Puja Das, Co-Founder

Recent years have witnessed a sea change in urbanization and female labour force participation. In cities, especially in metropolitan cities most of the people are working couples living in a nuclear set-up without a support structure for childcare or child nourishment. Finding a reliable external support is very difficult in urban areas. Even if you find one, a simple daycare facility alone is not sufficient for the holistic development of your child. With almost 90 percent of a child’s brain developing during 0-5 years, providing the right early childhood education should also be an agenda while choosing the external child care support. Realizing this growing need for external support among parents and gap in traditional daycare facilities,two IITians turned entrepreneurs, Puja Das and Abhisha Shrivastava, took up the way of early childhood education and daycare to develop a joyful and stimulating environment for making a home away from home for children.

Named as 'Sandbox - Early Learning Centre and Childcare Facility',the duo’s venture has already become a household name in Mumbai region. Operating in collaboration with Eklavya School, which is ranked 13th in India for its curriculum design,Sandbox is a professionally

runchildcare and learning centre where children are provided a promising learning environment that is conducive to the holistic development of the child. Centre’s mission is to empower working couples with a complete support structure for bringing up their children. Puja Das, Co-Founder, Sandbox, shares, “Sandbox has a team of loving motherly figures who are well qualified and trained to create a warm and loving atmosphere where the child’s well being is finely taken care of,just like at home. We have a systematic and scientifically devised curriculum that focuses on different developmental aspects of the child like Cognitive, Socio-Emotive, Language and Literacy, and Physical Development. Daily records are maintained about the child’s stay at the centre and the organization maintains transparency in communicating the same to parents. Sandbox is tied up with Hiranandani Hospital for medical emergencies and the centres are well equipped to handle fire emergencies as well.”


Abhisha Shrivastava,Co-Founder

Sandbox’s services include Playground, Nursery, Infant Daycare, Toddler Daycare, After School Care, On-Demand Daycare and Parenting Workshops and Fun Events. Talking about centre's different services, Puja explains, “Sandbox’s USP lies in its culture,

team and unique methodology of child development. Our team is trained by Eklavya School, a highly reputed institution in education circles across the country. Sandbox’s Infant Care Programme involves a 1:2 adult to child ratio. Our Toddler Programme takes in kids aged 18 months and has a focus on all round development of the child through practical life skills education inspired by Montessori Method of Learning. Further, Sandbox’s series of parenting workshops and kids’ fun events are popular across the parent communities in Mumbai.”

Being a new player in the industry, building trust among the parent community was an initial challenge that Sandbox faced. But through team’s dedication and sheer determination, Sandbox grew up along with the development of its each child. The centre could win the hearts of kidsas well as their parents. Transparencyin operations and promptness in responsiveness helped build a relationship based on trust.

Sandbox has launched three centres within just two years in Powai and Andheri East receiving overwhelming response from customers. Regarding their future vision, Puja says, “Sandbox’s goal is to ensure that no woman should quit her job due to lack of reliable child-care facility. Roads and highways built by government are the skeleton of a country's infrastructure and development; likewise, Sandbox aims to create a strong foundation for the country’s growing civilization through a collaborative partnership with parents in their kid’s development from the early childhood itself. Sandbox is looking at organic expansion as well as franchising to move ahead in this direction.”