to make it possible.

That ecosystem was visible at the National Play Dialogue – “Viksit Bharat Through Learning, Creativity and Play” on 15 June 2026, convened by The LEGO Group at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi.

Along with Shri Jitin Prasada, Union Minister of State for Commerce & Industry and Electronics & Information Technology, Ms Debashree Mukherjee, Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Ms. Ira Singhal, Deputy Secretary, Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Education, and leaders from across the education and development ecosystem, the dialogue reflected a growing national consensus that play-based learning is fundamental to preparing children for Viksit Bharat 2047.

For us, one moment captured exactly what systemic change looks like – the Children’s Panel, facilitated by Shweta, along with students and the principal of our partner school in Mumbai.

Parth and Arpita, Grade 6 students from our Play2Learn partner school, Rajawadi Mumbai Public School CBSE, shared what it means to learn in a school where play is part of everyday learning. Standing alongside them were Dr. Sanjay Chavan, whose leadership has embedded play-based learning into the school’s culture, and Akash, a former government school student who now works with The Opentree Foundation to bring the same opportunities to thousands of children.

“We come to school because it is a happy place where we get to play ,” they shared.

Their message to the adults in the room was equally clear: “Let us play. Let us learn through joy.”

Together, this panel represented the vision that The Opentree Foundation has worked towards for over two-decades. They demonstrated that play-based learning is not an aspiration waiting to be tested. It is already transforming government school classrooms through committed educators, empowered practitioners, and children who have experienced its impact firsthand.

The same question carried into the Leaders’ Roundtable, where representatives from organisations including UNICEF, Atal Innovation Mission, Magic Bus, Bernard van Leer Foundation, Reach to Teach, CRY, Sesame Workshop, and others reflected on the future of play-based learning in India.

The roundtable too, began with a play-based activity facilitated by who else, but our Play Experts – Parth and Arpita. The room came alive with laughter, excitement and lightness as our students guided the adults with a game from their Play sessions.

As the conversation unfolded, leaders from across the sector shared their learnings, challenges and perspectives from designing and implementing play-based learning in varied contexts. Across these rich, diverse perspectives, one message stood out: the sector has moved beyond asking why play matters. The challenge now is how to embed it into systems at scale.

Drawing on The Opentree Foundation’s 22 years of work, our CEO & Co-founder Shweta Chari spoke to precisely this challenge. Through partnerships with government school systems, teacher capacity-building, and our integrated Foundational Play^TM approach, our work has focused on building practical models that help schools integrate play-based learning into everyday teaching—not as an additional programme, but as the way learning happens.

For us, this dialogue was an important milestone, not just because it brought together influential voices, but because it reflected a growing national readiness to make play-based learning part of India’s education systems. Realising every child’s right to play will take collective action. When school leaders, practitioners, children, government, and partners are all part of the same conversation, that future moves one step closer.

EVENTSIMPORTANCE OF PLAYPOLICYREPORTRESEARCH

December 11, 2024

TOF’s Roundtable: Thriving through Play

Since 2004, The Opentree Foundation has worked towards empowering children to grow into well-rounded adulthoods through Play. Over the last two decades, our journey has made the following abundantly clear:

The lack of play is a critical, complex problem
There is a strong need to initiate meaningful dialogue and action to address this problem.

As an effort towards this, on November 7, 2024, The Opentree Foundation and Social Lens hosted a 60-minute roundtable, ‘Thriving through Play’, which was attended by over 200 participants.

The panelists were Ratan Batliboi, principal architect, RJB-CPL, Seema Sharma, philanthropist and founder, Child Action UK, Swati Apte, a leadership coach and founder, The Arts Quotient, Priya Agrawal, founder, Antarang Foundation, and Deepika Mogilishetty, chief of partnerships at Ekstep. Drawing from rich experiences in their own fields, they shared deep, meaningful insights on the shifts needed to integrate play into ecosystems for children and adults. Along with the moderator, Vijaya Balaji, founder, Social Lens, this group of experts discussed the critical need of Play, its transformative impact, and the need for a strong movement to put play at the heart of communities, schools and ecosystems.

The discussion began with the context of play – what is our current ecosystem of play? What are the barriers to play, in terms of mindsets and perspectives, availability of play spaces, limited capital for play-centric research and interventions?

The current context of Play:

“Let’s advocate for shared spaces where play is accessible to all, from corporate lobbies to public venues. Open these areas to children and communities —where adults can witness and learn from the creativity that unfolds.

– Swati Apte Leadership Coach & Co-Founder, The Arts Quotient

Some of the most powerful insights that emerged from the roundtable focused on the open-endedness of Play, how it should be meaningfully integrated into communities, schools, public spaces in order to foster well-being, develop key life skills in childhood and adulthood, and impact society at large. The conversation also highlighted the need to use play without reducing it to the prescriptive, highly structured ‘activity’ it has come to be over time, which points to the need for building capacities and mindsets of teachers and caregivers for using play.

“Play is naturally inclusive – it goes beyond barriers of age, gender, and context. Playfulness is the joy of being, and a way of life.

– Ratan J. Batliboi Principal Architect, RJB CPL

Key ideas:

We were able to connect these key ideas and insights with impact data from our own programmes, and other studies that highlight the long-term impact of play, as well as the consequences for deprivation.

Through this roundtable, we were able to put forth a strong call for changing the way we understand play, use it, measure its impact, and most importantly, give it the rightful space it deserves in children’s lives and environments.

POLICY

May 23, 2023

Early childhood education: Exploring the National Curriculum Framework

Early childhood care and education are key areas of development, according to the National Curriculum Framework 2022

The Indian government’s launch of the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) for Education 2022 of Children in the 3-8 Years Age Group marks a significant milestone in the field of early childhood education.

This framework aims to provide a strong foundation for the holistic development of young children across the country. At Toybank, we recognise the importance of early childhood education and its impact on shaping the lives of children.

In this blog post, we delve into the key aspects of the National Curriculum Framework and its implications for early childhood education in India.

A comprehensive approach to learning:
The National Curriculum Framework emphasises a child-centered and play-based approach to education. It recognises the significance of play in fostering creativity, imagination, and cognitive development. By incorporating play-based activities into the curriculum, children are encouraged to actively explore their surroundings, engage in hands-on learning, and develop a love for lifelong learning.

For the first time in 50 Kendriya Vidyalayas, on pilot-mode, we are launching play schools in an institutionalised form with a targeted learning outcome on a pedagogy based on this NCF.

– Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan

Holistic development:
The framework emphasises the holistic development of children, encompassing their cognitive, socio-emotional, and physical well-being. It encourages the integration of various domains of development, such as language and literacy, numeracy, social skills, and physical development, into a cohesive learning experience. This holistic approach ensures that children receive a well-rounded education that prepares them for future academic and personal success.
Inclusivity and diversity:
The National Curriculum Framework recognises the diverse needs and backgrounds of children in India. It emphasises the importance of creating inclusive and welcoming learning environments that cater to the unique abilities, interests, and cultural contexts of every child. This inclusivity promotes social cohesion, empathy, and respect for diversity among young learners, setting a strong foundation for a harmonious and inclusive society.

The launch of the National Curriculum Framework for the Education of Children in the 3-8 Years Age Group is a significant step towards enhancing early childhood education in India. At Toybank, we believe in the power of play to foster holistic development, ignite curiosity, and nurture a love for learning from an early age. Through our play programmes, we strive to complement and supplement the efforts of early childhood educators.

Together, let us create a vibrant and inclusive early childhood education landscape that empowers every child to reach their full potential and lays a strong foundation for their future success.

Source: India Today. (2022, October 21). Govt Launches National Curriculum Framework for Education of Children in 3-8 Yrs Age Group

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