It was 6.12 in the morning when I reached Shahada on 6th Nov, quite tired & sleepy. I didn’t know the address of new office, so dialled one of our students, Mogya, as already planned. We agreed to meet near the old office from where he would take me to the new one. With heavy eyes & equally heavy steps I reached the place & waited at the crossing with my luggage. It was the beginning of a fresh new day & the town was slowly waking up. Life in that part of town is not that fast & the road was quite lonesome, stretched in all four directions in front of me.
I didn’t even know in what direction was Mogya going to come, so I kept shifting my glance across all the directions (except the one I had come from). In a few minutes I noticed a small figure slowly walking towards me. As he came into view, I saw him – a small boy of 12-13, with unsure gaze, walking with small steps. I hadn’t quite observed him until he halted in front of me & looked at me, as if trying to make sure of something. Then his eyes must have reached the LOLT (Light of Life Trust) logo on the front left of my t-shirt. There was a small but immediate smile on his lips & he spoke (in Marathi).
“Sir, why are you waiting here?”
It should have clicked me that he must be one of the “Anando” beneficiaries, but I had not seen him, (so he must have been a new student) & also the lack of sleep had really quite slowed me down, I guess.
“I am waiting for a student of ours. I need to reach the office but I don’t know the address” was my reply.
He was quick to understand I hadn’t recognized him.
“Sir, I am Gopal; Gopal Koli, from workshop.”
“Ohh… Sorry I didn’t recognize you. How are you..?”
“I am ok. Should I show you the way to office? It is right down this road. You will see a shop & the office is just next to it”, pointing his finger towards one of the roads, he was quick & ready to help.
With an inward smile, I thanked him. “But I don’t have the key dear, so I will have to wait for Mogya.”
“Ok….”
I kept observing him & he spoke again after a few silent moments. “But sir, I cannot come to class (workshop) today”, his face was a bit sad, a bit guilty if my observation was right.
“Why, are you going out somewhere”, I asked, thinking that the Diwali vacation was still on.
“No”
“Then, is there a problem?”
“No sir, but…actually, we are in a debt; so all of us (the family) need to go to pick cotton in the fields.”
“Ohh…” I was silent.
Eventually Mogya reached. In the meantime, Gopal had noticed another student, Lakshman, hurrying off on his bicycle & had called him, “Look, sir has come”. He too, came & greeted me. I knew Lakshman was going for work, too, in the vegetable market nearby.
Gopal & Lakshman waved to me & started walking, while I stared at them & their path. Slowly I turned & began walking with Mogya, who had already kept my bag on his bicycle.
My mind was racing while I was trying to converse with Mogya.
It is not just Gopal or Lakshman. Many of the kids adopted by LOLT, need to work to support their family. Sometimes the children themselves feel the dire need of earning, while in some cases parents & guardians force them to work. During harvest, picking cotton earns you around 20 Rs per 5 kg & the children manage to get up to 150-180 Rs every day. This is a huge sum of money earned by a single member, for those families which we work with.
Boys as well as girls work in fields; in Jalna & Nandurbar it is cotton, while in Washim, it is soya bean & toor. In Nandurbar, girls also work for making papads. In these respective seasons, school & learning is automatically put off the priority list of these families.
They are not the ones to blame. The gap between the rich & the poor in India has been continuously widening for several decades. When even the basic needs of food, clothing & a roof are not satisfied, education is never on the list of life’s requirements. Even if the child reaches school, there is lack of teachers, of required amenities & the level of sensibility to accept & work for these children.
Nobody is ready to have faith in these children, to believe that they, too, have all the potential & can do everything that the kids in urban areas, with all the facilities & support, can achieve. And the number is huge. The NSS survey (62nd round) says there are 5.6 crores of school dropouts every year, in India, of which, 4.5 crores are from rural areas.
What a long journey it is, to bring ALL these kids back in the mainstream of education & development…
“Sir…we have reached”, Mogya was telling me. Suddenly waken up from my thoughts, I looked at him. Mogya had come to us about 2 years ago, at a stage when he was completely driven into earning, through small jobs here & there. He thought school & learning would give him nothing.
When I was again losing myself in my thoughts about him, he started, “Sir, it is only 3 months for my SSC board exam now…!” Thinking how much he has changed, i entered the office. There were many paintings & art works of our children displayed on all the walls. On a wall was a big chart with some good thoughts on it.
I started reading, “Education means social reformation…” I smiled heartily when I reached the end of it, “compiled by: Mogya Subhash Valvi”.
Smiling, I turned back to find Mogya standing behind me. He met my gaze & though unsure of why I was smiling, he gave a truly honest smile.
I was happy… & I am happy. The journey is long, but it has begun…!!!
– Makarand
P. S. As on today, April 2018,Mogya has completed graduation from science and is working as a full time teacher in my organization,the one which helped him complete his education.
Makarand Pathak 