Initially, Haadibadi was a spectrum of abstract ideas conceptualised by a group of friends from various fields including education, theatre and art, social service and corporate who were a part of the Hashmi Theatre forum. The theatre forum became an important journey for its members to reach out to various sections of the society and comprehend their diversities; hence the name ‘Haadibadi’. Over time, with several inputs from the mentors, peer groups, well-wishers and acquaintances, Haadibadi evolved from Hashmi Theatre Forum into a distinct form of its own to establish itself as a non-profit organisation in May 2016.
Today, through Haadibadi, we work with children and young adults from the marginalized sections, training them in theatre and different art forms. We have also set up a community library with free and unrestricted access to learning.
At Haadibadi, we believe in upholding the cultural and cognitive diversities of various groups, focussing mainly on the communities living in the periphery of the societies constituting the native and migrant working classes. The children from these communities are particularly left behind due to inaccessibility to resources and quality learning process. Hence, we strive to break down these social, cultural, and economic barriers and provide a platform to the children in exploring, engaging, and empowering themselves to face the challenges of the modern world. We acknowledge the fact that diverse groups require diverse knowledge systems and therefore, we have broadened our horizons to different forms of learning like art activities, awareness programmes, digital literacy programmes, personality development programmes, etc. to cater to different needs of the heterogeneous groups.
Keeping the idea of ‘Inclusiveness’ as our priority, we have trained over 1000 school children in theatre and have organised communication and skill development programmes. We have also collaborated with many government schools and low-fee private schools in setting up ‘open libraries’ to integrate the idea of free learning spaces.
We believe that every child should have a reading life. So, we have the Haadibadi Community Library, an open library with free access to a wide range of books for engaging the young minds in free, imaginative, and critical thinking. The library also serves as a creative space to engage children and youth through reading and interactive sessions, film screenings, story-telling sessions, and various other activities enriching their cultural and social identities.
