5. Creating Classrooms where Children Experiencing Trauma can Learn & Thrive

In this episode of Chalk Talk Collective, Lakshmi Karunakaran speaks with Shivani Taneja, founder of Muskaan in Bhopal, about what it means to take these realities seriously in education.Shivani has worked with children and marginalised communities in urban Bhopal since 1997. Muskaan works alongside Denotified and Nomadic Tribal communities, Adivasi and Dalit communities, and others experiencing social and economic marginalisation. Its educational work includes Jeevan Shiksha Pahal, a school for children who have been pushed out of or struggled within conventional schooling.The conversation explores trauma and healing, caste and marginalisation, children's agency, teacher–child relationships, identity, dignity, language and the possibilities of creating more meaningful educational spaces that foreground love and care.