Everyday Lessons

what next?? there is a group of children and adults that i have been working with from the past 3 months...this group earn their living either by begging or by polishing shoes...i mainly started working with the children but slowly their elders joined the group...we would get together and learn to read/write, tell stories, play games or paint. the objective was to give them love and acceptance and get to know them and then bring about a need based change if required...the result was that in a short period of time, we all got to know each other well...i gave them my cell phone number and started getting 4-5 calls everyday...the calls were either just to say "hello" or seeking advise or seeking help if caught by the police (very common problem). some of the elders have taken up to learn stitching and tailoring...there are a total of 12 enrolled out of which 8 show up regularly....rest of the crowd continues to come to the rose garden...i have also found a very dedicated volunte...

One of the biggest challenge that these children face is that from police...as soon as the police sees these children they don't hesitate throwing their stick at them or chasing these children out of the market area...the police's reason is simple - the children move around the plaza and trouble people by begging...and then if anybody loses anything then their first suspicion is these children. The attitude of the people as well as the police towards these children is quite pathetic. They are always blaming these children without realizing that at some level each of us is to blame for the way these children have become. Anyway, i have been talking to a few constables at the plaza and have been requesting them to change their attitude towards these children....some of the constables have been very understanding and have said that they would give their support while some give me a lecture as to how i am wasting my time etc but since i only request them to be a little polite, they...

There have been quite a few changes in the street school that we are running in the rose garden. As mentioned earlier, a lot of grown up (above 17yrs) boys had also started coming to the school...most of these boys polish shoes and encouraged their younger siblings to beg. The good thing was that all of these boys showed eagerness in learning to read and write and always showed up in time for the class. Apart from studying, we did a lot of talking during the class…this was mainly done to understand their issues, to win their trust and to encourage them to move away from begging. We talked about various other skills that they could learn. They also understood that begging or polishing shoes would not sustain them for long… and showed interest in learning some vocation. With the help of Pramod (from yuvasatta), I approached the director of "Jan Shikshan Sansthan" – a vocational institute aided by the government. The response from the director was phenomenal…he agreed to send a ...

There have been quite a few changes in the street school that we are running in the rose garden. As mentioned earlier, a lot of grown up (above 17yrs) boys had also started coming to the school...most of these boys polish shoes and encouraged their younger siblings to beg. The good thing was that all of these boys showed eagerness in learning to read and write and always showed up in time for the class. Apart from studying, we did a lot of talking during the class…this was mainly done to understand their issues, to win their trust and to encourage them to move away from begging. We talked about various other skills that they could learn. They also understood that begging or polishing shoes would not sustain them for long… and showed interest in learning some vocation. With the help of Pramod (from yuvasatta), I approached the director of "Jan Shikshan Sansthan" – a vocational institute aided by the government. The response from the director was phenomenal…he agreed to send a ...

Last sunday, we all got together at co-veda - (it is an alternate school for young children that lets us use their school building and play ground on sundays) and played cricket, football, badminton, carom board...some of the children did painting, played drums, harmonium, tabla etc and ended the day with dance and songs. there were a total of 35 childen who showed up....some of the boys were from the bapu dham colony and the others were the ones whom i teach in sector 17. they all had a great time....here are some pictures from that day ..

Uma and Nandini showing their artwork... children loved using the watercolors.. Commando (yes!! thats what is his name) trying his hands on tabla

a game of cricket and football...