Walking through Balu Adda slum, I would just have one thought; “How privileged I am, while many living there would dream of the lives we live!”
We have been able to bring up our 4th Pragati Paathshala project of JanPragati in Balu Adda slum. With a population of about 2000, the people in Balu Adda are majorly rag pickers and house maids. Putting up with the little huts and lack of facilities of proper living, there is much more that each slum dweller goes through, physically, emotionally, socially and psychologically.
I am bringing up out of all the other issues are of girl child discrimination, child labor leading to lack of education. The problem with these two issues is that this cycle goes on and on.
The young girls are married off at an early age of 12 to a much older man, with an age gap of minimum 10 years. These young girls are mentally prepared that they will be married off, and give up on their dreams before even it starts to bud up in them.
With increasing poverty, the evil of child labor is quiet common. This factor reduces the chances of a child going to school, hence we decided to bring the school to them instead, around 40 children have already enrolled we are looking forward to begin our new school! We believe that education is a stepping stone to change, as we have already witnessed in slums we are involved in.
Our new school is under construction and school will start functioning within a week’s time. Though education is a time taking process, we believe the revolution has already begun.
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