Lesson in self-reliance

When Madhusudan Ghosh, a every day wager in Taatipara in Birbhum district who made Rs 3,000 a month, approached software program engineer Subrata Bose in January 2014 for Rs 500 to purchase textual content books for his son Bapan, Bose was reluctant to increase charity. It was solely when Madhusudan confirmed him his son’s marks that Bose realised his assist may go a great distance.

A Class 9 topper at Taatipara High School, all Bapan wished to do was grow to be an engineer and repair his father’s rat-infested mud home. He would ship milk and muri (puffed rice) to households within the mornings earlier than going to highschool, do odd jobs in between after which keep up all night time to review.Bapan’s case obtained Bose fascinated by serving to youngsters who had benefit however not the means for larger training. This was the genesis of the Sayambharataa Rural Skill Development Foundation, which Bose and 7 others, together with pals Debjani Mitra, an architect, and Dilip Pal, a authorities worker who has since handed away, arrange on August 29, 2014.Sayambharataa, which implies self-reliance, works in direction of upgrading the lives of underprivileged youngsters in 10 villages in and round Bakreshwar: Bahadurganj, Burema, Gadadharpur, Dedoha, Gohaliara, Tetulbandh, Muktipur, Asansuli, Taatipara and Latuntola. It began with three supportive training centres to assist 82-odd college students of lessons 8, 9 and 10 with topics like Mathematics, English and Physical Science. Three hours of every day teaching earlier than faculty resulted not solely in improved grades but additionally in a mad scramble amongst dad and mom to get their youngsters into Sayambharataa colleges. Currently, Sayambharataa has 450 college students in its enjoyable studying, supportive formal training, larger training assist and vocational coaching linkage programmes.Before they began, Sayambharataa performed a survey which revealed that 45 per cent of the scholars, particularly ladies, opted out after Class 8, on account of socio-economic causes. Seven years later, six ladies in Asansuli exemplify the organisation’s achievements. First-generation learners, they haven’t solely cleared the Class 10 board examination however are additionally instrumental in getting all the kids of their village to affix. They additionally assist out the illiterate of their village to replenish authorities types and be apprised of varied welfare schemes.Bose has at all times had sturdy reservations concerning the phrase ‘charity’. “Charity,” he says, “makes a beggar out of you. Sayambharataa helps our children grow up as responsible individuals who can pay it forward. It’s a kind of interest-free loan, which you repay by doing good to society, either by being mentors/ guides/ teachers or by adopting another underprivileged child financially.” The organisation spends Rs 24,000 a yr per baby to pursue larger research.The outcomes have been heartening. Bapan is now finding out MTech on the Indian Institute of Engineering Science & Technology is Shibpur. Uma Shankar, whose father Sadhan is a weaver in Taatipara, is doing an MS in Chemistry from IIT Kanpur. “They arranged for the best of tutors—IIT professors—for my son. Gargee Ma’am, a professor of chemical engineering at IIT, helped identify my son’s interest in Chemistry,” says his mom Niyati.Bapan’s elder sister Tara, who was additionally at Sayambharataa, is a nurse on the Rampurhat Government Hospital, incomes Rs 30,000 a month and serving to one other pupil examine. Six different ladies have taken up nursing as a profession and are working in authorities and personal hospitals resembling Peerless. Many others, like Kamala, Sarama, Mandira, Manisha, Supriti, Suchandra and Minati, are aspiring to put on khaki or the white of a nurse’s uniform. “They are also doubling up as our teachers for pre-schoolers,” says Bose. “They get a stipend of Rs 500 for teaching children to read, write, acquire life skills or take up extra-curricular activities.”“There was a time when children were clueless when asked about their ambition. Poverty denied them the right to dream. When we asked Chandana, a Class 9 student in Bahadurganj, about her dreams, she started crying. Before she could say she wanted to be a doctor, she said she was poor, very poor,” says Debjani. Sayambharataa is guaranteeing their goals keep alive.