Kathan Kothari from the Manthan Educational Programme Society in India came to visit Leiden University and EU-UNAWE international office, sharing the outreach efforts happening in India.  Manthan is a non-profit organisation that works to communicate science among students and communities on a large scale, focused on reaching villages and rural areas.  As India has 29 official languages and a population of 1.21 billion, reaching everyone can be a challenge, though Manthan's goal is to reach the most number of people from across the country through low-cost and innovative, hands-on materials.  

In order to reach as as many as possible, Manthan has proved that location is not an issue.  Part of International Year of Astronomy 2009 cornerstone project, 100 Hours of Astronomy, a small group traveled with a camel cart full of astronomy and educational material.  Amazingly, their budget was just $200 USD.  They reached approximately 250 000 people in rural areas visiting 25 villages, 7 public gardens, 13 urban areas, 20+ schools, and 4 universities.  Activities included telescope viewing, radio talks, and exhibitions among others.

Manthan also produced a very successful radio series that lasted two years in the 1990s and was made available in 22 languages.  Children could register via postal mail and receive packets of activities and lessons to follow along during the radio show.  It is estimated that 175,000 listeners were registered and 875,000 were reached through these lessons.  The program was extremely inexpensive too, costing $0.20 USD per kit, each containing 12-15 activities.  

Among the large scale activities, other activities are taking place across India.  These include road side shows with puppets, videos, telescopes, and much more.  They also hold science talks under Banyan trees, which are very large and popular spots for rests and playing children.  Many toys have also been developed out of simple material and at low costs as well.