How lack of Education has impacted their life
Problems:- 1.Anti-education mindset For most slum families, education is the last thing on their minds. Every child up to the age of 14 is entitled to free education, but that’s just a mere paper report. As slum children grow up, parental pressure to leave school and start work increases, and the majority of them leave the school by the time they attain the age of 16. Also, the option of higher education remains an expensive dream. Among slum residents, the most common belief about higher education or even completing school is that its’s a waste of time and money. 2.The costly privatised education The privatisation of education in our country has happened more quickly than the implementation of any governmental educational reform. The high cost of education in the private schools makes it a distant dream for slum children. All their dreams of getting quality education in these so called english medium schools never get fulfilled. Even the tutions which some of them can afford for covering the gap caused by government schools makes hole in their pocket. As a result they have to leave their schooling. 3.The fear of not fitting in Sometime it’s not just the limitations of their government schooling or lack of money for textbooks and admission fees, their feelings of inadequacy, fear of mixing with their privileged middle-class couterparts and lack of encouragement from parents and community all contribute to keeping them away. 4.Government schooling Most slum children go to schools where teaching standards are low and classrooms are seriously under-equipped. Often, they tell us that their classrooms may have a computer in them, but they are never allowed to touch it. Children are taught in Hindi and English lessons to them are not enough to gain the standard of English which is required nowadays for a good job. For higher education vital textbooks are absent in schools, and their parents can’t afford to buy them.
Our Contribution
Slums are breeding grounds for anti-social activities. Drugs, prostitution, gambling, thefts, violence besides foul language is a common phenomenon here. In order to prevent children away from all these negative activities, we started Curricular Activities for the children. Parents of these children are either illiterate or too poor to afford additional guidance or too many members in a very small room resulting in no place to study or do homework, resulting in their grades being very low. Many would fail & dropout and start working. Parents also welcome extra income to supplement. Looking at the grim situation, we started Nursery & Tuition classes for children between 4 to 14 years of age. We have engaged a teacher between 3 to 5 pm and 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm ( Mon to Fri) at two different locations. Children are taught prayers, told moral stories, they play games, dance, sing, draw, paint etc besides helping them with their daily homework, revision. We conduct various competitions, distribute prizes, celebrate important National & other Festivals, go out for picnics etc. so that they are encouraged to attend classes regularly and become responsible citizens of our country. There is no School drop out now. We started Nursery Classes for small children so that they get admission to good schools. We started Beautician Classes for senior girls so that they can earn their pocket money to pay their college fees. We also provide Readers to the blind girls to cope with their studies.Many children have enrolled for Higher Studies & are attending College regularly.
Sona Kumar
She has been involved in social causes for over 2 decades now. She worked as a volunteer for an NGO called Swades Foundation for ten years. Smt Kumar has taken numerous initiatives for helping the underprivileged, notable among them being that she organized an Antakshri on Zee TV in 2001 for the mentally and physically challenged. The show featured Anu Kapur and Pallavi Joshi as hosts. She is also a SUJOK (an alternative medical therapy) practitioner.