Pune! The educational capital of India! How ironic it is that there are so many children in this city who are working for a living, and don’t go to school at all. When this reporter had visited the city to meet a friend, the sight in MG road was shocking. There were a lot of kids, all below 10 years of age, teeming around holding shoe brushes and small tins of polish, imploring people to get their shoes shined. When my friend, unable to refuse a kid, sat down to have his shoes done, I started off a casual conversation with the boy.
I found out that he was from Assam and was about 10 years old. He had a brother, also a shoe shine, and a small sister. His mom was a beggar and his father ‘daroo peeta hai’ (drank and did nothing else). The boy, Vikas, was soon joined by his slightly elder brother, Vishal, who stunned me by saying “Welcome to Pune, Sir. Nice meeting you” in absolutely perfect English. On asking how on earth he spoke such English, he said that some ‘uncle’ used to come to their houses daily and hold English classes for a rupee a day, but now, he had left to Assam, so the classes are no more.
The kids were all educated up to the 1st standard, beyond which, utter poverty drove them to Mumbai, the land of dreams, to eke out their living. I wandered around a little bit more and found more children with brushes in hand. All of them had the same story, mom begged for a living, father ‘daroo peeta hai’ and they all spoke very good English. It was indeed surprising to see all of them expressing a desire to work and earn so that they could educate their little sisters. Such a sense of responsibility at such a tender age saddened me.
We could not afford to neglect the plight of those kids. Hauling them in an auto, we visited their huts in Vaidhwadi. A filthy pathway strewn with faeces led to their settlements. On seeing us, more children spilled out of their homes and we invited the mothers to join us for a conversation.
“If we send them to school, where will we get the money to eat food? We simply cannot afford to make them study. They are a major source of income for us” said one parent.
“They are not interested in studying. They have to earn. Even if they could study, this nearby school (pointing to a large government school) has many admission forms that are to be filled, and we do not understand any of them,” said another.
All the ladies were around 50 years old, and looked more like 65-year olds. Their teeth (for those who had any) were completely blackened, their skin, wrinkled to very extremes, and their spirits, sagging.
“Earlier we were in an other part of Pune, then the government shifted us to another place, now we are here. We don’t know what will happen next,” lamented one old lady.
It took us an hour to convince them that they had to make their kids study, and that the children can work in the evenings. Though we, in DreamIndia2020, do not know how we are going to help them, we do know for sure that we will start off yet another project in Pune (where we already are working in Apale Ghar and Manavya) very soon and that these kids will be the beneficiaries.
While going back, one kid asked, “Sir, where do people go after they die? Do they return to land?” and while I was done giving him the story which my mom gave me when I was young and had asked her a similar question, another counters “Sir, know what? I heard this story that there are some objects that revolve around the sun, and that long time back, there was some kind of a bomb up in the sky, and that the world was created because of that. Do you believe that?” I could not believe it, and I am talking about the child’s knowledge and not the Big Bang theory. I would still understand if those children spoke English, but when that fellow spoke about the Big Bang theory itself, I found myself wondering, where he would go, what heights he would touch, if properly educated. I was so immersed in those thoughts that when an other boy questioned me about what lay beneath the earth’s surface, I could not even listen properly.
As the sun slipped behind the mountains in Pune, and brought upon the dull darkness, I dropped them back at MG Road, which is converted into a “walkers only zone” during weekends. The hip evening crowd was milling around and I stood looking blankly at the kids as they waved their goodbyes and dissolved into the crowd, looking for customers who would have their shoes shined.
Well, it would be wonderful, if they could have someone bring some shine into their lives. We, at DreamIndia2020, are striving to do exactly that. Will you join us?
Please mail us to let know how you can be of help. We mainly require volunteers from Pune, who can visit this place on a weekly basis, and hold study classes for them.
Mail Varun@dreamindia2020.org or rohit.bhosale@gmail.com.
Alternately, you can also call..
Varun: 9324060161
Rohit: 9422760672
Jai Hind!
I found out that he was from Assam and was about 10 years old. He had a brother, also a shoe shine, and a small sister. His mom was a beggar and his father ‘daroo peeta hai’ (drank and did nothing else). The boy, Vikas, was soon joined by his slightly elder brother, Vishal, who stunned me by saying “Welcome to Pune, Sir. Nice meeting you” in absolutely perfect English. On asking how on earth he spoke such English, he said that some ‘uncle’ used to come to their houses daily and hold English classes for a rupee a day, but now, he had left to Assam, so the classes are no more.
The kids were all educated up to the 1st standard, beyond which, utter poverty drove them to Mumbai, the land of dreams, to eke out their living. I wandered around a little bit more and found more children with brushes in hand. All of them had the same story, mom begged for a living, father ‘daroo peeta hai’ and they all spoke very good English. It was indeed surprising to see all of them expressing a desire to work and earn so that they could educate their little sisters. Such a sense of responsibility at such a tender age saddened me.
We could not afford to neglect the plight of those kids. Hauling them in an auto, we visited their huts in Vaidhwadi. A filthy pathway strewn with faeces led to their settlements. On seeing us, more children spilled out of their homes and we invited the mothers to join us for a conversation.
“If we send them to school, where will we get the money to eat food? We simply cannot afford to make them study. They are a major source of income for us” said one parent.
“They are not interested in studying. They have to earn. Even if they could study, this nearby school (pointing to a large government school) has many admission forms that are to be filled, and we do not understand any of them,” said another.
All the ladies were around 50 years old, and looked more like 65-year olds. Their teeth (for those who had any) were completely blackened, their skin, wrinkled to very extremes, and their spirits, sagging.
“Earlier we were in an other part of Pune, then the government shifted us to another place, now we are here. We don’t know what will happen next,” lamented one old lady.
It took us an hour to convince them that they had to make their kids study, and that the children can work in the evenings. Though we, in DreamIndia2020, do not know how we are going to help them, we do know for sure that we will start off yet another project in Pune (where we already are working in Apale Ghar and Manavya) very soon and that these kids will be the beneficiaries.
While going back, one kid asked, “Sir, where do people go after they die? Do they return to land?” and while I was done giving him the story which my mom gave me when I was young and had asked her a similar question, another counters “Sir, know what? I heard this story that there are some objects that revolve around the sun, and that long time back, there was some kind of a bomb up in the sky, and that the world was created because of that. Do you believe that?” I could not believe it, and I am talking about the child’s knowledge and not the Big Bang theory. I would still understand if those children spoke English, but when that fellow spoke about the Big Bang theory itself, I found myself wondering, where he would go, what heights he would touch, if properly educated. I was so immersed in those thoughts that when an other boy questioned me about what lay beneath the earth’s surface, I could not even listen properly.
As the sun slipped behind the mountains in Pune, and brought upon the dull darkness, I dropped them back at MG Road, which is converted into a “walkers only zone” during weekends. The hip evening crowd was milling around and I stood looking blankly at the kids as they waved their goodbyes and dissolved into the crowd, looking for customers who would have their shoes shined.
Well, it would be wonderful, if they could have someone bring some shine into their lives. We, at DreamIndia2020, are striving to do exactly that. Will you join us?
Please mail us to let know how you can be of help. We mainly require volunteers from Pune, who can visit this place on a weekly basis, and hold study classes for them.
Mail Varun@dreamindia2020.org or rohit.bhosale@gmail.com.
Alternately, you can also call..
Varun: 9324060161
Rohit: 9422760672
Jai Hind!
1 comment:
Very good job!!!
An inspiration for all...
Keep it up!!!
Post a Comment