Women give wings to a ragpicker’s desire to learn

RAIPUR: For as 7-year-old rag picker Shashi, learning with fun was a distant dream until one day a voice led him to a government school in Rajnandgaon district.

He had just started going school before the pandemic broke out, but one day when he was engaged in rag-picking near railway track, his attention was drawn to a voice- aaj hum jungle ke kudku ki kahani sunenge (today, we’ll listen to the tale of jungle’s kudku).

He started following the voice and reached the place where some children were listening to stories over the phone.

Amused by the stories, the little boy requested Nikki—a cook in government school and the organizer of class—if he could join this reading session with a few friends from his locality.

During the lockdown, Nikki undertook the initiative of organizing mohalla school in her community to engage students in studies with the help of the story books, which she had got issued from the ‘Room to Read library of the school operated by Room to Read an NGO working with state government to support children in developing reading skills.

On August 15, RTR’s reading campaign started to retain the focus on literacy and reading for children. The reading campaign, along with a chance meeting with Sashi, inspired Nikki to engage more children from the slums.

Nikki, along with her two neighborhood ladies—Aayesha Parveen and Sandhya, started taking these classes in the slum area of Gauri Nagar in Rajnandgaon city to give a glimpse of school to children from slums—mostly belonging to families of ragpickers.

At first, only a few children joined the mohalla Classes from the slums, but gradually when other children and their parents came to know about them, the participation and involvement of children increased on a daily basis. While the classes started by sharing online stories, they soon spread to reading, writing with the support of the community members and books issued from RTRs library, Nikki told TOI.

“Reading campaign has helped them a lot to make their mohalla classes interesting with 25 read aloud stories shared with them on a daily basis and six worksheets on a weekly basis grade-wise. Children are now not only listening to stories but also reading colorful storybooks. Sashi soon came to know about the toll-free number for listening to the stories on IVR. He also encourages other children who are engaged in ragpicking to join the mohalla classes”, she added.

Ayesha told TOI, “We are making every possible effort to engage these children with fun stories. The slum-dwellers are happy seeing their children engaged in studies.”

“Room to Read works in 4234 government schools have distributed more than 13 lakh age appropriate books through libraries and have benefited more than five lakh children. I am happy that our quality reading materials and toll-free numbers are used for mohalla classes as well,” said Room to Read country director Sourav Banerjee.

Chhattisgarh: 3 women give wings to a ragpicker’s desire to learn, open up mohalla school

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