The noon is bright. The night, dark. Being a bridge between the two, evening was the appropriate time to leave the comfort of office and visit the Anuraga NFE center.
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As per the Census of India 2001, there were 1,402,971 people living in slums in Karnataka, 207,912 of whom were children in the age group of 0 to 6. Bangalore alone accounted for 61,978 such children. Many of them are involved in some form of labour, and do not get to attend school.
Rashtrotthana Parishat is a service organization, which was started in 1965. Anuraga, an initiative by Rashtrotthana Parishat, was started in 1999 to provide education to children, who either do not attend school or drop out of it. So far, it has set up about two hundred Non Formal Education (NFE) centers covering 148 slums and 4000 children (in the age group 9 to 14).
An NFE center is normally run, for two hours, after six in the evening from Monday to Saturday. This way even working children can attend it. The learning is activity oriented – involving singing, dancing and playing as a part of the curriculum – with the main focus on Kannada, Arithmetic, Environmental Science and Value Education.
The teaching and learning material is provided free of cost by Rashtrotthana Parishat. The teacher, also known as “akka”, is continuously trained to carry out the task well.
*******
It was a little ironical that it took us only about ten minutes to reach the NFE center. Jayalakshmi, a middle-aged lady, greeted us there. We started following her through the narrow lanes of the slum. She had been working as a full-time supervisor of Bagalur region in Bangalore for Anuraga for five years.
When we reached the first center, the games session was going on. “Hi uncle… Hi uncle”, many voices said, almost together. The children stopped playing, probably surprised at being visited. Not wanting to disturb their play for any long, we continued on our way to another center after all of them had introduced themselves.
After walking for a while, and stopping over at another center, we reached a small terrace where Karthika was teaching children. She had completed her PUC and was studying in college. Her association with Anuraga was over a year old. The crutches next to her bore testimony to her spirit, and the spirit of the people we had been meeting all evening.
The light was very dim. A strong smell of dinner, which was under preparation, was rising to the terrace. Loud music was playing near by, to celebrate a birthday. The children seemed hardly bothered. They were just happy to be there. Some of them were shy to talk to us, some eager to sing for us, and some to tell us a story. After spending some time there, we moved on…
While walking back to our starting point, we crossed another centre. About 15 children were studying in a small room. “Banni”, a welcoming voice said. Unfortunately, the night was nearing. We had to leave. “Bye… Bye… Bye…”, playful voices repeated.
It was amazing to see so much enthusiasm for life and learning in that small place, where people had so much more to worry about. To me, this was something I would normally read about in a Dominique Lapierre book.
Evening was the bridge. At the end of the evening, I did not know which the night was, and which the noon.
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PS: I nearly forgot to mention the best part about this school – no homework and no punishment. Also, if you try to be absent, you might find the teacher at your doorstep…
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Can you get us information on what an outsider can do about it? For eg: One could visit those places, get them small gifts or even work with them for a couple of days. And yeah, where are such centers located in Bangalore?
Thanks for your interest Poornima. I would want to get the information available with me confirmed before handing it out. I will get back to you regarding this soon.
Hey, I was thinking that maybe after you find out whether it is possible, we could do small things like celebrating a b’day by arranging a small kiddy party for the kids at places like Anuraga. I mean, when we were kids we had all the fun parties with all the clown caps and small gifts for all the guests and balloons. When i say b’day i mean, it could be your b’day, my b’day or anybody’s… Its just an occasion to celebrate and to see a few kids laugh and enjoy.
Whats the use of registering if I have the same privileges even without registering?
Honestly speaking, right now there is no difference. This is only because I am being lazy.
In a while, you should see registered people get some extra benefits. For example, you won’t have to wait for the admins to moderate your answer. Registered accounts will soon be able to post directly.
Also, in the future, we will (hopefully) be setting up a system for registered users to be able to post frontpage content on this site.
And, of course, maybe some day all arewemad users will get a shiny little badge saying “Yes , I am MAD”. Isn’t that a hope worth registering for? :-)
@Poornima: Yes, you can visit the centers and gift the children something. You can also spend time with them, organize fun activities for them, and so on. I am mailing you the details of various centers in Bangalore. Hope the information will be helpful. Please let me know if something is missing…
Thank you for your interest.
If anyone else is interested in the center details , please let me know…
@Swetha: Swetha, there is actually one difference that Srikanth forgot to mention, which you would have seen by now in your mailbox. As a registered user, you can get a notification whenever we post a new article…
Nihit,
Can i have the details place too? We have been collecting money to give to places like this.
@Swetha:
As of now, you have one clear advantage over non-registered users.. you get automatic notification when a post comes up on front page!
Kavitha,
I have mailed you the information. Hope it is useful.