Guiding Force

“Many children dropped out of school since their mothers were out of work following police raids,” he says.

Bharadwaj took time out of his daily schedule to spend three hours every afternoon between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m.,teaching these children English in an apartment at GB Road. Apart from teaching them the alphabet and basic grammar,Bharadwaj also gives them lessons in translation.

“That is an easier way for the beginners to pick up English as they understand the English words and phrases in terms of their Hindi equivalents,” explains Bharadwaj.

As a teacher,Bharadwaj is not indifferent to the emotional upheavals of some of his students,especially during their pre-puberty and puberty years as they begin to understand the nature of their mothers’ work. Sex education lessons for the older among his students helps to an extent to do away with the social stigma attached to sex. He also urges children to appreciate the hard work that their mothers put in to send them to school.

Getting children interested in studies in an environment marked by the dread of police raids,drug-addiction and frequent drunken brawls between pimps is a challenging task. The results are worth the trouble though. As 11-year-old Shahzad Ali who studies in a government school in Delhi and takes regular lessons from Bharadwaj tells us about his interest in English and his desire to become a doctor,his teacher’s face glows with happiness.

However,Bharadwaj makes no tall claims. He admits candidly that some of his students dislike the environment that they are growing up in. Shahzad’s nine-year-old brother Irshad Ahmad does not hide his contempt for the place; he wants to become a teacher and build a decent house for his ‘ammi’ away from this locality.

Bharadwaj’s colleagues too are doing their bit to make the children’s life better. Gurdave Khanna,a diploma holder in professional tailoring from ITI,imparts tailoring lessons to children and adults. Children learn to stitch blouses,pyjamas,frocks and underwear. “Though tailoring isn’t easy to pick up,children have a lot of fun,” says Khanna.

Eight-year-old Sonu proudly shows his tailoring notebook,where he jots down measurements. “I encourage children to make a cutout of using old newspapers before they actually start working on cloth,” says Khanna.

Iqbal Ahmad,the office secretary of the Delhi unit of the organisation,says the numbers in his attendance register keep going up and that gives him hope. And perhaps some day Irshad will be able to build his dream house for his ‘ammi’.