We walk past a stinking drain and crumbling over-crowded shanties to enter Valmiki temple inside Anna Nagar slums, near ITO, and the transformation takes us by surprise. The interiors of the temple sport bright, colourful drawings and the place resembles a cheerful hub with children of different ages occupied with learning and honing their skills.
Even the swollen Yamuna last month could not dampen their joy of learning. While the rain played havoc in many parts of Delhi, the Valmiki temple reverberated with the voices of these children. They were unwilling to miss their weekend classes run by Pehchaan The Street School, a non-government organisation.
Every child here has a success story to narrate. School dropout Krish joined seven years ago and gradually developed into an artist. Pulling out his art note, he flips the pages filled with pencil sketches of his favourite cartoon characters and famous people. “I attend academic classes too because I wish to join class IX through Open School next year,” says the 14-year-old.
Anna Nagar children attend weekend classes at Pehchaan, The Street School in Delhi, run by college volunteers | Photo Credit: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA
Three years ago, the floods in the city had ravaged this economically disadvantaged neighbourhood but fortunately this year’s floods, did not breach the cemented banks of the drain. And the 350-odd children chose to continue with their classes.
“The children love to come here and unfailingly turn up every Saturday and Sunday,” says Akash Tandon, who with his childhood friends – Kanika Narula, Sam Pillai, Leejo Joy and Monica Vamdar, founded Pehchaan in 2015. As college students, the friends would visit slums and do voluntary work. “But we never thought of running an organisation,” says Akash, till the five of them decided to help children who were either begging on the streets or were school dropouts unable to cope with the school syllabus and needed guidance.
Anna Nagar children attend weekend classes at Pehchaan, The Street School in Delhi, run by college volunteers | Photo Credit: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA
Long road ahead
When Pehchaan stepped in 2015, 70% of the children in Anna Nagar slums were not attending to school. Most of them came from broken or low income families. “It was initially difficult to convince the residents; we started with 10 children, with the objective to not just focus on education but the continuous development of the children and enable them to build a career out of what they are good at,” says Akash.
As the team started teaching the children, introducing them to dance, music, art, crafts and yoga as well, the word spread and the number grew to 100 within six months. Soon enough every child from the slum enrolled for the weekend classes and the pilot project turned into a successful model. Today, Pehchaan engages 500 volunteers from city colleges who help 1,000-plus slum children across 10 centres in the city.
Pehchaan classes in Valmiki Temple in Anna Nagar slums | Photo Credit: Special arranagement
“We motivate the children to pursue their hobbies and passion if we find they are struggling with their studies. Most often the children are unable to connect with their school teachers and here, we provide them with an informal set-up and the confidence to speak up and seek help,” says Akash.
Akash Tandon | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
“It means a lot to them because we immediately see a change in their behaviour after they start coming to us,” he adds.
Pehchaan runs on crowdfunding and does not take direct monetary help. They urge people to spend time with the children and buy them stationery, school bags, notebooks, uniforms. City college students join as interns for three months and are required to take at least 24 classes.
Class XI student Deepak, who is from the first batch, says, “The volunteers handhold us, teach us patiently, encourage us to keep improving and give us the confidence to aim high. If I score above 75 per cent in my Board exams next year, I have been promised a laptop; I am working hard for it,” he smiles.
Anna Nagar slum children attend weekend classes at Pehchaan, The Street School in Delhi, run by college volunteers | Photo Credit: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA
“In slums, there are multiple issues such as violence, malnourishment, illiteracy, poverty but one issue in common is that they feel excluded from the rest of the world,” says Akash. “It, therefore, positively impacts the mindset of these children when they see our volunteers showering attention on them,” he adds.
A Class apart
Elsewhere in Delhi, Bal Mitra Mandal (BMM) volunteers run street classes for children living in slums. The footpaths and bus sheds become their classrooms. At the Nehru Place traffic junction, a young mother swells with pride as she watches her four-year-old daughter Kajal scribble in a notebook. “I will be happy if my daughter learns and does something worthy. We came to the city in search of work; my husband works as a ragpicker. Neither of us has ever been to a school,” she says.
When 13-year-old child leader Nisha, who herself was born and brought up in slums, talks about going to school, Kajal and 35 other children scream in joy. They all are part of a flagship programme ‘ Bag Pack Heroes’ founded by Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi. At traffic intersections at Moti Bagh Metro, Rangpuri and Mahipalpur, the child leaders aim at educating as many street children as possible and motivate them to join school.
The Bag pack heroes | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
“Poor children should stop wasting their lives; they should get an opportunity to go to school like I did,” says Nisha, and adds, “when street children start educating themselves, their lives change forever.”
The strength of BMM is that all child leaders themselves live in urban slums; they help to empower the children from their own neighborhood. Says another child leader Nitish, 13, “I want all the children in our slum to learn good things from us.”
While imparting education, our child leaders themselves learn major life skills such as empathy and compassion and develop the potential of becoming future leaders, “ says Rakesh Senger, the Foundation Executive Director.
The Bag Pack heroes of Kailash Satyarthi Foundation at Nehru Place junction in Delhi | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
At each traffic junction, about a dozen child leaders take classes in maths, letters of the English and Hindi alphabet, art and craft, and yoga through play way method and make the street children school-ready
“I like to attend these classes every day,” says seven-year-old Jyoti, and shows how she has scribbled her name on the notebook, given to her by one of the leaders. “We ask people in our slums to donate money to buy the required stuff,” says Nisha. “It shows peoples’ interest in their children’s future,” she adds.
(Names of children changed to protect their identities)
