Surmounting many odds, this institution has its heart in the right place and is imparting education to more than 80 students from deprived backgrounds
By Malvika Saini
It’s a school that has kindled hope among those who have little. Built under a bridge, this free school under the Yamuna Bank metro bridge in Delhi, is almost another home for more than 80 students and five volunteers. However, it’s not easy to concentrate on what is being taught here, with vibrations from a train passing overhead, myriad sounds from the main road and announcements from the metro station filling the room.
But the glorious voices of little children reciting tables in unison drowns out these assorted noises. Though dust swirls all around, it does little to hinder the vision of the blackboard. After all, here the “mind is without fear and the head is held high/where knowledge is free…”
This free school was started in 2008, when Rajesh Kumar Sharma, a shopkeeper with no formal training, was passing by and saw children loitering near the site of the metro construction. These were children of construction workers, rickshaw-pullers, farmers, etc. When he asked around about these children, he was informed by the parents that due to the absence of a school nearby, they were deprived of an education. One of the parents said: “If somebody is ready to teach them nearby, the children can go and study.” This remained in Kumar’s mind and finally, he and his friend Laxmi Chandra, decided to take the future of these kids into their hands.
FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH
Today, this school has grown. Around 70 children, who had spent some time here, have got enrolment in government schools. Volunteers come and teach here from Monday to Saturday from 10 am to 12 pm. The school only has basic infrastructure. Five rectangles, painted in black on the chipped boundary wall, serve as blackboards. In the five open classrooms, volunteers are teaching subjects as elementary as alphabets or taking classes on Pythagoras Theorem. While the teachers sit on plastic chairs, students get mats from home.
Volunteers teach in the school from Monday to Saturday from 10 am to 12 noon. Five rectangles, painted in black on the chipped boundary walls, serve as blackboards.
A large trunk is the storehouse of the school, and has all the stationary needed for it. Children are also given a glass of milk and a packet of biscuits every day.
The school has succeeded in making children realize the value of education
“They can start studying here, but they will not get a degree from here,” reveals Sharma, who is convinced that education is the only hope for these kids. Chandra, one of the first volunteers, says: “We are students from poor backgrounds with ability, but no money. This is just an initiative to help children who are going through the same situation now.” Like Sharma, he too believes that if the fire of learning is inculcated, the children will find their own path and go places.
While this school is unlike those with digital blackboards and AC classrooms, it’s a selfless attempt at imparting knowledge among children who have little. And when the son of a flower vendor here dreams of becoming a doctor or the daughter of a construction worker proudly shows that she can write her name in English, then you know that the school has achieved its purpose.