"EVERY PERSON HAS TO COME FORWARD TO TEACH THE PEOPLE AND MAKE THEM LITERATE .THIS IS THE BEST CONTRIBUTION YOU WILL TO YOUR COUNTRY TO MAKE 100% LITERACY COUNTRY"
Poverty has many answers. Putting money into the hands of poor is one, so they can buy not just PDS rice, but healthy retail rice, a bar of chocolate and maybe ice-cream. Now, committed and passionate youngsters argue that love, good education and teaching are an equally powerful answer to poverty. After working a solid eight hours a day, here are youngsters who make time for the less fortunate. They believe that of the many ways of helping them, one being money, the most noble way of doing it is teaching. On the occasion of Literacy Day, The Times of India spoke to a few people who have been doing their little bit for literacy in their country. Tanu Kulkarni, a student who started with the Teach India programme, now co-partners an NGO that adopted the school where she taught. From fixing a tap to painting classrooms and getting computers, the NGO takes care of all its necessities. The school’s strength has now risen to 400 from 150, in two years’ time. How does she manage to do this? Tanu says, “It is all about prioritizing. I may have to miss my classes sometime, but I try to make it up. I don’t get time to socialize or go for parties. It does not matter to me. I getter higher satisfaction from what I do.”
It’s about joy and fulfilment, the others agree. “We are four cousins who go out and teach. We realized that we need to do something for the poor and we knew it should not be monetary. We zeroed in on teaching,” said Akshita Balachandran, who works for Thomson Reuters.
Ask them for their experiences and they could go on forever. “I had a student who used to steal things.Once he was caught stealing money from his teacher’s pocket. I made him sit on my lap and spoke to him. He didn’t have parents who could give him money. That day I learnt that we need to combine love with what we teach. Only then will the children be convinced,” said Roopa Satish, an employee of Brady India Ltd.
Naveen Shivapanchakshari, working with Oracle, gives tuitions for children in an orphanage every evening. “I found that I have lots of time after work. Teaching was a good option. It has been a great learning experience. I am learning to be patient to deal with kids. I have to do my own homework in Kannada as the children study in Kannada-medium schools. Those things that we tend to forget after learning in school are fresh in the mind,” he said.
There are some who change their life course to follow this passion. Swetha Ramdas quit her to follow her heart — community work. She pursues it through Teach For India, where she got an opportunity to work as a teacher in a municipal school in Mumbai. All for the simple joys of life!
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