When I first went to Okhla to visit the slums and the mobile schools, it was heartening to see the children wanting to break free. They crowded near the yellow bus, the school on wheels. I wrote the story a month ago but it wasn't published until today.
An edited version appeared in the Indian Express on July 24, 2009.
Chinki Sinha
New Delhi, June 20, 2009
It’s only for a few hours when he is inside the mobile school run by the Delhi government that 13-year-old Kamruddin, son of a Bihari migrant, has the security of four walls and a roof. And that’s when, away from the flies and the stench, he can give his dreams a free run.
Before he joined the “School on wheels”, a non-formal education program that has gained momentum within India and abroad where such mobile schools are reaching out to migrant, and poor children who would have otherwise remained out of school, Kamruddin spent most of his waking hours washing plates at a nearby hotel for a paltry sum. Now, he attends school that comes to him, calling out to him and others with a song “School chale hum” in the morning, and goes for work in the afternoon. In the night, he sleeps in the open on a push cart his father pulls during the day. But all those limitations have only fueled the desire to move up and the bright yellow bus seems to the first step.
While Kamruddin is one of around 500 children that are part of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’s initiative in the city, more such marginalized kids from the hundreds of slums in Delhi that don’t have regular schools near them will be brought into the program this year. After learning the basics, the kids will then be mainstreamed in government schools.
Until now, the mobile schools were run as a pilot project in the city with only two Mobile Learning Centers touring the jhuggies. The government in now planning to launch 25 such centers. An MLC typically stops at four contact points fro two hours for a session. A maximum of 40 students can enroll per stop but the doors are open to other kids that may not be enrolled but want to join, according to officials.
The project, which is now expanded, will cover various traffic stops, construction sites, and among other slums, the JJ clusters, officials said.
“This is taking the school to the site of the children, closer to them,” SSA state project director VP Singh said. “Delhi is a metro and we have a situation where we have homeless, migrant people who cluster around construction sites. The situation is such that even 50 buses are not enough. And because of the Commonwealth Games, we have more construction and therefore more migrant children who travel with their parents from their native states to work.”
Incidentally, Delhi was the first state to introduce the Chalta Phirta School under the SSA program that was then followed by Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to extend primary education to deprived children, Singh said.
"We want to study"
When he enrolled last May into the MLC, parked on the side of the street across the railway tracks near the Okhla Mandi, along with other such children, Kamruddin knew he didn’t have to spend the rest of his life amid heaps of garbage, and in dingy one-room tenements, and there was hope for him, too. He didn't have to be poor all his life if he studied hard, he said.
“My father has tuberculosis. He said to me you go study and become a big man,” Kamruddin said. “I want to take care of my father. He still pulls a cart and spits blood. That’s why I attend school.”
The project is run by NGOs but is funded by the Delhi government. The buses, owned and refurbished by the Delhi government and UNICEF at a cost of Rs. 7.5 lakhs per bus, were given to the NGOs to operate last year when the Delhi government started the initiative.
Moushumi Barua, who teaches the children in the bus operated by NGO Butterflies, said it was a challenge educating them.
“They get no support from parents but they want to learn,” she said.
So when the bright yellow bus comes, the children flock to it, notebooks, slates in hand, and Barua laughs, scolds and tries to make school relevant to the children. Some of these children had never held a pencil in their hands before, she said.
Ten-year-old Girish Gautam is the only child in his family to attend a school. He also runs his house, spending hours amid heaps of garbage, picking up bottles that he later sells bringing home Rs. 40 on most days. On days that he is lucky, he earns Rs. 100. His father Munshilal lost his job at the vegetable and fruit market last month but he hasn't discouraged the son from attending school. The family of eight live in a windowless room smaller than a small-size car, squeezed in.
"How will we ever rise from the mess we are in," he said. "He needs the education."
Gautam wants to become doctor. Having spent months at the MLC, he is now enrolled into an NDMC school near Modi Mills in Class II.
“I like studying. One day when I was sick, the doctor gave me medicines and I became fine. That’s why I want to become a doctor. I want to save people,” he said.
His younger brother Vishal doesn't attend school yet. He doesn't see it as a viable alternative. He'd rather work and bring money home for an occassional treat of soft drink, he said.
The project
In November 2005, the former Secretary of Education Rina Ray had put across the idea to the government and three years later, the bright yellow buses hit the Delhi’s roads. In its second year, the project has proved to be a good solution to the issue educating the migrant, homeless children, Singh said.
“Before us, doorstep schools were there like in Mumbai where socialite and entrepreneur Bina Ramani ran such buses. We had gone see those,” Singh said.
Though the costing and mapping of areas the new buses will cover remains to be worked out, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has approved the proposal, officials said.
Next week, the Department of Education will advertise the project to invite proposals from different NGOs to run these schools. While Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation donated the two buses that were used in the pilot program, the government will provide the funding for the 25 buses and will also refurbish them, officials said.
“The whole process will take around two months. We will also have to screen the NGOs that are interested,” Singh said. “The focus is on the urban disadvantaged groups and buses will be deployed in red light areas, and those quarters of the city that house the poor.”
The pilot project started in February 2008, and more than 100 of the children have been admitted to government and corporation schools so far, Singh said.
The NGOs that are currently running the schools – the Salaam Balak Trust and Butterflies – get Rs. 1,535 per child per year for the lower primary classes and Rs. 2,960 per child per year for the upper primary classes.
Moulika, 13, had to drop out of a school because her shanty was demolished. When the family relocated to Okhla Mandi, she started coming to the MLC.
One day, she wants to walk into a college wearing jeans and shirt and looking every bit like the actresses she sees on television, on posters, everywhere.
“I want to study and own a house, a car. I want to be a doctor to serve my people, too,” she said.
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