All of the acts were amazing, but seeing the Project Why children (Meher, Utpal, Babli, Yash, Nikkil, Viki, Aditya and Manisha) perform so well in front of their peers was a very proud moment – I felt like a parent at a school concert! When you get to know these kids and you hear what they have all been through, seeing the great young people they have become and seeing them do well in school is rather moving. There are children there that were given 0% chance of survival as babies with 3rd degree burns, one of the girls has survived open heart surgery and many of them have destructive home environments. They have been given this chance and all of them are making the most of it and doing well at everything they attempt – it is just so good to see. The concert itself was interrupted by some heavy monsoon rain that made the whole cover over the stage and audience collapse, which was rather amusing but it continued in the lunch hall after a short break so we didn’t miss too much!
The school also used the celebrations to launch the new literacy program in the village nearby. The program is called “Each One Teach One” and the idea behind it is that the children of the boarding school will visit the new centre in the slum village at weekends and teach the children that live there. These children are very poor and many do not go to school. Even the ones that do go to school go to the local municipal council school, which has class sizes of over 100 students – even the best teachers in the world would struggle to carry out quality teaching in this sort of environment. The program looks to be a positive one for several reasons. Firstly, it will give these children the chance to be educated, a chance that most of them do not have. In addition to this, I feel that it is very important for the children of the boarding school to have contact with the poorer children so that they realise how lucky they are themselves and there also needs to be an appreciation of the poorest in society if this nation is to progress in the future, afterall these children are the ones who will shape social policy in the future either through political positions or even just their vote. The children in the slums do not have a voice today and neither do their parents, so they need the voices of future voters to stand up for them – unfortunately the attitude in today’s adult population does not seem to be one that will force any change, so it is even more important that the children are educated properly not just to pass exams but to become good citizens and to understand the issues that their country faces.
The attitude in Indian society today is one of confusion when you talk about spending money to educate the poorest children of the slums. When Anou asks Indian people to donate to help her project, they cannot understand why you would spend money on poor children, and it is this kind of mentality that is preventing the universal education that is needed from being implemented. There is a Right to Education Act that has been passed by the government that states that 25% of all private school placements must go to the underprivileged sectors of the community, but still this is not being implemented properly and so many children that want to learn are not able to learn, simply because of the narrow mindedness behind education policy that results in a neglect of the poorest in society. These people do not have anything and on top of this they are being prevented from having an education, which is the only way out of the poverty that they face. Let’s just say India’s education policy could do with some cleaning up and there are significant improvements that can and should be made. Educating the children of India seems to be the obvious start point for this change to occur.
When we visited the site where the new literacy program will operate, there were supposed to be a list of 40 selected children that had expressed an interest in the project, and so there were 40 folders with a pad of paper and some pens inside that we were to give to the children. However, there must have been around 100 of them all pushing and shoving trying to get hold of an education pack – they are all so desperate to learn and be educated, so it was very difficult having to turn so many back. It was a manic experience to be involved with though, the heavens had opened and the plastic sheet was not staying up well so we were all getting rather wet – it was muddy, wet, noisy, chaotic, but I loved it. Seeing the enthusiasm of these children to be educated was so refreshing to see, and I just hope this program can work well and there are more similar projects carried out elsewhere – if the government will not educate these children, at least there are schools like Shanti Gyan and NGOs like Project Why who are doing their best to fill the void.
Babli and Viki
The VVIP sofa!
Some of the girls at the women centre
Raising the flag
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