Girls from charity school meet ‘Abbu’ Kailash

Minutes later, Satyarthi walked in with German ambassador to India, Michael Steiner, and began joking with the students. “When Malala was shot at by the Taliban, two of her friends — Shazia and Qaynaat — were with her. At the Nobel ceremony, I asked Malala if she would take me as a father-like figure and she agreed. Some time later, Shazia and Qaynaat came up to me and asked if they could also call me ‘Abbu’. So, one of my ‘daughters’ is also Shazia, just like you,” Satyarthi told Delhi’s Shazia.

He then inaugurated the programme to promote computer literacy among marginalised children at the German embassy and gave his personal email address to the students, urging them to write to him once they had the training.

“The girls were excited about the planned computer classes. Roshni, 13, who aspires to become a Hindi teacher, said she likes reading stories on the computer. “The amount of stories I can read on the internet is much more than what I find in the library,” she said.

Her friend, Nisha said such classes are a “necessity”. Computers, she said, are an essential skill. “My parents cannot afford such expensive equipment.”

The girls are all students of an informal school run by NGO The Hope Project in Nizamuddin Basti. Director Saimur Rehman said most are first-generation learners and are admitted to the school after they have either dropped out  or never began learning.