It was on one wintery day in January that Anil lost his thumb. Anil is a nine year old child, who should have been in school, but spends his days in the fields, cutting sugarcane. He is one of the many million children who, along with their parents, migrate every 6-8 months in search of work – this is in Maharashtra alone. These children deserve to be in schools, to learn, to play, they deserve to enjoy their childhood. A childhood that continues to wilt as they spend their days working in the fields or as labourers, sometimes as workers in hotels or caring for their younger siblings, their livestock – a childhood that disappears as they wander along streets in a new destination every 6-8 months.
But their forgotten childhood matters to me, because I was one of them, washing utensils in our local canteen as a four year old and serving tea. This also matters to Tata Trusts.
Tata Trusts have worked with many such children. Our team, Data Driven Governance, has been working with migrant children for the past four years. We have made information our prime weapon, to fight the grave issues that these children face. We have been working consistently with these children, their parents, teachers in the village schools and village communities – to talk about and understand the reasons behind loss of access to education for these children; and to deliberate on solutions to bring these children back to school.
In the past four years, we have worked with about 3500 children, of which we have successfully brought 2500 children back to school. There are still many hurdles to cross, many issues to solve. We will continue to work towards doing our bit.
Remember Anil? He was in hospital for 10 days. His thumb required plastic surgery. His father was by his side day and night, while his mother & 11 year old elder brother worked in the fields. Plastic surgery to care of Anil’s thumb, what about our system? Thousands of years ago Eklavya lost his thumb in pursuit of knowledge, today many thousand Eklavyas still survive.