Education, we’ve always believed, holds the key to a progressive future. Currently, less than 50% of our children in the age group of 6-14 years attend school. The Right to Education (RTE) bill 2010 provides a necessary foundation for spreading primary education in the country, which should improve the percentage of children attending school. In absolute numbers, this bill could impact 35 million children who are right now deprived of education due to various reasons.

Aseema, a Mumbai based non-profit organization, is working with underprivileged children to provide them a nurturing and stimulating educational environment. By doing so, it aims to bring these children back into the mainstream of society.

Assema Montessori is a first of its kind center for street children in India. Established in August 2000 at Pali Chimbai Municipal School, the Montessori provides children with a firm education foundation.

In 1996 Assema started the Project Igatpuri for educating the tribal children of Awalkheda, a small hilly village situated 5 kilometers from Igatpuri.

The Better India caught up with Aseema and here is an interview with them:

Click here to visit the website and to know more about Aseema.

Libraries are as the shrine where all the relics of the ancient saints, full of true virtue, and that without delusion or imposture, are preserved and reposed. That is a famous quote by Francis Bacon.

Most of us who love reading cherish the time we spent as children in libraries scanning through books of various shapes and sizes with vivid covers and enticing titles. Libraries are the repositories of knowledge. But a large number of children are deprived of this wonderful experience; they don’t get to read which in effect does not inculcate in them the habit of studying.

AWIC, Association of Writers and Illustrators for Children, is a voluntary organisation working towards the promotion and development of literature for children in India. It represents writers, illustrators, librarians, editors and publishers. Founded by late K.Shankar Pillai in 1981, AWIC endorses the ethics and functions of the global organisation IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People), a non-profit which represents an international network of people from all over the world who are committed to bringing books and children together.

The various projects of AWIC include the following:

Children’s Library Project

Winner of the IBBY-ASAHI Reading Promotion Award, this project was started in 1983. Today 114 libraries in Delhi and across India have been setup under this voluntary scheme to promote reading. Each library is provided with free books. The project aims at making good books available to children who have no access to books .

Most of the libraries are managed by AWIC members on a voluntary basis. While most libraries function from the homes of AWIC members, some libraries have also been set up in parks, hospitals, railway platforms and slum areas for underprivileged children. Each year AWIC gives out one Best Librarian award and two Reader of the Year awards!

AWIC initiated IBBY library project – creating children’s libraries at Madi Village in Delhi (NCR), at Tezu in Arunachal Pradesh, at Jaipur, Rajasthan and Daman in Goa.

Literacy Project

In 1995 AWIC launched its Literacy Project and has published two Hindi alphabet books under its schemes, ‘Buy, Teach and Gift’ and ‘Teach and Gift’. Under the second scheme, AWIC distributes these books free in all Indian states, including remote areas where children have no access to good books.

Book Promotion

Book Promotion Cell promotes the cause of children’s books written by Indian authors by conducting book talks. Besides this, the organization participates in national and international children’s books fairs.

AWIC Book Therapy project

The Book Therapy Project is a particularly interesting one and was started after the 26/11 terrorist violence in Mumbai. It was started in order to promote the use of books to help children during those difficult times. Reading can be therapeutic; helping children come to grips with situations that create turmoil in their minds. Book Therapy helps children cope with such stressful situations, and even prepares them for further eventualities. Through workshops AWIC aims to train facilitators to administer book therapy and also develop books, including picture books and anthologies, which provide a healing effect to children.

If you have some free space in your home or office, you too can start a library for the underprivileged! For becoming a member of AWIC, all you need to do is download this application form http://www.awic.in/about-awic/AWIC-Membership-Form.pdf and fill it up and mail to the address provided in the form. 

How much fun can Science be, you ask? Lots, if it is taught with the help of a simple rocket experiment and other practical applications! The techie duo of Udaya M V and Adithya B, who visit select government schools in Bangalore on weekends, do precisely this.

Both young software engineers who are in their early twenties realized that Indian students need to break away from the traditional mould of “mugging” and start taking a greater interest in their learning, with the aid of science projects. While educating themselves on the internet, they came across a demonstration on how to make Water Bottle Rockets. Taking off from that, they haven’t looked back. After successful programmes in six schools and a summer workshop as well, they are overwhelmed by the tremendous response. So much so that it has inspired them to create an NGO called Education Informal for improving the education process.

Handling everything by themselves, the two techies have so far funded their little experiment on their own. They do hope however that if they were to come across some talented student in need of financial backing, they will be able to source help.

Read the complete article in Bangalore Mirror.
Image Courtesy: Bangalore Mirror
Link Courtesy: Rithish. Thanks!

A non-profit and secular organization currently working in Andhra Pradesh, Synergy India Foundation or SIF has impacted the lives of more than 8500 people in the areas of Health, Environment, Safety and Education. Their main aims include:

1. Making available basic and emergency medical facilities to the poor
2. Disseminating information on clean and green environment
3. Bringing about a social change in Education and Healthcare
4. Ensuring compulsory primary education for children

With these objectives in mind, SIF has launched a number of projects in each of its area of focus. These include:

Healthcare:

With their main intention of spreading greater awareness among people about diseases and their cures, SIF undertakes several informative programs in a year. One of these was “Unite for Diabetes”, a Diabetes awareness walk organized in Hyderabad in November 2008. Another ongoing project of theirs is the “ESI Project” in which they sensitize the beneficiaries on available corporate health services of ESI and to increase efficiency of the ESI program by setting up Helpdesks, Helplines, Blood Donation Camps and Medical Camps.

Environment:

By developing pollution-free and healthy colonies in select areas, SIF aims to create “model colonies” that can be replicated in other parts of the nation and help sensitize the population about environmental ills. This is achieved by engaging the local populace in tree planting activities, assessing the pollution levels and educating the residents on pollution hazards and healthy practices of sanitation, etc.

Safety:

With the help of NCC cadets, Bharat Scouts and Guides, NSS, Institutions, Schools and Government support, SIF has initiated the “Safer Society” Project for implementing road safety, school safety and environmental safety in a model zone. With this initiative, they have undertaken several awareness drives to promote greater safety standards among the general public.

Education:

In collaboration with the Government of AP on the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan program, SIF has undertaken the construction of two model schools in Tirumalagiri. Serving as an example of Public-Private Partnership with the government contributing 80% financially and SIF the other 20%, these 2 schools (one for girls and the other for boys) will actively seek people’s participation in providing all facilities appropriate for the overall development of each student in Academics, Sports and Community Services.

The organization has also started a “Security Guards Training and Employment Program” to promote employment and capacity building of unemployed youth and find them jobs in the security sector.

Contact:

To know further about Synergy India Foundation, their work and ways in which you could volunteer/contribute, visit their website http://www.synergyindiafoundation.org/ or contact them at the following address:

Plot No. 30, Kalyan Nagar, Near Central Bank of India

Hyderabad – 500038

Phone: 040-64601995

Fax: 040-23811192

e-mail: info@synergyindiafoundation.org

A significant section of young students appear to be apprehensive of mathematics as a subject. They view it as their nemesis, and this in turn, prevents them from learning this beautiful subject during their school years. To dispense the notion that Mathematics is a difficult subject to comprehend, the teachers and students from different schools of Ludhiana district have come together to hold a first of its kind ‘Maths Mela’.

Anupam Bhagria writes in an article in Indian Express:

Exhibited models, charts and slogans related to mathematics not only created awareness among students but also conveyed the message that ‘mathematics is an interesting subject if taught in right way”. This two days maths mela was held at Bhartiya Vidya Mandir Senior Secondary School Udham Singh Nagar.

The idea was the brainchild of Mr. Krishan Kumar, the Director of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Punjab. The event was organized under the supervision of Pradeep Kumar Kapoor who is the Science Supervisor of Ludhiana district.

You can read the complete article here, including about a maths-tambola which was played at the mela.

The hills of Shimla are rich and fertile. All major agricultural products are grown here, including  wheat, rice, pulses, potatoes, ginger, turmeric and many other fruits and vegetables. However, in the early 1970s, the problem was that the menfolk of this area would squander away all their income on liquor. Women were deserted and led miserable lives. Enter Subhash Mendhapurkar who transformed the lives of the women in the Shimla Hills.

Kallol Bhattacherjee of The Week writes this extensive report on Subhash Mendhapurkar and how he brought about a revolution in the hills of Shimla:

Mendhapurkar knew it was not going to be easy in Shimla. He started off in a room in a youth hostel near Jagjit Nagar village. The chain-smoking young man punching the keys on a rickety Remington intrigued the local people. He started introducing the women to feminist thoughts. “Sometimes he would stay up for weeks as people came continuously to consult him,” said Vimla Devi. 

Under his guidance, the women learnt of a rule that every liquor vendor needs to seek permission from the Gram Panchayat to open a store.
This then led to more active involvement from the women:

The hills were changing. In 1983, Mendhapurkar ended his association with SWRC and started Sutra (Social Uplift Through Rural Action) with rural women as members.
“We told liquor vendors to seek permission of the panchayat members before vending liquor in the neighbourhood,” said Leela Devi, one of the pioneers of Sutra. The panchayat was still under the thumb of the menfolk, and female panchayat members’ role was limited to making tea and pakodas for the male members. Mendhapurkar asked the women to decide if they required a liquor vendor in their neighbourhood. “If not, you should form majority in the panchayat meetings and convey your opposition through mahila mandalis,” he told them. The women just did that and nixed every attempt to open new liquor shops. “We mobilised all the women suffering from alcoholic husbands and ensured that they formed majority in every panchayat meeting,” said Vimla Devi, who emerged as a prominent anti-liquor crusader. 

Subhash just didn’t stop there. He also looked actively in to the issues faced by the women who were deeply reliant on the mountain lands for their living:

The forest department had been planting thousands of pine trees on the hill slopes to prevent soil erosion. But it was of no help to small women entrepreneurs. “What is good for the forest department is often not useful for women. They want small fruit trees that hold soil, and grass which is good for their cows,” said Mendhapurkar. How to use mountains for social benefit without triggering landslides in the rains was a challenge that pushed him to understand them better. Now he visits the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Kathmandu, to deliver an annual lecture in December. According to Mendhapurkar, since women control the rural economy in the Shimla Hills, and since they benefit from forestry, the Shimla-Kassauli region of the Shivalik ranges should be utilised for female health and their economy. 

Subhash then went ahead and introduced the concept of water harvesting to help women manage water resources better. The association started by him, Sutra, became immensely popular. After focusing on these livelihood issues, Subhash then turned to healthcare and micro-credit to make them more independent:

“Denied care and affection, and always illiterate, these women did not know how to improve their condition,” he said, narrating a campaign he began in the mid-1980s for single women. It is known as Ekal Naari Shakti Sangathan or simply ‘ekal’ in the hills. 

Hearing of the campaign in the hills, women from all over Himachal Pradesh sent requests for similar help. In Hamirpur and Una districts, a large number of single women were HIV+ thanks to their husbands who were migrant workers. In April this year, around 3,000 single women from rural Himachal marched to Shimla, and Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal promised them that the rural single women would get free treatment for all ailments in government hospitals. “We want respect for single women of Himachal villages. We should not be treated differently,” said Nirmal Chandel, leader of Ekal. By 2009, Ekal will launch its pan-Indian avatar.

The impact of all that Subhash has done is there for everyone to see. The article says:

The impact of Mendhapurkar’s work is best felt in the way the sex ratio in Solan district has stabilised at 940 females to 1,000 males, which was much lower earlier. 

Truly, what Subhash has managed to achieve is a lot and beyond what can be put in words in a single article. And of course, the hills have changed. The Better India salutes the spirit of Subhash Mendhapurkar and all his associates who helped bring about this change.

Read the complete article which covers the initial days of Subhash and how he managed to bring about these transformations.

Image courtesy: Arvind Jain of The Week.

Act Now For The Better India.

Indian television afficionados may have come across an advertisement of a mobile service provider depicting how a mobile phone could be used to spread education in remote areas. It got us interested and we wanted to see whether such an idea (no reference to the company!) was actually being implemented. After some not-so-intensive news searching, we came across an article by BBC India’s Amarnath Tewary which describes how the radio is being used in Bihar to teach English to school children.

The Bihar Education Project, in collaboration with the Education Development Center (a US-based organization), launched this innovative teaching idea in order to improve literacy of the state. Bihar currently has a literacy percentage of only 47%.

Amarnath Tewary reports:

The students are looking inquisitively at a radio set perched on a plastic chair in the middle of the classroom in the capital, Patna.
They are all waiting for a new English lesson to begin – on the radio. 

So, for half an hour, four days a week, millions of primary students in Bihar today learn English through this radio lesson.

The year-long interactive radio lessons are being broadcast by the four regional state-run All India Radio stations. The lessons cover seven million students attending 65,000 primary schools in all the 38 districts of the state.

And what does a student have to say about this?:

“It is very easy to learn English on radio. Every day we wait for this class. Even if the teacher is not in the class we learn and enjoy the programme,” a student, Sakshi Kumari, said. 

The state government has granted a 1000 rupees to every school to enable them to buy a radio. And the benefits of such initiatives in Bihar are told in this para:

Interestingly, backward and dirt-poor Bihar appears to be a trend setter here – a recent federal government report found that school students in the state are now faring better in English and mathematics than anywhere else in the country. 

The article is very well written and also gives you the perspective of the teachers in these schools. It is truly inspiring to see such initiatives being taken in the field of education, which is perhaps one of the most important areas requiring development in our country.
Last, but not the least, we couldn’t help but add the punch line – What an Idea!

Image courtesy: Prashant Ravi from BBC News

Times of India’s Teach India initiative had the following text on their website when they closed registrations to their Teach India initiative on September 5, 2008:

“Thank you Bangalore! We are overwhelmed by your desire to give back to society. 
With over 15700 volunteer applications received by us all our current teaching slots 
are filled up. 5000 volunteers have already been offered to teach. We are currently 
in the process of placing the balance volunteers who have applied.“

I know someone who’s actually sad she could not make it into the list.

And all this applying to do what? To go out of one’s way and give one’s valuable time to teach.

Think about it. This program is actually oversubscribed? And it is not competition driven or a monetarily lucrative venture? Young adults, shouldering all kinds of responsibilities, familial and professional, consciously want to make time for one more thing worthy of doing -teaching.

To all the teachers in India, here is a heartfelt message sent with love. This one event could find no better day than September the 5th – Teacher’s day, to express the underlying intent and latent capacity of the children you have once taught.

To all the cynics, both young and old, afraid of the new India, afraid of the myriad changes, seeing and seeking the negative in events, behold this one light among a myriad lights.

There is no doubt that we have a long way to go, and uncountable hurdles will be flung our way. But we can sleep well with one guarantee – that the youth of this resurgent India will find a way to better what already is. 

This puts in perspective the power of the news media to engage. The urban reach of mainstream media is clearly wide and deep. If the media were to engage even occasionally into meaningful projects, the outcome can far outweigh the efforts for the same.

Kudos to the Times of India group for their efforts in creating this avenue to channel the energies and minds of our people. Even the smallest avenues can overflow with goodwill and sincerity to contribute, as they have with this initiative.

Written By: Uday Arya

On: September 5, 2008

The Students of Symbiosis Infotech Campus (SIC) have come together to contribute towards providing better quality education for slum children.  The group is called Prayatna and their intention is to enrich the experience that the slum children get from the government run schools that they attend. Preeti Srivastav writes in this article in the Indian Express.

“These children do attend their government-run schools, but they needed that extra looking after to make themselves more competent. We not only take classes for them on our campus but have also got them admitted in a good English medium school for their better education,” says Chauhan, adding, “We have to catch them young as it becomes difficult to shift them from a Hindi or vernacular medium schools to a English medium one.”

The really interesting part is the source of the funds for this activity:

Not neglecting the funds, he said that they were paying Rs 7000 per children to the school, which in turn takes care of all the needs of the children – from fees to books to uniforms. When asked about the source of funds, Chauhan explained that SIC students conduct film festivals and games through which they collect money for the children. They also collect old clothes and books from SIC students. However the noble idea was of alumni adopting the children.

It is truly wonderful that as part of their college activities the students are able to source funds and provide for a better education for the lesser privileged children of our country. We hope that this model will act as a source of inspiration for many other colleges across India to give back something to the society.
And the work just doesn’t seem to stop at providing classroom education, as the article goes on to say:

Apart from the schooling, they also have many activities lined up for the kids.”We bring them to our campus five times a week and give them classes for english, maths, science, personality development, general knowledge and so on. We also take them for games and sports. We show them inspirational documentaries,” says Chauhan.

One of the objectives with which The Better India was started is to spread awareness and create a sense of social contribution amidst our citizens. Hence, for us it is heartening to note that today’s students are already treading this path of spreading welfare! We wish Prayatna all the very best in their ongoing endeavors and look forward to many more school children receiving quality education from SIC and other similar college bodies.

Read the complete article here.

Haran Kumar

24-year old Haran Kumar is a freelance photographer for the Times of India. What is perhaps less known about his life is the story of his rise from a boy living on the streets to an internationally acclaimed lensman.

Teneshia Naidoo narrates this for us in The Times here. Haran Kumar had fled his hometown in West Bengal at the age of 11, and came to Delhi with 20 rupees in his pocket, to find home with hundreds of other children on the streets. Says Kumar:

“I had many educational problems. I was really bad at studying and I had been bunking school for a month. When the school sent a letter to my parents, I knew I had to take a chance and run away, because I was so afraid of my father and I knew he would beat me.”

 

“Life was hard. During the evenings, I would try to sleep in a train, but sometimes police would come and beat us up for being on the train.”

After some time, Kumar was noticed by a staff member of Salaam Balak Trust, an NGO that offers shelter to street children. With the help of this NGO, Kumar was able to rebuild his life. He began going to school again and actually started performing well.

He discovered his talent and love for photography at a workshop, where he excelled at his chosen subject: shooting street children. He had an unusual flair for depicting these children as happy and full of life, unlike the usual attempts to bring out their misery. This got him a lot of recognition, and he has an exhibition lined up from September 5 to October 5, 2008 at the Sandton Art Centre. Anyone living in South Africa would no doubt love to check it out.

While on this story, do see this interesting project that Salaam Balak Trust has started to sensitize people to the lives of street children. People in Delhi can participate in a City Walk, the details of which you can find here, and learn about the city, its heritage, its stories and its people from the youngsters who know it best!