Where Schools House Dreams

To bridge the gap between mainstream schools and the poor, NGOs find a way out

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Pooja Vashisht wants to become a teacher. The 12-year-old lives with her parents who are dhobis in a small shanty in Ahmedabad. Reena Nayka, a dwarf, in Gujarat’s Navsari, is today her family’s breadwinner. She’s come a long way from almost starving. Rajnikant Patel, now may be mentally challenged but he’s an award-winning weightlifter. In Surat, a paanwalla’s daughter Tanvi Joshi, who lost her left leg to polio, is pursuing MBBS at Baroda Medical College.

Making it possible for each one of them to stand on their feet and live their dream are hundreds of NGOs across the country who set up, fund and help educate the ignored and the marginalized, bringing hope and changing lives.

It’s clichéd to say that it took India more than 60 years to make education a basic right. Despite that, formal education is structured such that it remains inaccessible to staggeringly large sections. The poor, the disabled, those living in remote areas, even the city poor, have little, if any, access to education.

Yet, to educate India is its favourite cause, a national priority. There was barely a whimper when the government introduced a 2% education cess a few years ago; the idea of education captures every citizen’s imagination. Not leaving it to governments, thousands of NGOs, religious organizations and of late, companies, have made every effort to make access to education, and providing it, a reality.

Take 1956-born Kanu Tailor, who lost both legs to polio when he was 11 months old. “At school, my classmates would laugh at me,” Tailor says. “But that only firmed my resolve to pursue my goal of empowering the disabled.” In college, he met other disabled who narrated their tales of suffering, from callousness of the able-bodied to the state government’s apathy.

Tailor set up the Disable Welfare Trust of India in 1991 to provide free education and training for disabled from poor families. Samaritans donated generously. In 1997, he set up a school in 10 rooms allotted by Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC). The school had 118 poor disabled children the first month itself. By 2005, there were 400, but Tailor dreamt of a barrier-free school. In 2006, SMC allotted him land. His higher secondary school, built at a whopping cost of Rs 15 crore has 415 children.

Enabled by the school, polio-affected students chase their dreams. If daughter of diamond-polisher Shilpa Ambalia is studying homeopathy with one leg disabled, Deepak Vyas says he dared to dream of becoming a dentist only because of “Kanu sir”.

“There are 50 million disabled persons in India and only 1% of disabled children complete schooling,” says Tailor, who also helps students find jobs. Further, the trust has industrial training, a computer centre, employment guidance and a marriage bureau. In addition, it says it puts between Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,500 in fixed deposits for all students every year.

It’s going this extra mile to help beyond schooling that makes a crucial difference. Mumbai-based Parivartan, founded in 1997 by Shakil Ahmed, focuses on kids below age six. The idea is to ensure that underprivileged children in the sprawling slum of Antop Hill, home to migrants mostly from UP and Bihar, get admission in government schools. Community workers monitor the progress and ensure that parents don’t withdraw the kids from school. But before the balwadis for the below-6 were set up, Parivartan’s victory came when it ensured that the high-crime area got its own municipality school.

Interestingly, once a school is set up, it helps the marginalized in myriad ways. Reena Nayka of village Dhorikui in Gujarat’s Dangs district was considered a burden by her family. Born a dwarf, the family believed she had no future. But eight years ago, Nayak sought work at Mamta Mandir, a facility for hearing and speech-impaired and mentally challenged children, in the hope of getting two meals a day. At Mamta Mandir, she did more than get two meals.

She studied up to Class XII and now teaches children to make toys. She is also her family’s breadwinner. Over the last 40 years, Manav Kalyan Trust which runs Mamta Mandir has transformed the lives of many physically and mentally challenged children abandoned by families. Founded in 1971 by Mahesh Kothari, a disciple of Vinoba Bhave, it’s home to 572 children and young adults and provides education upto class X. It also trains the handicapped. “They train in printing, weaving, learn woodwork and even diamond polishing. They earn while learning,” says Nilesh Shah, a trustee. In his bid to help, a leading Mumbai-based diamond merchant set up a special polishing cell where 40 disabled work.

Help comes also from the classroom. Started as part of course curriculum, a voluntary education programme at IIM-Ahmedabad took a shape of its own. Today, students run Prayaas, where they teach and pay tuition fees for 30 slum kids. Most of the funds, says IIM-A student Abhishek Ranjan come from alumni. Many sponsor a child or more for a year.

Reports by Mohammed Wajihuddin in Mumbai, Dayananda Yumlembam in Ahmedabad, Himansshu Bhatt in Navsari, Melvyn Thomas in Surat

WHERE THERE’S A WILL: Students make diyas at the Disable Welfare Trust (above), a Prayaas session in Ahmedabad (left)

At school, my classmates would laugh at me. But that only firmed my resolve to pursue my goal of empowering the disabled
Kanu Tailor |
DISABLE WELFARE
TRUST, SURAT