Mayang: From black magic to magic of education

MAYANG: From black magic to the magic of education, Mayang has definitely come a long way.
Even now, this village and its surrounding areas reverberates with tales of how, not very long ago, a bej (black magic practitioner) turned a man he was sore with into a tiger. Local jokes used to be weird. "People at the receiving end would suddenly find themselves rooted to the spot, unable to stand if they were sitting.I have seen it happening many a time", swears Abhijit Hazarika, a local resident in his mid-twenties.
In fact, it is believed that a few of these bej still operate in proper Mayang, located in central Assam''s Morigaon district. However, with the advent of modernity, black magic is shrouded in secrecy and no longer are practitioners willing to own up even if they practice black magic.
Instead, the magic of elementary education has taken over. Bridge courses - targeting non-starters and school dropouts between five and seven years of age - is now the buzz word here in this area.
"Through bridge courses, we identify all those children who have never been to school, put about twenty of them in each group and walk them through a 45-day programme full of fun, games and studies", pointed out K K Dwivedhi, associate mission director of the state government''s Sarba Siksha Abhijan, which is spearheading the campaign.
The target all over Assam is to put 45,000 odd kids into regular school by August 16. Dwivedhi commented: "Of course, the headmaster of the nearest school will take a test before taking the children in." At present, fifty such courses are running in the district.
Steeped in superstition, poverty and backwardness, the World Bank supported courses - offering free education - have become a major hit in the area. Mohammed Hafiz Rehman, a daily wage-earner, always dreamt that one of his five children would become a physician.
"I recently put my youngest daughter Eliza into the bridge course. Poverty prevented us from putting her into school all this while. We cannot afford proper clothes, nor books", the middle-aged Rehman confesses.
"When the SSA people came to my house and convinced me that I would not have to pay for the books, I grabbed the opportunity. Perhaps, who knows, my daughter can now finally become a doctor."
A little distance away, Eliza laughs loudly at a fairy tale, recounted to her and her twenty odd course-mates by the SSA teacher. "Please narrate one more story", she pleads with her teacher, Phulmoni Konwar.
"The satisfaction is tremendous, especially when we see people like Hafiz gaining enough confidence to hope", Dwivedhi observed. "It makes our day."