NEW DELHI: It may be a humble room, with clothes hanging on wires and pictures of Hindu gods dotting the plastered walls alongside a blackboard and whiteboard, but it is alive with the cackle of inquisitive children, literally falling on every word of Sarat Kumar Das, their tutor.
For years now, Das has been tutoring underprivileged children for a nominal fee or nothing at all from the ground floor room of his house in Harkesh Nagar, an urban slum area in the national capital.
“Some of them are fatherless, while some others are children of labourers who can barely afford to take tuitions. Hence, I don’t put pressure on them to pay fees. I tell them to pay whatever they can afford. Even if they can’t pay a penny, it is fine by me,” Das told this correspondent.
In Kabadiwali Gali, a narrow lane, children, of different ages, could be seen streaming in and out of Das’ humble abode through the day, with bags slung on their shoulders.
Around 300 children, from the slum and nearby areas, take tuitions from Das and his wife, an able partner in crime. As many as 40 of these children take their lessons for free.
The coaching centre was opened in 2002 by his wife in quest of a livelihood. However, it was in 2009, after Das recovered from a neurological ailment, that he decided to turn it into a tutorial for students of government schools, whose kin don’t have fat purses to send them to coaching classes.
“This area is largely inhabited by vendors and labourers. There’s little or no awareness on education among them,” Das said, adding that when he mooted the idea of teaching for free to locals, they made fun of it."
They said, "Yeh gandi naali ke keede, baagh ke keede nahi bann sakte (One can’t make something beautiful out of these dirty slum creatures). However, I ignored them... I felt, with proper guidance, these children could find an interest in their studies and do well," Das said.