‘Why I Quit My Job to Turn a Mumbai Skywalk Into a Classroom for Slum Kids’

On Mumbai’s Kandivali station skywalk, we can spot a woman and 15 children who are engaged in studying and fun activities.

The woman is 25-year-old Haimanti Sen, who quit her well-paying job to make sure that at least some of the underprivileged kids of Mumbai attain basic education and skills.

She is the founder of a non-governmental organisation called Junoon where several like-minded people are associated with this cause. They teach the children the alphabet, numbers, words, art and communication.

It all started when Haimanti took note of a few children on the street begging for food and money. She was worried that they were unaware of schools and decided to meet their parents. But the parents spurted out a blatant lie that the children attended schools.

It was then that Haimanti made a firm decision to educate the kids. She got in touch with a school in the area to enrol some of them. But the authorities were hesitant because they were unsure if the children would attend classes regularly.

To equip them for formal schooling under the Right to Education Act, Haimanti started teaching them.

There are times when they run and hide in restaurants, alleyways and under cars, waiting for Haimanti to pick them up for the class so their parents don’t find them.

This spirited woman has been successful in teaching 15 kids a basic set of skills and attain knowledge so far.

Watch this young woman’s selfless efforts to educate the underprivileged: