the black benchers were not the backbenchers at nigam pratibha school in south delhi these children were part of a classroom game made specifically to teach them about the malaise of caste the ageold system of segregation that thrives in india 75 years after independence and despite the constitutional guarantee of equalitymuch like how caste is a birth lottery the fake caste categories were decided by lottery in the classroom black red green and blue were the colour codes the blackchit winners were the most powerful they could have unlimited candies they had the right to a lunch break and free speech the children who got blue chits had the fewest privilegesnow came the test the children with the black chits were asked how they wanted to help their bluechit classmatesnineyearold shailendra who was among the blackchit kids walked up to a green board and started scribbling i will share my lunch with my blue friendsthe mock demonstration on caste was one of teach for indias tfi attempts at teaching children the ideals enshrined in the constitution and the preamble such experiments are on in 50 classrooms across the country the nonprofit hopes to reach 100000 students this year this programme does not take the traditional route of oh lets come together and read the constitution or the preamble it takes a deeper route in the sense of what kind of individual you need to be to become an active citizen radhika khurana curriculum designer of india and i studies at tfi saysregi nr a homemaker from kollam district recently aced a constitution examthe kollam testbefore the 75th republic day there are several attempts to bring the constitution alive in the lives of indians in keralas kollam one such experiment started last year and regi nr was declared its winnerregi a mother of two lives in the chithara gram panchayat in kollam her husband is a driver in saudi arabia often during video calls with my husband i jokingly quote equal rights from article 14 of the constitution whenever he tells me not to do this or that she laughsregi knows the constitution better than many in 2022 as a part of a government campaign to make kollam a constitutionliterate district regi sat for a constitution exam and bagged the first prize in her panchayati would initially get confused between the different article numbers says regi who won a refrigerator and a citation for her effortschithara is the only gram panchayat in kollam district to conduct an exam of this nature seventyfive years of independence have already gone by everybody needs to be aware of the constitution it is above all holy books says binun waheed kollam district panchayat secretaryin rajasthan the state government has made the reading of the preamble mandatory during morning prayer in schools girdhar singh principal of malpura government school near tonk feels it has made an impact one student stands on the stage and others repeat the preamble after him their love and respect have