Trying to make a living at an early age, Rubina and her sister Razia had to leave school to assist their mother as domestic helps.
NEW DELHI: Trying to make a living at an early age, Rubina and her sister Razia had to leave school to assist their mother as domestic helps. But the story of Rubina’s seven-year-old daughter Rehana could be different with a little help.
Barely able to look after herself, Rehana has to take care of her three-year-old brother in a one-room house in Kotla Mubarakpur while their mother is out to work. Walking through the narrow lanes of the cluster of houses one can spot many children doing menial jobs in shops and at the local vegetable market.
In a bid to provide basic education to others like Rehana - children living in slums and red-light areas - the city administration has set up mobile schools.
Termed ‘Chalta Firta Schools,’ these mobile schools, essentially old Delhi Transport Corporation buses turned into classrooms, are equipped with computers, educational VCDs, television sets and a small library-all aimed at providing street children basic education and etiquette lessons. Moving through a well-organised route, the schools would visit of GB Road, Kashmere Gate, Mori Gate and other areas.
“I don’t want my children to grow up and work as domestic helps but we cannot afford to pay for their education. I am the only earning member in the family as my husband does not have a job,” said Rubina, who lives in a slum cluster in Kotla Mubarakpur in the heart of south Delhi.
“Even if we send them to school now, we will take them out once they are old enough to work and earn some money. My children should stay at home and learn household work,” says Razia, who has studied till class II.
Shiv Dayal, a father of five, who cleans cars for a living, wants his three daughters and son to work as soon as they are old enough.
It’s a similar story with other slum dwellers and NGO workers and education department officers have been facing the initial hiccups of finding it difficult to convince them to send their children to the mobile school. Though there were not many takers for the school on the first day on Monday, workers were meeting parents and trying to convince them to send their children for just two hours.
The city administration has planned to give students who do well in studies an opportunity to work as guides for players and tourists during the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
The mobile schools will also aim to provide basic education to school dropouts. These buses would visit the red light areas and slum clusters of Delhi to help them join government schools. “We want these children to work against HIV/AIDS and dowry once they complete their education,” said VP Yadav, who visits these areas trying to convince people to send their children to school.
v_gyan@dnaindia.net
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