Besides personality development, the camps offer children training in various skills, adventure and sports, allowing them to stand out in a competitive crowd. Over the next month, nearly 250 children between 5 and 16 years have signed up to learn ‘inner confidence and outer polishing’ from the Warrick Finishing School in New Friends Colony.

Founder Priya Warrick says: “The course is gaining ground; Delhi’s parents want to give their kids a head start.” At Rs 4,500 for a two-week residential course, children are taught to “handle” a bully, dress sense, besides family values.

For Charu Jain, a mother, personality development is less of a concern than an overdose of television. From tomorrow, her five-year-old son, Shaurya, will join a camp in his earlier pre-school, Kidzee. For three hours, five days a week, his holidays will be brimming with activities. “At least now Shaurya can learn something; he loves skating and swimming,” says Jain.

For companies offering adventure camps, getting middle-class children out of their comfort zone is the tagline.

Jason Lopez, project manager of Youreka summer camps, the outdoor education division of idiscoveri, says, “The idea is to challenge kids, give them an opportunity to check out the wilderness while having fun.”

Riverside backpacking and rock climbing along the banks of the River Tons, in Tirthan Valley, or Sitlakhet certainly offers children a fresh perspective. Altitudes Adventures is another enterprise set up to challenge children. Its founding member Rajiv Khare says: “It’s wonderful to see a seven-year-old taking his own decisions.”

Other than learning to pitch a tent or balance on ropes, a rural awareness programme in the mountains exposes the children to education outside the textbook. “We attach students to a village so that they can map things first-hand. How many houses are there, for instance, or where the water comes from,” says Khare.

The camps may be exciting, but they are not for everyone. For fashion designer Tanuja Jha, who has never sent her children to a summer camp, fear and cost are impeding factors. “They are risky. Perhaps, if it was cheaper we would send them,” she says.

Sociologist Srinivas Rao, assistant professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, says the camps are “institutionalised forms of engagement for children”. It is only when the children are back in school after the camps and talk about the holidays that the issue of hierarchy comes up.

“The middle class includes millionaires and government servants with low wages — the camps can create classes within classrooms.”

A new trend is the emergence of neighbourhood summer camps, which adapt to a wider market, with lower prices. From next week, Gurmeet Malhotra, 38, will run 24 classes — in calligraphy to dance — a week from a single room in her Pitampura flat. Charging up to Rs 1,000 for a month, she says: “It doesn’t cost the earth to do something interesting in the holidays.” She adds: “Students from as far as Canada and Norway have studied kathak here.”

Meanwhile, at the National School of Drama, prices are even lower: a month-long theatre workshop costs Rs 500; the programme, which starts this week, is completely booked. And, for budget-conscious parents, the British Library and India Habitat Centre are offering economical, stand-alone workshops.

The CAMPS
SPACE (Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators)
Four-day trekking at Jim Corbett National Park, astro-tourism, by night; visit to Nainital observatory. Cost: Rs 4,100 When: May 18 to June 30 Contact: Amit Verma, 9250901030

YOUREKA, IDISCOVERI:
Eight-day adventure camp for 9-15 year olds Cost: Rs 10-13,000 When: May 4 to June 30 Contact: 09910983 335

ALTITUDES ADVENTURE
Cost: Rs 5-7,000 When: May 13 to June 30 Where: Uttarakhand Contact: Rajiv Khare, 9999375796

WARRICK FINISHING SCHOOL
Cost: Rs 4,500 When: Till June 30 Where: B-495, New Friends Colony Contact: 26847053

TEHELKA FOUNDATION
Month-long interaction, walk with the Salaam Baalak Trust and working at a childrens’ shelter home in Paharganj. When: May 20 to June 21 Where: Bluebells School International, Kailash Colony Contact: Shivani, 9910001164

THE FAMILY INDIA
Five-day camp for underprivileged children. When: May 19 to June 30 Where: Prabhat Tara Contact: Rohit Kumar, 9810188578