From far off, the universe, as we know it, would seem to be a jumble of sound and sights. Until we peered closely and distinguished the sounds as myriad voices, tones, languages, and those blurs as moving images of life. Just so, the close by-lanes of the economically deprived sections of our city could be just a warren of noise and crowds, smells and sweltering jostle. But 14 years ago in Noida’s Ambedkar Vihar (which even now is referred to locally as “Harijan Basti”), young Supriya Akhaury saw children full of life and an insatiable desire to learn, children who had a right to education but not the means to access it. And instead of seeing them against a background of rutted roads, open drains and an inevitable cycle of poverty that would pull them out of schools and into manual jobs like plying cycle rickshaw like their parents, she saw those children as individuals with talents and preferences and the capacity to move beyond the present. Most important, perhaps, she saw her own will to do something about it. So it was that in 1998 Supriya began tutoring two children at home so that one day they could join the educational mainstream. Today that gesture has grown into Vidya & Child (V&C), a trust with 1200 children on its rolls, in three locations within Noida in the National Capital Region, whose mission is “to help bridge the gap for those children who need education and have no access to facilities for learning in our society”.
To enter house number 58, Gali 3 of Ambedkar Vihar in Sector 37 in the afternoon is to enter a haze of high decibel sound. A long corridor flanked by rooms, small and tiny. Some equipped with desks, one with computers. A narrow staircase leading up to more of the same. Can chaos be purposeful? Undoubtedly! Children and adults hurry by, some intent on errands, others to slip into already packed rooms; yet others look intently into computer screens. One group wears the cheerfully wandering look anyone who has ever been a school child will remember as the homework expression. These are the ones in the midst of their homework period, explains Supriya.
V&C operates in three major areas of education: For children from the nursery to class V levels, this building runs as a regular school with a syllabus based on the Central Board of Secondary Education norms but with content and workbooks developed in-house. Then the children are admitted to mainstream schools, but V&C’s responsibility continues with after-school support. “We have a parallel faculty for all the subjects,” says Supriya, “because all the subjects need reinforcement.” The third part of the programme comes into play once the children reach class XI. Known as the Foundation Programme, this deals with career counselling and, taking into account aspects such as how soon the child is required to become an earner for the family, personal preferences and capabilities, includes intensive discussions with parents and students.
Suddenly, out of the babble that is a Thursday afternoon at V&C, rises a cloud of organised drumming. These are tabla students of Arunava Chanda, crammed into their classroom and defying, like everything else at this organisation, stereotyped ideas like what kind of environment a classical musician would be prepared to teach in. A few rooms down, Samina De’s vocal students pick out a stream of their own and fill the air with song.
These classes are part of V&C’s Arts and Performing Arts programme. There is also a Kathak class that takes place at the nearby temple hall. “We also have theatre, painting and filmmaking,” says Supriya. The performing arts programme is into its sixth year now. This Saturday, the students are set to perform an all-classical programme in Delhi for the first time. The young filmmakers have already drawn accolades. Learning to script, shoot, edit and take care of all aspects of the craft, they have made four films so far and two have been screened at children’s film events. They recently won the Little Directors’ Award at the International Children’s Film Festival in Hyderabad.
Besides, the children are encouraged to join what is called the “Creative Project” on weekends. “Volunteers come for specific workshops and do an eight-month activity. Then they do a showcase,” relates Supriya. Such showcases are largely for the parents, though donors may be called too. The idea, she notes, is to expose the children to as many types of creative disciplines as possible.
Underlying these multifarious activities are the core beliefs of Supriya and her husband Rahul who started the organisation together, and the eight-member trust. These include the concept that every child is a unique individual and that the arts are an important vehicle for personality development and self-expression. Alongside runs the tenet that education should be process-oriented.
With 100 employed members on the rolls and about 40 volunteers, the organisation’s various departments are all guided by a programme team, says Supriya. This is not a team that merely looks into logistics and event preparation. “It looks into it conceptually too. For example, to make sure it doesn’t become too product-centric.” The programme this Saturday is a case in point. While it is a performance, all faculty members need to remind themselves as much as the children that the arts are a long path that is joyful in itself.
The challenges are great. If the adult members of V&C have to remember not to be judgemental as also not to feel judged or to be over-protective of the children they work with (for example that “our children should behave well in school,” laughs Supriya), the children also need constant support to build up confidence to face and take their rightful place in an often harsh society that labels people by material wealth. For this aspect V&C has a Life Skills programme where the students — many of who are now employed — in colleges, or in technical training, are encouraged to talk about encounters in daily life.
“If you are working in a call centre and you are dropped home by your colleagues at night, and you get off here, you have to tell them this is where you live,” says Supriya. Sometimes a colleague might make a remark like, “How do you live in such a small house?” By opening up and talking to their peers and mentors in the life skills programmes, says Supriya, the youngsters are helped to let go of the hurt and take it as a minor blip. Cushioned at V&C, the problems begin as soon as they mix with the rest of society, she finds. But, notes Supriya wisely, some amount of conflict is necessary. “They start questioning and thinking for themselves. Thhoda sa dhakka achcha hota hai .”
Helping Hands
Supriya Akhaury, Vidya & Child founder and a trained but no longer practising chartered accountant, says the trust hasn’t applied for government sponsorship though there are individual and corporate sponsors who keep the work going. She points out that their insistence on making the arts and life skills programmes available to every child raises the cost per child. Sponsors ask, she says for example, why a child from such a background needs a tabla class. From their point of view, their donation would cover more children if it were being used only to send the children to school for academic education. But V&C’s effort at quality inputs, be it workshops or discussions or exposure to different disciplines, translates into organisational costs even if many of the services are rendered voluntarily.
V&C’s trustees reflect an array of backgrounds. They include former ambassador and historian Bimal Prasad; engineer P.P. Verma (nephew of Jayaprakash Narayan); retired teacher Deviani Chatterjee; corporate executive Mohan Kumar; engineer Ruchi Shah; trained teacher Kakul Gupta; entrepreneur and engineer Toshak Vaid.
Coordinating the classical arts performances this Saturday are Dilip Niboriya and Ninad Parikh.
