Back to School!

A pilot project…

Or a pilot thought because I am still thinking things through.

[Image]Let me start by saying this post is only for those who:

-  Cringe internally every time they see a beggar child on the street. You want to give something, not money, but something that will bring about a change in that child’s life

-  Cringe internally every time a child sweeps their compartment in the train, you feel like strangling someone, not the child but maybe the government for not doing enough

-  Cringe internally every time you see an adult begging while holding a child who looks like he’s been slammed against a wall with a huge bloody wound wrapped in gauze

- Cringe internally that after seeing scenes like this daily you wonder what it would take to do something, you think you will do something for sure, right after you get their life sorted out-          

But that day never comes…

Here’s the deal.

Let’s say you don’t trust today’s NGOs or social service organizations because you don’t think the money really filters down to the people who need it (I know I suffer from this disease)

So I put on my thinking cap, sat in the train for 45 minutes while watching an able bodied 7 yr-old sweep the second class Churchgate bound compartment clean. Why isn’t he in school? I mean isn’t education now a fundamental right? So what do I do, what can I do, what should I do?

Second incident which got me thinking – we have a really nice kid who works at the office canteen. So I had some spare time to kill and while he was serving me some sev puri I asked him the usual questions, where you from, what do your folks do, how old are you?

So when I learned he didn’t know how old he was I got visibly upset. Here was a kid with no birth certificate, who definitely was underage to be working almost 12 hours, six days a week and making less than five grand a month. Inhumane, yet he worked with a smile.

So I called up an NGO (CHILDLINE 1098) and found out details about how I could get this kid to school since he said he regretted dropping out of school. You can put in a minimum amount to cover his expenses such as buy him stationery and a uniform. But most of all you give him an opportunity rather a choice to make him take his life forward. When I looked at it as an investment, a human investment, it brought an even greater feeling than the monetary investments I keep making.

It’s not as easy as it seems. You become a kind of Godparent to the kid and try and take it forward even more by doing something else for him, but with no expectations. I think that is the best gift of all.

So my idea ideally is you don’t have to be part of a mass movement or a formal group of people trying to change the world. You can make a small difference in your own little way. For me it’s about kids. For you it may be animals or the environment or even human rights. But by making time out from your hectic schedule to do something you normally would think about but never dream of doing it really makes a life altering change. Once you start you may never want to stop.

Just being human nowadays is tough and I get that. If by being an educated human is tough try and imagine what it must be for someone who lacks the opportunities we get, who has not been given the right to choose for himself or herself but has circumstances making those life altering decisions.

It never ends. It will never end. This is just the beginning.

Keep your pennies, I want change.

“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me.”

Matthew 25: 35-46