Paperweight

For the members of the railway colony in Sodepur, Sundays are a little different.

For the members of the railway colony in Sodepur, Sundays are a little different. Every Sunday morning, a few residents of the locality gather together, take along a cycle van and collect old newspapers from different doors. Accompanying the adults is a group of children. The adults in the colony have come together to form a small organisation called Our Eyes that collects old newspapers from the residents, sells them and buys school textbooks, which are then distributed to the poor children in the locality.

The idea, says Ambarish Nath Biswas, one of the members, is to make a difference in the lives of underprivileged children who want to study.

8220;We realised that most of the parents had little clue on the need for school textbooks. Many would buy just a single book for one academic year and would thrash their children when they asked for more. So we decided that we would collect money to buy these books so that the children can continue studying,8221; says Biswas. Most of the children are from the neighbourhood and their parents are daily wage earners.

The adults of the neighbourhood are accompanied by their children on these weekly rounds, so that they understand the significance of money and the importance of not wasting the pages of their textbooks.

8220;Our children are privileged since they know that whenever they run out of stationery or books we will always buy them more. Yet there are children in their neighbourhood who cannot afford these and have to sell newspapers to study,8221; says Biswas. At least in this colony, there is almost a utopian coexistence of the privileged and the underprivileged children, where they play and study together.

Apart from textbooks, the money is also spent on buying stationery. Yet, the idea is not merely to give the underprivileged children a proper education; it is to give them a normal childhood. That is why a tutor who conducts handwriting improvement classes has agreed to allow five underprivileged children into his class free of cost. When the children of the colony are sent to a dance instructor she is roped in to teach a few poor children too 8212; free of cost.

The enterprise may be merely a year old but the signs of improvement in a few lives can already be seen. Adults claim that many of the children have already shown a remarkable improvement in their studies. Moreover, encouraged by the small group, many others, like the principal of a local school, have pledged their support to them by giving them their old test papers instead of selling them to scrap dealers. Many others have started giving free tuitions to these children, and there are plans to open classes to encourage them to take up extra-curricular activities like singing and dancing.

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With 400 kg of newspapers collected from over 130 homes, the lives of nearly 140 children have changed.

8220;What we do may seem like a small gesture. But there is a bigger perspective behind it. It is not merely to help in the education of a few children, but also to change the mindsets and lives,8221; says Ujjal Gangopadhyay, another member.

Encouraged by them, many of their friends have already set up similar ventures in places like Madhyamgram and North Bengal, and they have all been equally successful. Gangopadhyay makes it clear that they do not want money 8212; all they want is old newspapers. For the smaller children like Sabarni Nath Biswas, Subhodeep Basak, Kinsuk Mukherjee and Ranjabati Rai, however, it is a chance to make a small difference in the lives of those they call their friends.