To a better Future

Over the last six months,Javalkar has been teaching technical and non-technical work as well as music to the children at the home. Calling the work fulfilling,he says,“I wanted to teach these children because they really needed it. More importantly,they also have the interest to learn.” Javalkar began teaching the over one hundred children how to play the synthesiser and also the guitar and piano. “Three casio keyboards with special notations to enhance learning were bought for the institution,” he says,adding,”The boys have learnt to play the entire national anthem on the keyboards in a mere three days.”

Incidentally,his work is not limited to just teaching music to the children. A large number of books at the institute are now being digitised into the PDF format. “There were so many issues earlier,” he says. He states that children would tear the books and that they even managed to break the lone computer four times before accepting new ideas. “I guess I hold back the fear that I have regarding the children breaking the equipment. I have started encouraging the children to disregard the issues and try and change their behaviour. And it has worked. A lot of the children were able to fully use Google Sketch in as less as three days,” he mentions.

The institution has children who are in conflict with the law along with orphaned children who need protection and care. Jawalikar insists that one of the reasons which holds back his students is fear of the perception of people towards them. The sensitive environment requires special attention,but Jawalikar refuses to discriminate. He says,“Many facilities have been provided to the boys who sometimes tear books or break computers but I help repair the equipment,also reimbursing the amount some of the times.” His work has started bearing fruit now as eight of the children will be playing the national anthem this Independence Day. Others have started adapting to sewing clothes on machines and even mechanical bike servicing.

Javalkar is particularly proud of his one action,which is,the conversion of stories,technical,and notation books into digital files and installation of computers in sleeping areas so as to reduce damage and incentivise knowledge. Jawalikar faces difficulties in the areas of what the intention of teaching is and what the interest of the students are and the difficulty level of a lot of the proposed methods of teaching is too high for the average student to cope with. He says,“The boys have responded very well to the keyboard teaching well.” One of the children,Jeetu (name changed),exclaims with pride that he has learnt the entire national anthem. His friend Akash (name changed),says,”I have not been able to learn the whole thing,but the classes are good fun and enjoyable.”

Few of the proposed changes are already in place. A ‘sanskar varg’ has been included to increase values and discipline and prepare the boys for further development by teaching a list of dos and don’ts. The loss of self esteem seems to have become a major problem amongst the students and the rebuilding of this confidence is foremost in Jawalikar’s plan of action. Jawalikar contends that these are good kids and could use the help. “They are intelligent and the experience has been fabulous. They have been able to learn and that is my highest reward,” he says.