Like any ordinary day, I met my friends
and learned what happened in the neighbourhood.
I quietly consumed information in the form of gossip, pity and fun. I noticed many a things and conveniently
ignored it. Not that it hit any part of
my mind or body, it hardly did, as it used be a part of my “ignoring ordinary
days”. But there were amazing &
intelligent conversations. It indeed was
interesting to hear strange stories narrated noon after noon of an ordeal that
my good friend went through taking sessions at a Government School like lack of
electricity, no sufficient benches to sit, no platforms, high strength
classrooms, students who would not listen and so on. On the brighter side, my friend’s daughter
from her play school came back home and recited poems, practiced her alphabets
and numbers. She loved maths, period!
Apart from the regular gossiping, there
is this new found social networking platform that we all are hooked on to. We voice our grievances from politics to
domestic issues. We follow wise and vice
people. Like anybody, I also do the
same. I came across a tweet “need 30
frocks for 30 girls”. That hit me hard,
pretty hard. I could not believe that
the requirement was only 30 frocks. I
inquired, interacted and promised to give them the 30 frocks. I have still not done it. I have my reasons and the real reason is my
disastrous bank balance.
Mahabadia, a small village in the
district of Bhopal has a considerable population running their families working
as daily wage labourers. The families
prefer to divide domestic work to the “girl child” forbidding them from getting
basic education. Ahambhumika, an NGO has
had a significant role to play in convincing these families to provide basic
education to children. Over the last 6
months, Mahak, the informal literacy centre has been successful in teaching and
training these girl children for two hours every day. Hindi reading and writing plus Arithmetic
subjects are covered. Students show a
very high level learning abilities and aptitude ensuing them to start teaching
English reading and writing. It becomes
pertinent to increase the learning hours in a student apart from the time they
spend at the centre. In order to achieve
that in them; and retain their interest levels, Ahambhumika provides “Cursive
Writing Notebooks” for home practices.
Cursive Writing Notebooks are required
twice a month and it costs Rs.40/- per book.
There are 30 girls in the class.
Ahambhumika is not able to provide a sustained flow or support the
activity month on month and have voiced their request through various forums
from individuals / corporates / groups to support this activity. The NGO is also planning to provide Computer
Literacy programmes to the kids as well.
Actually in reality and honestly, all
around us are very nice people. We all
sympathize, we all strongly protest any unjust happenings, we make some small
gestures but still somewhere we lose out to see the holistic picture. We do no approve of child labour, we do not
approve of infanticide, and we do not approve of road side begging and so
on. But do we really do anything to help
overcome or eradicate or at least ensure to pull down the statistics, the
answer is a big NO.
Those 30 girls in that village wait for a
courier to come by; that will perhaps have 30 frocks or some Cursive Writing
Notebooks or some cheque for the literacy programme. I will make my move, may be a little late or
may be tomorrow but definitely I will make. Just in case you can do it before me, it is a
request, that you please go ahead and be the first and take that part from your
“ignoring ordinary days” and make an attempt.
