A lone crusader transforming lives of slum children

JAIPUR: Passing through the narrow bumpy lanes of Sri Ganesh Colony in Mahesh Nagar amid uncovered severage, one would be surprised to hear voices coming from a single-storey house reciting English alphabets. A quick look inside will introduce you to a jam-packed classroom.
Here, slum children, mostly from families engaged in scavenging or rag pickers come neatly dressed, trimmed nails and oiled hair.They greet each other in English and recites Saraswati Vandana before beginning their day. All this transformation in their lives is due to Vimla Kumawat, a 57-year-old resident of Mahesh Nagar.
She is running Sewa Bharatiya Bal Vidyalaya in that single-storey building imparting formal education upto Class VIII to 310 students, mostly from slum areas and BPL families. Kumawat started this journey in 2003 with eight students with kind support from her family members. Since then she never looked back.
"My family was among the privileged ones in our area. It was disheartening to see children around us mostly remaining uneducated and forced to engage in menial jobs," said Kumawat while adding that her husband (retired from railways) took the initiative and began to teach neighbourhood children.
After a while, when he failed to strike a balance between job and social work, Vimla jumped into the scene and accepted the challenge. She cleared Class X in 2008 at the age of 53 to set an example for others in the locality.
Her efforts started bring results. Children who were never exposed to any formal education started taking admission in senior secondary government schools. Earlier, the family donated clothes, books and stationery. With the rising number of children, they could see help pouring in from privileged ones in the locality.
Gradually a training centre in their house turned into a school on a small piece of land and charge was transferred from Kumawat family to a registered society headed by Vimla. Her efforts yielded results and she hired six full time teachers along with a battery of volunteers.
The journey so far has been wonderful but the only disappointment for her is that lack of resources has restricted her social service till Class VIII. Many students, mostly girls after VIII, never join any school.
Even the Right to Education Act-2009 is the most ambitions constitutional remedy for underprivileged students has come as a major disappointment. But lack of information and unwillingness of private schools to admit these children has failed all her attempts to put her bright students in private schools.
"I did tried to admit few of my very bright students in private schools but they turned down my request by giving false excuses," said Kumawat.