Awards & Accolades
Mrs Vimla Kaul in TIMES NOW (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3RX0AogzeunZUFlRV9wVlRJZVU/view)
Mrs Vimla Kaul in Zee News (http://zeenews.india.com/news/videos/top-stories/80-year-old-teaches-150-poor-children-for-free_1832610.html)
Mrs Vimla Kaul in NDTV INDIA (http://www.ndtv.com/video/mindspace/heads-up/a-career-in-teaching-386746)
Mrs Vimla Kaul in BBC INDIA (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-36147973#orb-footer)
The 81-year-old Indian teacher still transforming lives
This is the 14th and final article in a BBC series Unsung Indians, profiling people who are working to improve the lives of others.
- 1 May 2016
- From the sectionIndia
Image copyrightMansi Thapliyal
Image caption
Guldasta's students are taught English, science, maths and environment
Vimla Kaul has not stopped working since she retired as a government school teacher 20 years ago. The 81-year-old educates under-privileged children in India's capital Delhi. She spoke to the BBC's Ayeshea Perera.
A group of children shout "good morning" at the top of their voices as Vimla Kaul walks into Guldasta school.
Twelve of them, 11 boys and one girl, are sitting on the floor of a tiny room, where colourful posters bravely attempt to cover the stains and patches on the walls. They immediately begin chanting the English alphabet - "A for Apricot, B for Blackberry" - fruits that many of them are unlikely to have seen, let alone eaten.
One little boy is wearing a shirt with a large tear in the sleeve, while the youngest member of the class, a three-year-old, is punching his slightly older brother.
All the children are from around the area - their parents mostly work as maids or drivers, servicing the middle class housing colony across the road.
'Silly mistakes'
Guldasta's students are taught English, science, maths and environment. It also owns one computer and offers extra-curricular activities like yoga, dance and drill.
Mrs Kaul settles into a classroom where children are sitting and begins checking their work.
"You have to be careful of silly mistakes like this," she tells a student, circling a sum on a page, before pronouncing the rest of her work as "very good".
She sets high standards for her students.
Image copyrightMansi Thapliyal
Image caption
The children sit on the floor of the tiny room that serves as their class
Image copyrightMansi Thapliyal
Image caption
The youngest child in the class is just three-years-old
"Many government schools do children a disservice. They don't teach them properly, and then follow a no-detention policy. What you are left with are teenagers who can't construct a basic sentence in either English or Hindi," she tells the BBC.
"We don't turn anyone away, but we hold an entrance test to evaluate the standard of the child, and if they perform poorly at class examinations we hold them back," she says.
"The main thing is to teach them properly."
Her own school building is a tiny four-room tenement, of the kind generally used to provide cheap, basic accommodation to labourers.
Huge improvement
To access it, you have to navigate a dusty lane smelling strongly of cowpats, and climb one floor of a narrow, dirty staircase.
But even this decrepit building, overlooking a junk storage yard is a huge improvement - until two years ago, Guldasta operated out of a park belonging to the local municipality.
"It would be too hot for the children in the summers and too cold in the winters, but we didn't have the funds for anything else," one of the teachers says.
Image copyrightMansi Thapliyal
Image caption
Students are evaluated carefully before they are passed on to the next class
Image copyrightMansi Thapliyal
Image caption
Guldasta owes its existence to the sheer tenacity of Mrs Kaul and her husband HM Kaul
Established in 1993, Guldasta owes its existence to the sheer tenacity of Mrs Kaul and her husband HM Kaul, who died in 2009.
"My husband and I had both just retired. We decided to do something charitable, but were not quite sure what."
That question was answered during a visit to the village of Madanpur Khadar, an hour away from Delhi.
A school is born
As the couple sat at the village centre with some elders, discussing their problems, they were continually distracted by the half-naked, boisterous children running around.
"We had brought biscuits for them as part of a Rotary Club drive. But one woman told me, 'giving them to eat is all very well, but what you should do is teach them how to get their own food.' That stuck with me."
And that was when the idea for a school was born.
But idea to implementation turned out to be an uphill task. It took six months for the couple to convince village officials to agree to the school and when it finally opened, they had just five students and one teacher.
Eventually they made the decision to shift the school to her housing colony in Sarita Vihar, where around 150 students immediately enrolled.
Image copyrightMansi Thapliyal
Image caption
The school operated out of a park for almost a decade
Image copyrightMansi Thapliyal
Image caption
Neighbours forced the school out of the colony where Mrs Kaul lived
Mrs Kaul recalls how she assumed she would get support for her charitable endeavour from other colony residents.
"How wrong I was", she says, laughing.
She first tried to set up her school in the community centre but was not allowed inside.
'Selfish classes'
So she moved to a park inside the complex, but was forced out by neighbours who complained that the children were too noisy. She tried talking to them but finally moved to the municipal park after one woman went on a hunger strike.
They operated out of there for nearly 10 years, until an NGO discovered and adopted the school. This enabled them to finally rent the building to house it.
"There is an inherent selfishness among our class that don't want to see these people rise. Where will their maids come from otherwise?" she says.
The stories of many of her students, she says, are heart-rending.
Image copyrightMansi Thapliyal
Image caption
The children's stories are often heart-rending
"I had one very bright young student who was pulled out because her mother wanted her to help clean houses to make more money. That was the end of her education," she says. Others come without food because their parents don't have the time, or can't afford it.
But others have happier stories.
Two of her students are teaching at Guldasta now, one of them with a computer degree. Another has found work as a mechanic. Yet another was working at a Chinese restaurant Mrs Kaul visited, where he proudly insisted that she would not pay for her meal that day.
"If I can lift even one child out of their circumstances, that's enough for me. But mostly, I want to give them a childhood. Some happy memories that they can look back on later in life."
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Mrs Vimla Kaul as the Unsung Hero (http://www.thebetterindia.com/24432/80-year-old-teacher-park-organize-classes-for-underprivileged-kids-vimla-kaul/)
An 80 Year Old Teacher Goes from Park to Park Conducting Classes for Deprived Kids
Shreya Pareek September 8, 2015 Delhi, Education, Unsung Heroes
Vimla started teaching underprivileged kids after retirement. It’s been 20 years now and 80-year-old Vimla still faces her students with the same enthusiasm. Know all about her journey.
Twenty years ago, sitting at home and not doing anything after retirement was never an option for Vimla Kaul and her husband.
A visit to a village called Madanpur Khadar in Delhi was enough to give her the motivation to do something to improve the lives of the people living there.
She started with teaching kids who could not attend school and, since then, the couple has never looked back.
For 20 years, Vimla has been spending her time, energy and money to provide quality education to these underprivileged kids.
Vimla started teaching the kids after retirement.
Photo: Youtube
“When I first went to the village, I saw kids roaming around and wasting their time. So I gathered five students who were interested in learning and started my first class in 1995 at a chaupal in the village,” she recalls.
Vimla hired a local teacher to make sure the children’s studies did not get affected when she wasn’t in the village. But when the teacher left the village, Vimla decided to bring the students to nearby Sarita Vihar in the city of Delhi, where she moved from one park to another to conduct classes.
“We could not afford a school building so we would sit in the open and learn. We kept moving from one park to another because we would not be allowed to teach in many of them. Finally, we moved to MGD park where we taught for 15 years,” she says.
Starting with just 5 kids, Vimla reaches out to 110 students now with the help of four teachers.
Today, Vimla reaches out to 110 students with the help of 4 teachers.
Photo: youtube
At one point, when Vimla’s classes were in danger of being shut down again because they were held in the park, the Malviya Trust contacted her and offered to help.
Thanks to their support, Vimla’s school now has a building with four rooms where she teaches students up to Class 2.
All the services provided to the students are free of cost and Vimla, along with her husband, has managed to sustain the school with help from donations from friends and family.
“It was so difficult. We were a retired couple. We had no money. But we didn’t want to stop doing what we were doing just because of lack of finances. We kept managing somehow and, thankfully, we now have an organization supporting us,” she says.
Thanks to Vimla’s intervention, there has been a remarkable change in the attitude of the kids. They are more active and confident now. They also participate in summer camps and extra curricular activities like dance.
For children who had never even seen a school and had no hope of getting an education, Vimla’s efforts are no less than a blessing.
At 80, Vimla’s passion for teaching is unmatched.
In the future, Vimla wants to reach out to more students and construct a school building to cater to the needs of students of higher classes as well.
“These children are very talented. They just need support and guidance. If they are given the same opportunities and facilities like mainstream kids, they too can do wonders,” she says.
Vimla is 80 now and her determination to make a difference in her environment is still as strong as it was 20 years ago.
If you want to support her cause, you can either help financially or volunteer at her school.
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https://prajnyaarchives.wordpress.com/2017/04/05/vimla-kaul-citizen-next-door/
Guldasta lets children bloom so that their future blossoms
Established in 1995, Guldasta owes its existence to the sheer tenacity of Vimla Kaul and her husband late Prof Hari Mohan Kaul.
An engineering graduate from BITS, Pilani, Prof Kaul served as Chief Engineer in the Government-run Central Ground Water Board but took voluntary retirement and joined as a professor in the Indian School Of Mines, Dhanbad, Jharkhand. His better half, Vimla, was armed with a post-graduate degree in history from Miranda House, Delhi, and took up teaching as a profession. She joined Carmel School, Dhanbad, as English teacher, while he taught at ISM, Dhanbad.
After Prof Kaul’s superannuation in 1993, the couple moved to Delhi and settled in Sarita Vihar. As part of a Rotary Club drive, once they went to the village of Madanpur Khadar, near Sarita Vihar, New Delhi, with some biscuits for village kids. A woman in the village praised their efforts but remarked that “instead of giving food to children, they should teach them how to earn their livelihood.” It was a thought-provoking comment that made the couple think of ways and means to make a difference in the lives of village children. They thought of starting a school (Guldasta). The idea gave a new lease of life to the retired couple, who always wanted to do something for the society in general and children in particular.
The first batch of the school that started in the village chaupal had only five students and a teacher. The couple soon shifted Guldasta to their housing colony in Sarita Vihar where around 150 students enrolled. But the initial years were fraught with trouble for Kauls. Their neighbours forced the school out of the colony; undaunted, they tried to start the school in the local community centre but were denied permission. So they moved Guldasta to a park inside the housing complex but were asked to vacate the area soon. The couple finally moved the school to the municipal park and ran it from there until an NGO, Madan Mohan Malaviya Mission, adopted it in October 2011. The financial aid helped her rent a three-room building for the school.
And today the school that held classes in a municipal park for 16 long years, finally has classrooms, children and teachers, one of whom is a former student.
Prof Kaul passed away in 2009 and Vimla has been running the project single-handedly since then. To take the project forward, she started an NGO — Vasundhari Society for Social Action — in January 2012.
And Madan Mohan Malaviya Mission and Vasundhari Society together plan to take the school ahead to give underprivileged kids their lost childhood and some happy memories to last a lifetime.
Submitted by Shilpi Singh.
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https://sheroes.in/articles/inspiration-from-vimla-kaul-retired-teacher/MTgxNQ==
Vimla Kaul : Retired But Not Out!
When Mrs. Vimla Kaul retired twenty years ago, at the age of 60, she already knew that the sixties are the new forties. With vim and vigor, Vimla and her husband started a school for the children of those who could not afford schooling.
The venture took birth in 1993 in the village of Madanpur Khadar; an hour’s run from Delhi. After much convincing, the villagers conceded that their children needed an education. However, the first attempt fell flat. Barely five children enrolled. That’s when the Kauls moved base to their home-ground – Sarita Vihar – their place of residence in New Delhi.
As with all experimenters, their tests blew up in their faces. Upon arrival at Sarita Vihar, they managed to get an impressive enrolment of 150. They were satisfied, and only modestly ambitious for their young charges. The chief aim was to ‘teach them how to get their food’. Accordingly, the scope of their instruction was mainly functional. Between the two of them they managed to teach the children English, Math, Social Studies and Environmental Science.
Just when they had thought that things were settling down, the residents of their colony raised a hue and cry about ‘noisy children’, one good lady even went on a hunger strike. That’s when they had to shift to the municipal garden. They persevered for ten years, at the mercy of nature. Eventually an NGO adopted them – the little school by now was known as ‘Guldasta’ (bouquet) – and gave them an address to function out of.
Guldasta now operates from a humble four room tenement, housed in a dusty alley, and overlooks a junkyard. The shabby structure contrasts sharply with the bright rugs and the brighter children who stand eagerly by as their octogenarian teacher marks their work. The syllabus may be a tad old school (they learn the alphabet in the traditional manner); the ideology is conservative - she does not believe in the new fangled notions of ‘no-detention’ and holds the child back if he can’t make the grade. They also have stringent entrance and achievement tests. However, they don’t turn anyone away. They are also old fashioned enough to believe – ‘one must teach properly, that is the main thing.’ The results are clearly desirable. Two of the ‘alumni’ of Guldasta have begun assisting Mrs. Vimla Kaul (Mr. Kaul Passed a few years ago), yet another is a mechanic, a third holds a degree in Computer technology. One of her students works in a Chinese restaurant and has proudly treated his teacher to a free meal.
Nothing is perfect; certainly, none of the conditions that Guldasta operates in are anywhere near perfection. But it lives up to its name and creates a little bundle of joy and beauty, the scent of which permeates the immediate surroundings. Vimla Kaul’s noble sentiment – ‘If I can lift even one child out of their circumstances, that’s enough for me. But mostly I want to give them a childhood, some happy memories they can look back on, later in life’ – makes this happen.
By Madhuri Maitra
https://sites.google.com/a/k12.sd.us/our-heros/home/vamla-kaul
Vimla Kaul was born in 1937 in India. Now at 75 years old, a retired English teacher, she is restlessly teaching children in the slums of Delhi, India.
It all started one day while she and her husband were passing out biscuits to slum children in Chauhan Chaupal she was deeply touched by the poverty of the small town. While they were passing out the biscuits an old women came up to her and said, “instead of giving them food why don’t you make them eligible to earn it?” This stuck with her and she decided she needed to do something to help these underprivileged children to better the future of India. Ever since that day she has been tirelessly teaching the people in the village of Madanpur Khadar, New Delhi.
In 1994 she started by teaching the village’s women to be tailors, so they could become financially stable. As a result, 40 women were trained to be tailors and some even started to earn a livelihood from it. As time went on, she started a school to teach four to eight year old children basic education so they might someday be able to gain admission into a real school. She hired a young woman who she had taught to be a tailor to help her teach. She started the school with 10 children in 1996, and by 1997 she had about 70.
Eventually a voluntary organization offered to pay for the salary of one teacher. The Kaul’s had to manage getting all the other supplies themselves. In 1998 she expanded the school to Sarita Vihar, her home town. By 1999 they could afford to hire four teachers. When the year 2000 came, she had to close the school due to lack of funds; but soon after, she had gained many donations from well-wishers and friends that enabled her to reopen.
The school has been moved around from place to place due to lack of space and noise complaints. Now it is near the village dump in an old dilapidated park. Their funds always seemed to be drying up, but that never stopped her. She has helped over 58 students go into government and public schools. Some of them are even the top of their class. Now the school has 107 students that are not only young children, but older men and women who dropped out as kids and are now seeking some sort of education. For them Vimla is their last hope.
Lok Sabha TV did a feature on her and her work, which caused funds and awards to flow in. One of these many awards was the Real Hero of CNN-IBN. Throughout her journey as a teacher she has faced many challenges, but she has never let any of them stand in her way. Every time she was faced with a major road block she pushed through and kept going. She doesn’t have any children, but she says, “all my students are like my own, I spend my day happily with them. Their accomplishments are my rewards. Some of my students are working in top organizations and when I see them living happily, I feel triumphant because this is what I work for.” In 2011 she lost her husband, but she is still determined to teach until the end of her life.
Vimla accepting her Real Hero of CNN-IBN award
https://www.delhipedia.com/home/Article/HumanStory/Vimla-Kaul---A-Restless-Teacher-1ac3d26f
Vimla Kaul - A Restless Teacher
God didn’t add another day in your life because you needed it, he added it because someone out there needs you. For twenty years, Vimla and her husband have been teaching underprivileged children as she didn’t want to sit at home after retirement but try and improve the lives of people. Her first class took place on a chaupal in the village with just five students. Vimla hired a local teacher to make sure the children continue to progress and not get affected when she wasn’t there. But when that teacher had to leave she moved her class from park to park to conduct classes as she could not afford a school building. They had to shift their location every now and then as they were not allowed to teach in many of them. Finally moving to MGD Park where they have taught children for 15 years, starting from a class of 5 to a class of 110, with the help she found of four other teachers.
Mrs Vimla Kaul was picked up as inspirational teacher (http://www.askmeoneducation.com/inspirational-teachers-vimla-kaul-and-her-successful-project-guldasta)
Inspirational Teachers: Vimla Kaul And Her Successful Project Guldasta
It began in a village chaupal, travelled through parks and finally reached a four-room flat. A school for the underprivileged, Guldasta began with a passion to equip every child with a choice to make a better life for themselves. And in the two decade long journey, its founder 81-year-old Vimla Kaul has brought a change in the lives of many young ones.
“Education has the ability to give a new turn to life,” smiles Kaul. Each day begins with a prayer of thanks at Guldasta. And little can one imagine that this Guldasta blooms in a dairy farm in Sarita Vihar, Delhi. With four teachers teaching around 120 students studying from KG to Standard II, the school is thriving under the guidance of its founder.
A Tough Entry:
The project was born in 1994 when Kaul came to live in Delhi with her husband, HM Kaul, who had retired as Professor from the Indian School Mines, Dhanbad. She had been teaching English at Carmel Covent, Dhanbad. The quest for doing something useful one day landed them in village Madan Khadarpur near Sarita Vihar. But there was no warm welcome, the villagers distrusted ‘proper’ city dwellers and didn’t want to change their lifestyle or mindset. However, the couple continued their visits to Chauhan chaupal (where elders gather), and six months later, there was a breakthrough.
The First Step:
Kaul thought of equipping the young ones with the requisite skills to make them self-sufficient and strong. With permission from the village elders, Kaul began to teach tailoring to the women. And a girl from the village helped in getting together five children for the school. This school lasted for two years till the girl got married.
In The Open:
Then, Kaul moved to a park in her immediate neighboruhood, where she taught But she faced many problems with the neighbours complaining of the disturbance. And the school moved from park to park, until she found a MCD park where no one complained anymore, not even the authorities. Here education continued for a decade and more.
Vasundhari and Malaviya Mission:
Initially, the school was funded with the couple’s own savings but then she formed a NGO Vasundhari and started getting some help. She got the children uniforms, books, even meals at times. Two years back, she got funding from Malaviya Mission, a trust which promotes education, and then moved to its current location. Now the school is equipped with a library, computers and has regular activities such as health camps, dance workshops and even a 15-day electrician training course was held. And a favourite Bollywood theme is always enacted on the Annual Day, that is November 22.
Mindset Change A Task:
The journey of changing mindsets is never an easy one. “Most the times parents are not willing to let go of the children and refuse to see opportunities. They take off for long holidays to the village, they make their children work as labour,” she adds. She recounts how a young boy had got recruited in the merchant navy but the parents didn’t let him go.
Success Nevertheless:
Happiness and success combine when she sees a student surging ahead, such as the son of one her teachers. She got him admitted to Kalka Public School and since then he has been doing well. There are many others she has helped get admission in government schools and integrate them in mainstream society. And she has authored reference books for senior school students and on inspirational quotes. She even won the CNN IBN Real Heroes Award in 2010. As Guldasta continues to spread its fragrance, she hopes to add more classes in the near future.
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Mrs Vimla Kaul was the recipient of JIJABAI WOMEN ACHIEVERS' AWARD instituted by Shivaji College Delhi University
Receiving the award from Nazma Heptulla on 7th Feb 2014
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CNN-IBN salutes Real Heroes - 2010
Nita Ambani, Aamir Khan, Dr. Vimla Kaul - Winner, Education & Children category and Rajdeep Sardesai
Vimla Kaul: (North)
For Vimla Kaul sitting at home was never an option. A visit to the Madanpur Khadar Village in Delhi in 1994 and Vimla knew she wanted to do something for the villagers. She started by teaching tailoring to the women in the village so that they could be financially independent. Vimla also noticed that there were children just whiling away their time in the streets. These children needed to be taught the basics before any school would give them admission. So she started a class for four to eight-year-olds in '96 with ten children. She also hired a teacher—a village girl who had learnt tailoring under her. By 1997 she was teaching almost 70 kids. Vimla Kaul also pushes for these kids to get admission in mainstream schools. 11 of her students have made it to the Sarvodaya School in the capital.
Mobile:
9871268033
011-26944447
Address
C-203, Sarita Vihar, New Delhi
Real Heroes Announced in the Category of Education & Children
~To be felicitated for their work in spreading education amongst children~
Mumbai, March 10, 2010: IBN18 India’s leading No 1 News Network and Reliance Industries Limited are proud to announce the third edition of Real Heroes, an annual celebration of the outstanding efforts of the common citizens who have been silently and selflessly working for the betterment of society. This year four of these Real Heroes will be lauded in the category of Education & Children for their excellent work in promoting education among children.
Quality education still remains a challenge for a nation which has mandated to provide compulsory primary education to all. The chosen Real Heroes have worked tirelessly to provide these basic necessities in various parts of the country ranging from metros like Mumbai to the far flung areas like East Singhbhum district of Jharkhand. The Real Heroes for the year 2010 who will be commended for their efforts in the category of Education and Children are:
Irfana Ismail Mujawar
A teacher by profession, Irfana, from Mumbai was disturbed that her school provided scholarships only to Muslim Shia students. Along with her colleague Gazala, she used the money set apart for her wedding and started a school which provides free education to those who could not afford it.
Dubhil Vechanbhai Movasiyabhai
Dubhil Vechanbhai Movasiyabhai uses his modest earnings as a farmer to provide free food and tuition to the children of tribal living in far flung areas so that they can receive education.
Vimla Kaul
She started by teaching stitching and tailoring to the women in the Madanpur Khadar village so that they could be financially independent. Vimla also noticed that there were too many children just whiling away their time in the streets, so she started a class for four to eight-year-olds in '96 with ten children by 1997 she was teaching almost 70 kids. She would then push for these kids to get admission in mainstream schools. In 1998 Vimla Kaul shifted the school to Sarita Vihar and also funds were always a problem. She currently teaches 30 children and the money trickles in from some well-wishers and friends. Vimla Kaul lost her husband last year but nothing can keep this 74 year old away from the children.
Kantha Singh
A mechanic in Jharkhand’s East Singhbhum district, he has set up an orphanage with his own meagre resources to provide shelter and succour to children who were left orphans due to polygamy or alcoholism.
These Real Heroes who are working tirelessly, to provide unique solutions for issues impacting the community will be awarded a trophy and a cash prize of Rs.5 lakhs each at Real Heroes Awards ceremony.
Nita Ambani, President, Dhirubhai Ambani Foundation added, “The Real Heroes epitomize the human spirit of believing in ourselves and how the power of such belief can bring about lasting changes and dignity to the lives of others. With exceptional insights, extraordinary conviction and exemplary quest for service, they have galvanized thousands of people to take on daunting challenges and to turn the seemingly impossible into possible. It is truly inspiring to see how deftly they have combined the power of creativity and compassion to provide a lifeline to many and stimulus to millions. The Real Heroes initiative salutes the power of leadership in making a difference and acknowledges the audacity of these heroes’ imagination and the passionate engagement with their dreams – all geared towards unleashing people’s potential. We are proud to be part of this initiative in association with CNN-IBN, for the third year in a row.”
Rajdeep Sardesai, Editor-in-Chief, IBN18 Network added, “It gives us great pride to laud the efforts of these unsung heroes who serve as the champions of the common man. We are confident that the Real Heroes movement will continue to grow as these outstanding citizens continue to serve as a shining example to hundreds of others to work together to build a better civil society.”
For more information please contact
Ashutosh Srivastava / Adip Puri
Hanmer MS&L
09873968211 /9899100245
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Mrs Vimla Kaul was featured in Ek Aur Eklavya in Pragya T V
Part 1 :
Part 2 : http://youtu.be/R7WThgKSF7I
Part 3 : http://youtu.be/M50dALY8qA8
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Mrs Vimla Kaul was featured in OUTLOOK MAGAZINE
Prof H.M. Kaul
Look Yonder' The Lighthouse
A retired couple tries to give underprivileged children an opportunity to study and begin life afresh
Most people detest a sedentary retired life. They actively scout for something to keep them occupied. Often' it's a way to do their bit for society. Take Prof H.M. Kaul and his wife Vimla. After his retirement in '94' they moved to Delhi and have since tried to better the lives of underprivileged kids. They initially began with a tailoring centre for girls in Madanpur Khadar' a village in southeast Delhi. Within a year' 40 girls had been trained to stitch and some even began earning a livelihood.
A year later' a village elder approached Vimla to do something for the children.
Most of them were whiling away their time roaming the streets. Some went to school occasionally while others had dropped out altogether. Vimla started a class for four to eight-year-olds in February '96 with ten children and hired a teacher'a village girl who had learnt tailoring under her. "Initially' we just tried to discipline them'" recalls Prof Kaul.
Gradually' the children began to learn the English and Hindi alphabet and nursery rhymes.
By May' a voluntary organisation offered to pay for one teacher's salary. The Kauls had to fend for the other requirements'from books to stationery. The following year' the number of students rose to 70 and the class had to be divided into two batches. Funds permitted them to afford that single teacher on an increased salary. It was only in '99 that they had enough support to appoint four teachers.
The older children learnt faster. In a year' 35 qualified to get into government schools. "The more children leave us' it is an indication of our progress. It shows how many have made it to regular schools'" says Vimla. In '99 another 12 children left. In 2000' the class was down to 20 students. "Some of them are topping their class'" says a proud Vimla.
Despite the school's success' space and finance have always been a problem. In '98 Vimla expanded her work to the housing colony where she resides. But the classes were moved from one place to the other thrice in a year's time. First' they were shunted out of the colony's community centre into a park. But residents complained about the noise and hence' they finally ended up in a dirty' dilapidated park in the village. The school continues there and students pour in despite the stink from the nearby garbage dump and stables. It now comprises 107 students.
The funds that were small to start with have dwindled further over time. It's a struggle to pay the teachers. The Kauls raise money from friends and well-wishers on their personal goodwill. Negotiations with the MCD for space met a dead end.
Despite these problems' 11 students have been absorbed into Sarvodaya schools. "We do the paperwork that includes affidavits to be made in court and pay the limited fee because the parents are very poor and mostly illiterate'" explains Prof Kaul. Two children have gone to a public school under the cbse board. Vimla garnered funds to sponsor the fee for her most promising student for five years.
The Kauls are committed in their resolve. "I try to find these children an opportunity to do what I feel is their fundamental right as children of our country'" says Vimla. The Kauls can be contacted at: C-203' Sarita Vihar' Mathura Road' New Delhi. Tel: 26944447/9871268033
—Charubala Annuncio
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STATESMAN 1st April 2010
