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| By Subhojit Goswami |
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Saturday, November 14, 2009 (14:23:18) |
| Tags : Children, NGO, Kolkata |
She is a mother of 25 underprivileged children |
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| Kolkata: A narrow entrance leads you to a square room where sun's ray cannot penetrate much. You might be deceived by the dampness of the wall, but as you wait for more than 25 little angels to come and fill the empty room you know what means to be high-spirited. The room finds a new meaning as it serves as a temporary home for these underprivileged toddlers.
BASHA (meaning Home) is a humble organization in one of the many lanes of South Kolkata, which made its debut just 3 years back. It serves as a primary school where the students are also offered the mid-day meal. Saswati (name has been changed), has been playing a foster mother to all these youngsters who mainly hail from the slum areas of Keyatala and Ballygunje Station Road.
If Riju, a 5 year old is a seasoned orator, 7 years old Basanti is no less articulate. Watching Sukdev dance to the tunes will never let you realize that his family not fortunate enough to manage square meal every day. Had it not been for their foster mother who convinced their parents to allow their kids to come to BASHA and get some education, these underprivileged geniuses could have got nipped in their buds.
While talking to HeadlinesIndia, the founder and the benefactor of these small, vulnerable children, Mrs Saswati recollected her initial struggle to motivate these children to come to her organization. "I had to literally listen to the insults hurled at me by the parents of these children. They were never really convinced that someone can actually teach and feed their children without asking for anything in return."
When asked about the funding she gets to run her organization, she could not help but admit that she still has to beg for basic food like rice, pulses, potatoes and spices. "Although I get some money from my friends and a charitable organization yet that does not suffice. I almost have to haggle for some help, be it monetary or kind. There had been times when I ran short of fund and could not understand how to feed these children."
Three teachers, a gateman and a cook comprise the total management strength of BASHA. Mrs Saswati takes the pain to pay all of them out of the money she gets from limited sources. Asserting her close bonding with these innocent souls, she adds, "I can hardly express what kind of feeling touches me when I see these little ones reciting Tagore's poem or huddling together to have their meal. You don't even feel like indulging in extravagance when you find them keeping that single piece of meat aside with so much care so that they can relish that at the end of their meal."
Besides offering them primary education, BASHA also aims at nurturing the cultural skills of these underprivileged but talented individuals and bring a smile on their face. It takes lots of courage to sustain such an initiative and provide shelter to these needy toddlers, when you have nothing much to count on. HeadlinesIndia salutes such an individual, who have mustered up enough grit to serve the future noble prize winners, authors, players and scientists of India. |
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