National Programme
Magic Bus operations were confined to Mumbai in the first 9 years of its existence. We had some 20,000 children and youth with us, when we decided to fuel up the journey into other parts of the country. That was the birth of the National Programme in 2008. Within two years, we entered the states of Andhra Pradesh and Delhi/NCR, our outreach shot up to 150,000.
Mission 1 Million: The National Programme envisions the Mission 1 Million – that is, reaching out to 1 million children and youth in 10 states of India through a 2400-strong staff and 30000 volunteers – by 2014. The ambitious programme would forge bonds with urban and rural communities, schools and institutions, and various government, corporate and Non-government players. Currently, Magic Bus is present in the states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi/NCR, Karnataka and Orissa. We plan to expand to Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand later this year.
The National Programme – which essentially draws insights and experiences from the tested and proven Mumbai City Programme – gives the latter a scale. The effect of this translation at the national level is manifested in the following forms:
- Community Programme: Communities are engaged to make them understand the importance of S4D and its advantages. Once the community agrees to the concept, local youth volunteers (a pair of a boy and a girl) are identified from among them and trained as a Community Sports Coach (CSC). This pair of CSC is responsible for engaging with 50-60 children from the community. Uniforms and basic playing equipment are provided to them to carry out the exercise. The CSCs are supervised and handheld by Youth Mentors and Trainers cum Monitoring Officers (TMOs) and Youth Mentors, who are also local youths employed by Magic Bus. The whole operation is supervised by a District Programme Manager and conducted with the help of local Sports Authorities and partner NGOs.
- Institutional Programme: Magic Bus conducts programmes in institutions like Schools, Orphanages etc. where the number of children is around 300 or more. In this case we do not have a volunteer cadre but our own Youth Mentors directly take the sessions. Attempts are made to train Mentors from the institutions themselves so that the process becomes self-sustainable.
- Small Cluster Programme: With the growing demand of S4D approach, Magic Bus realised that it can expand its programme in communities with fewer number of children. The Small Cluster Projects allow us to cater to smaller number of children without losing on the quality and deliverables from the National Programme. The model is a combination of the Community and Institution models described above to reach out to 6,000 or more children in a particular location in India at the low cost of INR 10 per child per session.
The small cluster project is a combination of the community and institutions projects to reach children on a smaller scale than a state programme. This is aimed at reaching approximately 6,000 children and can be used in locations where we do not have a state presence.
- Government partnerships: The launch of the National Programme brought formal, structured partnerships with the Government to us. Drawing from past experience and being the leading S4D player in the country, Magic Bus became the Knowledge and Implementing Partners to Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India for Panchayat Yuva Khel aur Krida Abhiyan (PYKKA) and Playfields Association of India. Magic Bus is creating Model PYKKA Centres in two districts of Maharashtra (Sangli) and Andhra Pradesh (Medak), and conducting training of trainers under the partnership.
 Forging partnerships with Government of India
- Experiences from International Inspiration: In 2008, Magic Bus became the technical advisors to UNICEF on International Inspiration, a programme that brings together the governments of UK (UK Sport) and India (Ministry for Youth Affairs and Sport) to take Sport for Development (S4D) to communities across. The pilot stage of the project was immense learning as we saw Magic Bus training the trainers in three new locations in states of Maharashtra (Chandrapur), Andhra Pradesh (Medak) and Delhi/NCR. We also conducted training for municipal schools teachers in Mumbai in partnership with UNICEF and the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) (also known as BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)).
Magic Bus also conducts the
Outdoor Programme at the
Centre.
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