Education For All and Hamari Pahchan - A Bridge Between The Two

Education is a right, not a privilege. Every child deserves access to quality education.

We hear of these two lines in many of the government agendas, in our school textbooks, in many poster designs of many educational institutions and fundraising organisations, but very rare or a few times, we come across situations where actually these two lines are actually been reflected in our society. Yet, we have remain silent on this issue for so long. Many authors and poets have penned their thoughts regarding this issue but it is on us to act upon. Remember what our ‘Father of the Nation’ told us, “You must be the change that you want to see in this world.”

We talk about how ‘Right to Education’ is one of the basic rights of every individual and falls under our “Fundamental Rights” and that is one of the pillars of success for any economy and how it comes before ‘Right to Health’, but we fail to acknowledge that it is something a person must claim as their right because all deserve the minimum need for literacy, which is required by any person to sustain in this modern world, but unfortunately, we come across situations where education is a luxury to many till now. I will tell you an example. I had a fantastic chat with a Afghan immigrant girl on Instagram the other day, a school-going student who immigrated to Iran and even though conversation lasted only for a few minutes she said she immigrated with her family and she and her younger sister want to pursue their studies in Iran. India has also bore and produced many literary geniuses and academics and scholars, one of the finest, perhaps the best in the world, yet it’s heartwrenching to see that its population is deprived of basic education and lives in the world of darkness where the light of knowledge and education doesn’t penetrate them.

In other countries, education is valued so much and given so much importance where India lacks to build a proper infrastructure to provide education to millions of children and youth population. Another example to understand the picture how education is vital in one’s life and how its absence can have serious repercussions on the individuals and the society at large. The above highlighted sentence talks about the present situation in Thailand how the youth there lacks basic skills to sustain themselves. The World Bank recently uploaded a YouTube video on this. And there are many instances to continue with.

I remember one of my friends from school plus now in tuitions, Srinjoy Majumder talked about the collapse of education in the developing world in his blog published in the official website of Warwick Economics Summit (WES) organised by students at University of Warwick, England, titled, “From classroom to building sites: The collapse of education in the developing world”, where he talks about a similar case about have a five-minute conversation with a boy working in the construction site near his house about how the futures of our next generation are lying scattered across roads and building sites. A hard thing to watch, but I couldn’t let myself turn away from the situation when I first came in touch with our NGO, Hamari Pahchan. I learnt from their website on how they have taken on the task for the upliftment of these underprivileged children among all other its noble social causes. To address this issue, they came up with the ‘DRISHTI initiative’.

“DRISHTI” as the name suggests, aims to give the knowledge’s eye to these blind people – blind due to lack of education that they don’t know their basic rights or on how to sustain themselves . The motto of the project is: “To bridge the gap between privileged & underprivileged children.”, and they fulfill their goals of this mission tirelessly which are:

• Inculcation of basic life skills

• Empower children to grab significant opportunities for a bright future

• Overall personality development.

Along with that, their plan of action is to:

• Conduct weekly classes

• Provide Distribution drives for stationary and necessary supplements like textbooks, Vocational training programs & Personality Development programs to expand their reach

Along with the above mentioned program, recently, they have also come up with the “Gadgetshala” initiative under this project. It primarily aims to deliver Drishti Classes with the aid of the internet and gadgets in order to improve a child’s learning experience. Mentors are assigned to groups of children to guide them through the learning process and to ensure that they have easy access to resources.

Did you know that NGO, ‘Hamari Pahchan’ has its own fundraiser link with the above motto as well? The name of the fundraiser link is titled as, “Education for all” where they give valuable statistics regarding illiteracy in India and how it is also the main reason why poverty exists in our country. It is also seen there is a lot of discrimination regarding education on the basis of gender. Boys are given more preference over girls to go to schools and study while the girls stay at home, do household chores and bring a glass of water to the males while males go out and work. I read this on a post of ‘UN Women’ regarding equal opportunities and empowerment of women through education.

This is where Hamari Pahchan and my working closely with them steps in. The people here are doing a great job by providing education to these underprivileged children, starting from the basics, like concepts of good manners, hygiene and cleanliness, kindness, gender sensitization, good and bad touch as well as storytelling, arts, crafts and coding. They also try to make them politically aware of their voting rights and try to increase it in them. They ensure that those children who don’t have internet connectivity or gadgets at home to study in online mode are provided along with the necessary stationery items and books they require and they need your support to help such children. One can learn more about the NGO and their projects from the insert links I have provided in the blue highlighted words or by checking their website or contacting them.

You will be surprised to know that 25% of the Indian population is still uneducated. According to the latest figures, the literacy rate in India is only 74%.

This means that more than one quarter of the population is still illiterate. Illiteracy is a state in which someone is unable to read and write, whereas education, is referred to constitute the backbone of development in a progressing country like India. In our country, the adult literacy rate is measured for people aged above 15 years, and the rate of youth literacy is measured for people aged between 15-24 years, due to which India is now home to the largest number of illiterate people in the world.

Hamari Pahchan is dedicated this cause to bring difference in the lives of these underprivileged children. Till now, they have been able to educate 11250+ children & conduct 3000+ distribution drives through their workshops.

EDUCATION FOR 1 CHILD AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
1 Child’s Education = Rs.7500/ year.

In Rs.7500 one will help them provide a child with stationary supplements, books and other study material and an access to vocational training sessions. One can donate to their fundraiser and help them protect the fundamental Right to Education of many other students like these underprivileged children and save their futures from going to get wasted through continuous exploitation.

One’s benefit is that donation to Hamari Pahchan NGO entitles one to tax exemption under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act.

Back to why I chose for this cause is the current situation in my home town, Kolkata where the quality of education has deteriorated so much for higher studies also. Proper conducting of classes and class lectures in a few colleges and universities has gone down by a significant amount and as a result class bunk is rampant while classes being held properly and regularly is a rare scenario amidst the hustle and bustle of the city.

We had a fantastic chapter, I remember, from our twelfth grade NCERT textbook, ‘Flamingo’ with the story name, “Lost Spring: Stories of Stolen Childhood”, by the writer Anees Jung. The title is so apt regarding the context of the chapter which talks about the slum children with whom the author interacted with and interviewed them, their dreams, their desires and what they wish for. How they can’t dream big due to poverty and why they cannot go to schools to study because they have to help their parents both at work and home. They have no one to lead them and they are victims of the vicious circle of the rich and the privileged ones backed by the stigma of caste with which they are born with and which further exploits them in the hands of these upper classes. So, lack of awareness is not a problem here but they are simply can’t help that they are made to realise that they are born poor and they cannot afford to study like many other privileged children in our country. These are the stories of many children in our country where they are forced to child labour at a very young age due to less stringent laws in our country ruining their bright future. It tells us also about the false hopes given to these people just because they are underprivileged and poor. It talks about how delighted and enthusiastic these young kids are regarding learning how to play a sport or going to school or buy some good clothes for themselves but are unable to give themselves one.

The number of children struggling with Illiteracy in India is alarming. As per the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) 32 million children in India have never even seen the face of a school. Moreover, the Education Ministry revealed that 29 million children do not have access to necessary digital devices. Current scenario highlights the need to bridge the gap between the privileged and the underprivileged children. Hamari Pahchan comes as a saviour to this and rescues these children’s futures and to help them send a child back to school, back to dreams!

As a growing adult, I have always wondered why I need to study? But never found an answer but today I can say yes, I have a concrete idea about my curiosity if not a full-fledged answer to it. That, I am lucky with respect to the fates of these unfortunate slum children that I have a shelter, food, parents and school to go to. As a social entrepreneur at Hamari Pahchan, is to build my own identity or ‘Pahchan’ through social work and give back to society as much as I possibly can and that I am going to do by voicing my opinion for this social injustice and carry forward this mission for the rest of my life. I want to experience things myself, talk to these folks and try to understand them, be kind, compassionate and show empathy in a good way towards them and come to their aid.

I want to thank, Hamari Pahchan for providing me with this opportunity to at least explore my project even though it is only a remote internship lasting for thirty days but for the rest of my life, I pledge to carry on with this ideal and stick to it.

Stay connected with Hamari Pahchan on: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram & Website to know more about the NGO and their works and projects. They continue to make valuable contributions to the society not only through their social missions but also offering various study abroad, internship and volunteer programmes which gives different opportunities to various individuals from numerous fields and irrespective of age and all this can be done by filling out an application form of your interest from multiple job positions and those internships (offline/virtual) can last from a minimum of seven days to even three to six months. Each role is assigned with daily tasks and submitting them everyday to your mentors under whose guidance one will be working and completion of which one gets an internship certificate and a LOR(Letter of Recommendation) for excellent performance for the same daily tasks.

References:

Information regarding NGO:

https://hamaripahchan.org/

Information regarding “DRISHTI” Initiative

1. https://hamaripahchan.org/

2. https://milaap.org/fundraisers/Education-For-Everypne

Image:

1. https://milaap.org/fundraisers/Education-For-Everypne

2. https://hamaripahchan.org/