Survey Experiences in the Gandhinagar area

Last week was a week of mixed feelings – on one hand it was really painful to hear about the hardships people go through (and feel how lucky you are…) and on the other hand it was that good feeling of having an opportunity to help these people in a small way!!!

We started the survey in the Gandhinagar area on Monday, 10^th May 2010. The first day we just roamed around the entire area to find out about the schools and aaganwadis close to the settlements. From Tuesday onwards, we started meeting with the people in the community. It was really good to see that the people welcomed us. Especially when they came to know that we were working for the education of their children, they were very warm and opened up to us.

Whatever their financial status, these are people who want to give their children a good education and ready to take efforts for it. The only thing they lack is awareness about the schools and the Government schemes. The fact that about 6-8 people turned up for the Focus Group Discussion (FGD) after a day of hard work, shows that these people have the commitment and the will to educate their children.

It was also disappointing, in some cases, that the parents made the children stay at home to take care of their younger siblings. Also, some parents showed a lot of hesitancy in putting their children in school since they did not have a permanent residence. The worst part was they did not even want to try. Also, the fact that most of the Municipal schools were Marathi medium schools was a deterring factor for the parents to send their children to school. Many parents, being illiterate themselves, were unable to monitor the progress of their wards and take steps for them to perform better. Even though this number was very few, it was discouraging to see their children being affected by all this.

On the brighter side, it was really touching to see that the faces of the parents lighting up when we mentioned that we could try to get their wards into school. Almost all of the children were overjoyed at the thought of going to school and learning. And the kids were very bright and could go a long way if properly guided.

Interacting with the children was the best part of the survey. Their inquisitive eyes, their shy but welcoming smiles and their frankness speak a lot about their innocence and it was really a wonderful experience talking to them. In spite of the conditions they live in, these children seemed happy and contended with life. When we asked them what they wanted to learn, they answered that they wanted simple things like pens, notebooks, uniforms and shoes (a 5 year old kid said he wanted a jeans pant!!!) These kids also expected desires to be doctors, teachers, pilots and one of them was very sure of becoming a bus conductor as well!!!

It feels nice to know that we are able to touch these people in our small and simple ways but we must surely work hard to at least enable these children to take their first steps towards achieving their dreams and aspirations…..