They are promising free classes, juice and chilled water in the manifestos. And the voters are listening with rapt attention. But this is no election, but the process to elect monitors for a class picnic. And this miniature version of the electoral system has been deployed to introduce kids to ‘electoral malpractices’ such as blackmail and bribing. They also get to learn about how friends, village and caste-affinities also end up being pressure on the 'voters'. This scene is from a slum cluster in Delhi's Khanpur where Aawaaz, a youth-led organisation, is trying to make a difference in today's education system by introducing children to current affairs and knowledge that goes beyond their books. Aawaaz is the dream of Hindu college alumni Vibhor and Tarang, who started it last year and now run it as an independent organisation. They focus on developing skills like critical thinking, general awareness and public speaking in children and aim to sensitise them to issues like politics, gender sensitivity, religion and caste, environment and personal and community rights. The organisation was started because the founders felt that school curriculum of today is not making students aware of what's happening around them. Aawaaz started in a small room in Khirki Extension over heated arguments and cold pizza. “We have been working in the education and development sector for about four years, but we noticed that the school curriculum was gravely lacking. Somehow educated didn’t mean knowledgeable, aware or smart,” says Tarang. “We knew we had to start working on supplementing the existing curriculum to make students more aware and more critical thinking individuals," adds Vibhor. The organisation claims the academic score of children who attended their workshop shot up by 55 per cent, while the children scored 70 per cent higher in their general awareness tests. Kehkasha, a Class V student whose father is a carpenter, loves these sessions: “Bhaiya gives us a thumbs up when we discuss in small groups. We learnt what booth capturing means today.” Harsh is a year senior and was one of the candidates. He says he likes Narendra Modi a lot and will be like him if he becomes the Prime Minister. "Most principals agreed after they heard what we had in mind. Those who initially resisted were mainly concerned with their students being taken out for the demo. Some principals even volunteered to give us their school premises for the demo. Thankfully, we didn’t face a lot of problems.”
