Antidote to Cynicism: Shaheen Mistri

Credit: Careers 360

"To give each child the chance to be where you and I are today" This statement by Ms. Shaheen Mistri, CEO Teach for India, resonated with me because it is the main reason why I want to work for social development. I believe that an accident of birth should not be an obstacle to any individual's progress regardless of age, gender, race or religion. 

At the guest session at YIFP, Shaheen shared her life story in term of significant numbers. She was 12 when she found her calling by seeing the disparity in children's conditions in Indonesia. Shaheen spent her first 18 years outside India and spent every sumemr after age 12 as a volunteer with children's organisations. She quit college after first year in US and came to India to study at St. Xaviers where Akanksha Foundation was born in 1991. She saw slum kids who needed education and college students who had too much time on their hands and decided to bring the two together. Then arose the need for space. She knocked on the doors of 20 well-to-do, convent schools to hold classes in second shift; all refused except the last where she told Father that "My life is in your hands." She didn't want to give him the chance to change his mind, so she told him that classes would begin the next day. Then came the scrambling. She somehow got the students and pleaded with her friends to volunteer until she could find teachers. You can read more about the founding of Akanksha in this article by Anahita Mukherjee. The beginning of her story is simple and endearing but when you look at her, you see the courage and perseverance that has got her where she is today. 

When she moved on from Akanksha Foundation, it was successfully running many centers for education and was involved in municipal schools too. She said that she shifted to Teach For India because her vision became larger. From "To give a little love, have a little hope, make this world a little better", it has enlarged to "One day all children will attain excellent education". But, this was not objective enough for her. So now her revised goal is to ensure excellent education for every child in India in the next 50 years. She knows that TFI fellows alone cannot reach so many students, but she believes that TFI alumni will change the world of education. Her model aims to produce leaders in every walk of life who are passionate about solving the problem of educating the 320 million children in India. 

As a country, we are facing a crisis if nothing is done for provision of education for our young demographic. She also said that as priveleged individuals, "there is a moral obligation to give back to society". This is another of her statements which echoes my sentiments. I feel greatly blessed to have a mother who is a professor and who gave me the best educational opportunities possible. But I was lucky, my maid's children are not. How am I not responsible for ensuring that some day they have a chance too? I agree with Shaheen when she says that let us give them those choices, what they do with those choices is upto them. I believe that every individual must have options and the freedom to choose must never be taken away. 

TFI Fellow Prakhar Bhartiya with students 
Credit: Careers 360

India's formal system of education however, believes in fitting everyone to a mold. Because of this, when a farmer's child goes to school, he is taught mud is dirty. Our pedagogy is such that an average graduate is unemployable and he can't take up his father's trade either because he has a degree. I really appreciated Shaheen's answer when I asked her how does she handle this issue. She said TFI Fellows don't just teach English and science, they develop the children's values and mindsets, nurture their aspirations and show them alternate pathways to success. It is too early to comment whether TFI is meeting its goals, but I think they are doing a great job. Developing children as individuals is essential if India is going to utilise the youth benefit which is touted so much in the media. 

Shaheen's story has recieved a lot of attention in media but she has remained down-to-earth. She can inspire a room of cynics and give the idealists another reason to plough on. One of the idealists among Young India Fellows said "Looking at her, you can tell she's gone through the whole shit". The miracle of Shaheen Mistri is that she makes the  lofty aim believable.

P.S. Applications for Teach for India Fellowship 2013 are open. Please spread the message. To apply check: http://www.teachforindia.org/

Click here to read about the other guest lectures at YIFP: first woman US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright and the founder of satellite TV as we know it, Kay Koplovitz

Related articles

• Satyamev Jayate - The Truth that Lives Within (bloodinkdiary.wordpress.com)
• Indian school education system (jeyaramblog.wordpress.com)
• Report recommends revamp for education system (thebhutanese.bt)
• Why India's Education System Is Failing? (theachiever2011.wordpress.com)

First Week at YIF: People

YIFP aims to groom a batch of 100 fellows each year. The batch of 2012-13 is an amalgamation of engineering with arts, finance and management. Not to forget that we have 3 lawyers too, out to which only one can defend us in court. Talking of defence, we have one guy with an Indian Air Force background too.

When I think of large groups of new people I've met, college comes to mind first. That was an enormous bunch with individual diversity but homogenity in academic choice. Next was Jagriti Yatra, which had 400 incredibly motivated development enthusiasts. The diversity there was amazing - people from all kinds of educational and professional backgrounds, rural and urban areas and also regional and international diversity. In contrast, YIFP has students from great educational institutions of India with hometowns ranging from Meghalaya to Kerala. Most, including me, are urban creatures though a few have strong ties to their rural backgrounds. The common thread here is that they are special. Whether a psychology graduate from Christ University or a mechanical engineer from an IIT, they stand apart from their peers in some way to "reach for the stars".

In the process of knowing who these people are, today was a milestone. We wrote a document called 'Initial Vision' for Dwight's Leadership class which was about our lives so far, what kind of leaders we want to be and strengths and weaknesses.

First Week at YIF: Schooling

First week at YIF was a hectic, breathless immersion into the routine of YIFP. Classes from 9 to 7, introductions to everyone around and settling in with new roommates.

News: Class only from 10-12 tomorrow. Result: A couple of girls dancing in the class and a few disbelieving faces. Though ultimately, they managed to have another class from 12 to 1. And for half the batch, i.e. Section B of Sociology, video lecture from 5 to 7 too. Did that give you a good picture of our lives?

Shikshalaya and How Agrini Works?

Shikshalaya is the second project of Agrini. I had written about the aanganwadi project earlier. The video accurately captures how Shikshalaya started and its current functioning. Gourav is planning to implement the aaganwadi programme in Darasi Kala too, the village where Shikshalaya is operating. However, all extension plans and new programmes are dependent upon availability of manpower.

Agrini has only Gourav as a full time staff. All others are volunteers. He supports himself through Youth Collective Fellowship. Some of the volunteers are students while others are working professionals. An enthusiastic volunteer is a village health worker who likes his job even though he is qualified for much more with a Ph.D. in Social Work.

The materials required for Agrini's projects have been collected in the villages itself. The space is usually given by the gram panchayat. The way this collection happens is interesting. For example, there is no provision by the Govt. to install electricity in aanganwadi buildings. How they came up with such an atrocious plan while approving aanganwadi buildings is beyond me, but fact remains. Now how will the computer, needed for multimedia content, work? The power line was taken from a buffalo-shed (bhains ka tabela) next door and Agrini pays for this electricity. In Shikshalaya's resource centre, the books came from a discontinued community library. The 3 computers were contributed in a piecemeal fashion where somebody gave a CPU, another a monitor and so on. 

Agrini started in 2009 and is a good example of what the youth of this country are creating. Gourav Jaiswal is originally from Seoni. While the organisation is small, it is heartening to see that somebody returned to their town to help improve it. In terms of organisation structure, it matches Bakul Foundation of Bhubaneswar, which defines itself as a movement for volunteerism. Bakul's story will be up next on this blog. 

Related articles

• Importance of Social Work (jacobam.wordpress.com)
• Social Work and Irony (jacobam.wordpress.com)

Learning, not just education

On one wall, there is a crow putting stones in a water-pot. On another, there's a monkey sitting on a crocodile. Where have we reached? A play-school. A Govt. play-school in rural area is called aanganwadi. We are visiting an aanganwadi at Beenjawara village in Seoni district of Madhya Pradesh.