Over 131 million children in India are unable to build the SEL skills they need to thrive. Art education remains nationally deprioritized: students in government schools receive less than 20 hours of art education in a year. There is a stark ratio of 1 art teacher to every 1,400 students. We are not only failing to prepare our children for the future of work; we are also disempowering them from realizing their full potential.
Founded by Jigyasa Labroo and Gaurav Singh in 2017, Slam Out Loud believes that every child has a voice that can transform their life. The organization works to integrate arts-based Social Emotional Learning (SEL) into education by creating safe, creative spaces where children can express themselves while building essential skills like imagination, analytical thinking, curiosity, emotional awareness and agency.
SOL primarily works with children aged 9–16 from underserved communities through its programs. The organization collaborates with teachers, professional artists, and education leaders and has impacted over 217,000 students across multiple states while training 1,600+ teachers to implement SEL in classrooms through its core direct reach programs, while reaching 10.5 million+ children globally through its online open source art based SEL resources.
Slam Out Loud (Foundation of Arts for Social Change in India)
In India, learning beyond foundational numeracy and literacy is often deprioritized. At the same time, 7 out of 10 children face emotional and behavioral challenges, and 60% of Indian students experience anxiety and stress due to a lack of emotional support and guidance. Slam Out Loud (SOL) believes that Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is essential in government and low income schools to address these challenges – and that art is the most effective medium to integrate SEL into the Indian classroom.
This challenge is further compounded by a lack of access to arts education. For instance, Delhi, with one of the most advanced government school systems in the country, has only one art teacher for every 1,400 students. SOL tackles this issue by embedding arts-based SEL into public education through teacher training and direct student engagement, ensuring equitable access to creative education for all.
SOL operates through two core programs:
1. The Jijivisha Fellowship (TJF) – An innovation lab that places artist-educators in classrooms across Delhi, Pune, Mumbai, and Bangalore, where they deliver year- long, arts-based SEL sessions. In 2024-25, 22 fellows were selected from 850 applicants to work with over 4,000 students. (since 2017, we have had 100+ fellows and over 10000+ students)
2. Arts for All (AfA) – A systemic intervention that partners with state governments like Punjab and Maharashtra to integrate SEL into the weekly arts period of public schools. In 2024, SOL trained over 1,600 teachers, reaching 200,000 students.
"Our curriculum adapts to local contexts, ensuring cultural relevance and addressing intersectional issues like gender and climate. We also create open-source arts-based SEL digital resources, reaching 10.5 million children across 19 countries via platforms such as DIKSHA and UNICEF. These resources enable scalable SEL access, even in resource-constrained settings," says Jigyasa Labroo, Co-founder and CEO.
To find out more about our work:
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Education Continuity during the Coronavirus crisis | A case study of Slam Out Loud’s response to COVID-19 by The World Bank -
NDTV | Slam Out Loud Brings Arts Into Education
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The Indian Express | Slam Out Loud: Changing the World Through Poetry
- The Possibilities of Art in Socio-Emotional Learning: Curating Young Leaders’ Well Being
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