Active Stocks
Thu Mar 28 2024 15:59:33
  1. Tata Steel share price
  2. 155.90 2.00%
  1. ICICI Bank share price
  2. 1,095.75 1.08%
  1. HDFC Bank share price
  2. 1,448.20 0.52%
  1. ITC share price
  2. 428.55 0.13%
  1. Power Grid Corporation Of India share price
  2. 277.05 2.21%
Business News/ Mint-lounge / Features/  Who is the future of India?
BackBack

Who is the future of India?

Jyoti, says Natasha Badhwar, based on her experiences at the 12-year-old's school in Hamirpur, Uttar Pradesh

Jyoti and her classmates bid goodbye to the film crew. Photo: Natasha BadhwarPremium
Jyoti and her classmates bid goodbye to the film crew. Photo: Natasha Badhwar

“What books have you read besides your school books," I asked Jyoti. After a full day of filming with her friends and her in their village school, we had come home with Jyoti to meet her mother.

Jyoti Devi is the proverbial good student. She is earnest and wise and stays attentive to the world around her. She is 12 years old but looks much younger.

“I have read this," she says, showing me a single-page pamphlet. It is a citation she has received at a recent function organized in Lucknow by Oxfam India, a rights-based organization. Jyoti has been honoured as an “Agent of Change", a leader in her community.

Jyoti’s government school, in Uttar Pradesh’s Hamirpur district, is one of the 8% schools in India where the Right to Education (RTE) Act norms are being implemented effectively. The students in the school are playing as big a role in this change as the teachers and enabling non-governmental organizations (NGOs). We were there to record this in a documentary film.

I think of the hundreds of books lying on beds, tables, sofas, bookshelves and even on the floor in my home, where my own children are growing up. Jyoti’s candid personality and good-girl eagerness reminds me of my daughters constantly. I must send books to this beautiful mud home. I make a mental note. I can send enough for the entire school.

A gentle evening light washes over us in the inner courtyard of the home Jyoti shares with her mother. On one side is a vegetable patch with neat rows of tomato, spinach and other vegetables. Jyoti has planted flowering shrubs along the wall. There is a strong whiff of mint leaves in the air.

Jyoti’s mother shows me her palms when I mention the smell of mint to her. She had been plucking pudina in the fields when Jyoti called her on her mobile phone to let her know that a film crew had arrived at home.

Ganga Devi is a safai karamchari (sanitation worker) in her village in Hamirpur. She is a Dalit and perhaps the highest-paid person in the village.

“I want my daughter to leave from here," she says. “I want her to be treated with respect for who she is. Not like me…"

Jyoti sits behind her mother and listens to her. She talks about her husband who has abandoned the family. Her sons are grown-up, and though they are financially dependent on her, they are rarely around. The world seems more hostile now than it was when Ganga Devi was a child.

“I built this house," she says. “I repair the clay tiles on the roof and the mud walls myself. My boys don’t listen to me. They only listen to what other people say. Not what their mother says."

Jyoti hears this narrative a lot. I look at her face, wondering how her mind processes this. Her innocence and innate belief in her abilities is not yet tainted by fatalism.

Earlier that day, Jyoti had told us that she is one of three siblings. In the evening, we are more relaxed at home. She is wondering how to entertain us as her mother goes to the kitchen to light a fire before it gets too dark.

“Should I switch on the TV," she asks me. It is a small TV set in a room that is naturally minimalist in design. The paisley-printed cloth covering the TV has been cut out of a sari.

I tell her the TV looks best when it is silent and covered by a pretty cloth. She smiles at my joke.

“I love playing with my nephew," Jyoti tells me.

“Your nephew?"

“Yes, my sister’s son. I am his mausi."

“You have a sister," I ask her. “You told me you only have two brothers."

“My sister is married now."

“But she is still your mother’s daughter. You will always be two brothers and two sisters," I say to her.

With an embarrassed smile, Jyoti listens to me carefully. I want to repeat myself to her. Just as Jyoti and her schoolmates are changing the way their school functions, they will be part of the change in their immediate society too.

Devendra Gandhi runs an NGO called Samarth Foundation in Hamirpur. His team has adopted 30 schools in 23 villages in the Bundelkhand region to enable the implementation of the RTE Act norms. Besides talking about the challenges of extreme poverty, seasonal migration and gender biases, he also shares how social change is taking place every day.

“We make sure that all the children sit together when they are served their mid-day meals. Earlier, the Dalit children would huddle together and the upper-caste children would sit to be served. Children who grow up eating together and being in teams together are unlikely to practise untouchability in the way that previous generations did," says Gandhi.

Gandhi’s team has incentivized attendance in schools by starting a toy bank. The bank is full of toys given away by homes in metropolitan cities to social organizations such as Goonj, which send them to schools like Jyoti’s. Children who attend school for two weeks in a row get to take home a toy of their choice. It is a win-win situation for everyone involved, especially the little child walking home at the end of a school day with his slightly damaged but new helicopter.

Children know who and what they are. A large part of our education and family systems are designed to replace their innate sense of wellness with doubt, guilt and shame. We succeed as parents and mentors when we take a step back and let them express themselves in an environment that is safe and nurturing.

One of the first questions I had asked when we entered Jyoti’s class in the morning was this: “Do you know why we are here?"

“Ma’am, you have come to see if we’re really as good as you have heard we are," answered Jyoti.

The writer went to Bada Lewa village in Hamirpur to make a film on the implementation of the RTE Act norms in Jyoti’s school on an Oxfam project.

Natasha Badhwar is a film-maker, media trainer and mother of three. She writes a fortnightly column on family and relationships. Write to Natasha at natasha.badhwar@gmail.com

Also Read Natasha’s previous Lounge columns

Unlock a world of Benefits! From insightful newsletters to real-time stock tracking, breaking news and a personalized newsfeed – it's all here, just a click away! Login Now!

Catch all the Business News, Market News, Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.
More Less
Published: 22 May 2015, 03:40 PM IST
Next Story footLogo
Recommended For You
Switch to the Mint app for fast and personalized news - Get App