Sunita* lives in a temporary shelter made of bricks, tin sheets and blue plastic tarpaulins. Her father works in truck depots loading and unloading goods and her mother does odd jobs in houses. She has 2 siblings and in the absence of her parents is expected to care for them. For Sunita, going to school was an unattainable privilege and longing.
The pressures of livelihood drive many families from their villages to cities like Bengaluru where they find shelter in densely populated urban slums. For the children of such migrant workers education is often out of reach, despite a great push by the state to recognize a child’s right to education.
Sunita, and over 40 children like her, were languishing in the slums and were classified as out-of-school children. Their barriers to reach a school were too high and those that did often dropped out for lack of fundamental education.
Encouraged and convinced by our teacher the parents reluctantly agreed to send her and her siblings to our bridge school.
The bright child that she was, she learned quickly and absorbed everything she was exposed to like a sponge. Relieved of her responsibility of caring for her siblings she rediscovered her childhood in some measure.
She loved art, soon participated in drawing competitions and won!
She came in smiling into our bridge center. A year later, confident of her ability to learn she joined a mainstream school and continued to thrive.
Every year that children like Sunita spend in school is a year away from the tough life of the streets and greatly improves their future prospects.