Fathers, daughters and frames that fund girls’ education

MUMBAI: For two weeks in late November and early December, Mumbai saw an unusual kind of photoshoot rush. Fathers and daughters stepped in front of the camera for keepsake portraits, but walked away knowing their smiles would travel far beyond the photo frame.

The occasion was Project Nanhi Kali’s annual Proud Fathers For Daughters campaign, founded by Anand Mahindra and photographer Atul Kasbekar. The idea is refreshingly simple. Families sign up for professional shoots with leading photographers, and the fees go directly towards educating underprivileged girls across India. A family memory, in this case, doubles up as a quiet act of social change.

What gives the campaign its emotional pull is the relationship it celebrates. By positioning fathers as “Her First Coach”, the initiative taps into pride, encouragement and mentorship, while naturally extending the conversation to girls’ education and empowerment. Over two days, registered families responded in large numbers, creating moments that were both personal and purposeful.

The funds raised support far more than school enrolment. They help provide learning resources, physical education and life-skills training, offering girls the tools to imagine and build different futures. Project Nanhi Kali’s long-standing mission to break cycles of poverty through education finds strong momentum in this model.

At its heart, Proud Fathers For Daughters succeeds because it avoids grand gestures. Families receive something meaningful, a professionally captured moment in time, while contributing to something far larger. It is not charity wrapped in obligation, but participation wrapped in purpose, proving that sometimes the simplest ideas leave the strongest impressions.