Ragpicker children pick up threads of life at Swadhikar

Formal education was a far cry for both these boys until about a year ago, before Swadhikar picked them up and taught them the three R’s of life. Today, the boys can sign their names, do calculations and even do a spoof on Prabhu Deva.

Nagesh and Dukhishyam are just one of the 30 children in Swadhikar, a non-formal education centre in the city for ragpickers. The Centre run by the Orissa State Council for Child Welfare and funded by Women and child welfare department of the State started functioning in 1995 with the dictum `right to education is right to life, give them education and save their lives’.

According to RashmiMohanty, a social worker-cum-counsellor and the centre-in-charge, children from Kalibasti, Reddybasti, Kadaligodam, Pradhanbasti and Buddhanagar slum areas in the city come to the Centre after they are through with their morning round of ragpicking.

At Swadhikar, the ragpickers are taught very simple things which has got a direct bearing on their lives. The children are told about the importance of wearing handgloves and chappals while ragpicking. Every child’s bag has a mirror, a comb, a towel apart from books and notes.

The children also learn about basic traffic rules, names of districts in the State, how to find one’s way back home if he or she is lost in a place or importance of hospitals in one’s lives. It started motivating their parents through home visits and counselled them about the importance of education in a child’s life. Parents who were initially unwilling to send their children fell in line after a few visits by Mohanty.

“Had I told them to leave ragpicking they would have slammedtheir doors on me since an extra hand means extra money. Who would like to send their child to school,” asked Mohanty.