Lakshmi lived and worked with government primary schools for over a year. This inspired her to use art as a medium for education. Over the years, she has worked with children experiencing social exclusion in government schools, special needs schools, remedial schools, and in disadvantaged communities. All this assisted her to head this program.

700 + children of ‘waste workers’ are enrolled  in a daily reading program at three libraries since Jan 2017.

At Hasiru Dala, an NGO that works with informal waste workers in India, Lakshmi heads the Buguri Children’s Program. Buguri Community Library Project works towards creating safe spaces for children of waste pickers, through arts and literature. This space is where the arts like storytelling, music, theatre, dance and play helps bridge learning gaps in children.

Children also have interactions and discussions with people from various backgrounds. The library aims to hone the voices of the children so that they can tell their own stories. They even conducted ‘Read Aloud Festival’ across schools and communities reaching over 2300 children in February 2019. They have pioneered a model of organizing children of informal waste pickers through this program.