Yogendra Bangar noticed something that most people had stopped questioning. In villages around Maharashtra, generations of grandmothers had lived entire lives without ever stepping into a classroom. They raised families, ran households, and carried communities forward but never learned to read or write.
That observation became Aajibaichi Shala.
Meaning “Grandmother’s School,” Aajibaichi Shala is India’s first school exclusively for elderly women. Located in Fangane village, about 125 kilometres from Mumbai, it challenges a deeply rooted belief: that education has an age limit.
In this classroom, the youngest student is over 60. Some women are in their 70s, others in their 80s and 90s. For many, childhood passed without notebooks, blackboards, or teachers. Poverty, household responsibilities, and social norms kept them at home. Some never learned to write their own names. Others never entered a school building.
“The purpose of this school was to complete the unfinished childhood dreams of those grandmothers who never went to school,” says Bangar.
Teaching elderly students requires a different kind of patience. Weak eyesight, hearing loss, and fading memory shape every lesson. “You can’t teach them the way you teach children,” says teacher Sheetal Prakash More. “You have to teach them the same thing again and again. Sometimes you have to hold their hands while they trace letters on the board.”
The women wear pink sarees as their school uniform, a quiet but powerful decision. Many students are widows who traditionally avoid certain colours. Pink ensures everyone dresses alike, without difference or stigma.
The impact of Aajibaichi Shala goes far beyond literacy. When grandmothers study at home, their grandchildren often sit beside them. Learning becomes shared. Education slowly becomes part of everyday village life.
India is home to nearly 191 million illiterate adults, with elderly women in rural areas among the most affected. Aajibaichi Shala offers a glimpse of what inclusion can look like when education is built with empathy.
In this episode of Force For Good Heroes, Brut follows the journey of Aajibaichi Shala, its beginnings, its challenges, and the lives it continues to transform.
Watch the full episode to see how, even after 60, it’s never too late to learn.
