It was once said that India lives in her villages. Sadly, today, in the 21st. Century, this is far from true. A large percentage of rural India has already migrated or is in the process of migrating to the cities and towns. The lure of riches and wealth personified by the industrial revolution, and uncertain weather conditions and poor monsoons has claimed its victory over the agrarian way of life. Indians are increasingly leaving the shelter of their small farms and villages chasing after dreams in the cities. Although they possess the will and the perseverance to do hard work, sadly their lack of education leaves them with little option but to work as unskilled labour in the many industries that dot the Indian cities

 Slums where we went

The homes

Ludhiana, an industrial city in the Punjab, has had a large number of migrants as mentioned above. Spread over an area of just a few square kilometers, Ludhiana has a population of over 5 million. A large percentage of these are migrants who come to look for employment. The civic infrastructure, which was planned for a few thousand people, was not capable of supporting such a large population. As it was impossible to provide housing to the migrant population, there has been a mushrooming of slums in and around Ludhiana. There are at present more than 150 slum pockets dotted around Ludhiana. The slum dwellers are mainly small time labourers but there are also scavengers, beggars, physically handicapped and even some pickpockets and small thieves. These slums are devoid of any and all facilities including sanitation and water supply. Each slum house, which is normally about 20 square feet, would have more than six people staying in it. To see children, in rags, dirty and emaciated is common. The children are not sent to school as they help to make ends meet by either begging or scavenging in the rubbish dumps. As their parents are not educated, the importance that good schooling would be an asset to their children is lost to them. This problem passes from generation to generation.

As these slums are not under any plan of the government or civic authorities, they are overlooked for any and all development. With the result, the government will not set up any schools in any slum as this, they feel, would be to give recognition to the slums. There are a few non-government organizations, some Christian missionaries and fewer business houses that have stepped in and are trying to bring schooling to these underprivileged children. Sadly their number is far from enough and the task remains largely unaccomplished.

 The homes

Contacting families

As one of our main motives behind setting up the Wylie Memorial High School was to bring good education to the underprivileged, we contacted people living in some of the slums to encourage them to educate their children. We have, over the years, made numerous attempts to bring some of the children from the slums into our school. We have provided the children with free education but sadly, we have found that all of these children drop out of school within the first three to four months of school. The pressure on these children and their parents is great. The parents have to arrange for their children to come to school. Often this costs money. Once in school, the children are affected by peer pressure as they see children from more privileged homes enjoying facilities they have perhaps only dreamed about. Any demand directed to the parents by the children results in the children being withdrawn from the school, often without any information to the school. Any kind of follow-up has proved itself to be fruitless.

We had extensive discussions about this problem and realized that the only option available to us was to take a school into the slums thereby eliminating all the problems which children from these deprived area face in the mainstream schools. This entailed setting up of fresh infrastructure at the slum to ensure maximum advantage to our target of educating these poor children. Each slum pocket consists of an average of 50 families. Each family has five to seven children of whom, on an average, three would be of school going age. We calculated that of these 50 families, we might initially only be able to get 30 to 35 families to send their children to the school. The others would, as time passes, be convinced of the advantages of schooling their children. We targeted about 90 children in each slum pocket who would join the school.

 The children at school

The children at school

With this aim in mind, we started our Slum Development Project in April 2002. Since then the slum school has run with an average of around 90 children. As the children are from families that are migrant, we have had some children leave as their families relocated. Over the years, people in the area are now aware of the project and are supportive in sending their children. Wylie Memorial High School looks after all educational needs of the children including all books and consumables. We have taken two rooms on rent and have hired two ladies from the area to supervise the children. Teachers on the rolls of Wylie travel the eight kilometers to the slum school to ensure that good learning takes place.

With the school for children running successfully, plans are afoot to take this project to the next dimension. We hope to commence an adult literacy programme which will enable adults of marginalized communities to be able to learn the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic. Though it may not improve their financial status immediately, it will go a long way in ensuring that they are not cheated by unscrupulous money lenders and other anti-social elements.

Starting the day with prayer the slum school

Slum School at work

We are looking to run a vocational course for empowering women of the same communities. Learning skills which will add to the household income in addition to making them independent will go a long way in ensuring a brighter future, not only for themselves, but for their future generations.

 Study time at the Slum School

 Distribution of woolen clothes at the slum school

 Slum school students at Wylie