“If I win – and there’s a freaking one in a million chance that I will – I would like to start a school in Kamathipura,” says Robin Chaurasiya, plonked on the floor with two kittens playing on her lap at the intriguingly decorated office cum shelter of Kranti School tucked away in an industrial unit converted into a house in bustling Vakola in western suburbs.
Ms Chaurasiya, 29, is an Indian American who co-founded Kranti School, an NGO that works with marginalised children, daughters of commercial sex workers and survivors of trafficking in Kamathipura. She has been nominated for the prestigious $ 1 million prize, the Global Teacher’s Prize – considered a Nobel equivalent in global teachers community.
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Chaurasiya is one of the four Indians who have made the shortlist of 50 finalists. Launched by the Varkey Foundation in 2014 to recognise and raise the stature of the teaching profession, the prize operates under the patronage of Dubai Ruler Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
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Kranti School, a non profit organisation, empowers marginalised girls from Kamathipura. Here, girls aged between 12 and 20 undergo a non-formal Social Justice curriculum that covers issues that affect the girls’ lives such as caste, class, religion, environment, and healthcare. And the NGO has many success stories, one being that of Shweta Katti, who won a $ 30,000 scholarship from New York’s Bard College in September 2013 and is presently completing a degree in psychology. Kranti School was in news again in May this year when the group staged Teen Batti Express , an hour-long play that depicted the lives of Kamathipura’s sex workers and their children. The play went on a six-week US tour which included performances at Facebook and Google headquarters.
Chaurasiya and her troupe of 13 girls travelled and performed in New York, Washington, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. “We went to a juvenile jail in Washington, did a performance for sex workers group in New York. I didn’t want them to see theatre there, but experience how same things happen in other countries absent fathers, mothers doing sex work etc,” says Ms Chaurasiya.
She herself is no stranger to adversity emerging from a family with a history of domestic violence. A lesbian, she became the first Indian American to be kicked out of the United States Air Force under the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy for gay and lesbians for marrying the same sex. Six months later, the US changed its policy towards the LGBT community. She returned to India and set up Kranti School four years ago in a rented industrial unit in Vakola.
So why a school at Kamathipura? “Children go to municipal schools in Kamathipura, but I realised the kind of teaching they are exposed to when they come to me. It’s largely memorising and mugging up things. I feel they should learn things they can use in practical life like problem solving skills for example,” she says explaining why she ended up tailoring a curriculum for these girls.
“All kinds of girls come to us. Some are illiterate. Some are educated till Class IV or VII. Besides, the education system here assumes that you come emotionally and psychologically prepared for academic learning. A lot of these kids suffer from depression and they need mental health support before they can learn. There is a reality check that is missing from our education system,” Chaurasiya says, underlining how that formal education system does not cater to their needs.
The school week consists of Music Mondays, TED Talk Tuesdays, Worldly Wednesdays, Thinking Thursdays, and Field Trip Fridays. The Weekends include plays, films, exhibits and volunteer work at an NGO.
“Self esteem, confidence and mental health support are really important. So it’s not just about learning. We sometimes do arts, and sometimes music, something that will help them heal,” she says, citing the example of Sheetal.
Sheetal the Drummer
Sheetal could not study beyond Class VII. After joining Kranti, coaxing her into studies didn’t quite work out as she kept falling sick. But she played around with drums and sticks for two hours every day. Kranti then tried to enrol her into music schools where she could learn drums, but no Indian school would admit only after she cleared HSC. “Then we approached music schools abroad, and she got a nine-month fellowship from a US college, and has just returned from the US in August this year. Now she takes music therapy classes with children of sex workers, constructions worker and other marginalised children, and she loves it,” says Chaurasia.
Kavita the Singer
Like Sheetal, Kavita came to Kranti School two years ago from Kamathipura following the footsteps of her friend Shweta Katti. “I lost my father to HIV Aids when I was four and everyone blamed my mother for it. My well-off uncles said I would grow up and become like my mother,” says Kavita, a confident girl of 21 who has completed her HSC and speaks fluent English. She became friends with Shweta who lived in the same locality near Pila House in Kamathipura, and followed her to Kranti School.
“After joining Kranti, Shweta and I realised that we had the same father, and we were actually sisters. For a long time I didn’t know what I wanted to do in life before I realised that I like singing,” says Kavita, who flawlessly renders a folk number by Kavita Seth in her husky, full throated voice well-suited to Rajasthani folk songs. Goaded by Shweta, Kavita applied for a US fellowship programme that takes international students on a voyage to 15 countries and also teaches them while they are on board the ship for four months. Her voyage started in San Diego and took her to Japan, China, Cambodia, Vietnam, South Africa, Morrocco, Singapore, among other countries. “I had never dreamt that one day I would do this,” she says, adding that her ultimate dream is to start a café in Kamathipura where children could freely come and learn to dream like her.