A Silent Revolution - Helping the helpless

Shoshit Seva Sangh was able to acquire in January, 2011, another one acre of land adjoining the one acre of plot which had been acquired in 2010.  It presently has approximately 2 acres of land and the challenge now is to raise funds to construct a residential school building with all the necessary facilities for 500 children of the musahar community. The total cost of two acres of land was approximately Rs.2.50 crores. The architectural and civil engineering blue-prints of the school building have been prepared by a renowned local architect. The estimated cost of construction of the proposed building of approximately 67000 sqft. is Rs. 7 crores.

B.         In November, 2010, admission tests were held at the school for 50 seats in the pre-school class. More than 1000 musahar children appeared at the tests. Many of them accompanied by their parents / guardians had come from remote villages. 50 students have been admitted and joined the school in the 1^st week of April 2011. A new dormitory has been built in the existing rented accommodation and this can house upto 100 students. The total number of students in the school now is 250.

C.         It is expected that Indicorps and American India Foundation (AIF) will send volunteers to SSS for a period of 11 months each year. Indicorps have confirmed that they shall let us have the name of the volunteers assigned to SSS by end April. Indicorps draws its volunteers from the Indian diaspora in the US. 

1. The annual examinations in the school were held in March 2011. The overall performance of the children was indeed very good. Over 60% of the children were graded ‘A’ (75% and above) in various subjects including Maths, Science, English, Social Studies and Hindi. Care was taken to ensure that the standard of questions set and evaluations were of the required level. The highest and the lowest marks obtained in each of the classes in the school and the over all class average are indicated below –

Class                      English             Maths              Science                          Hindi               Soc. Studies

                              H/L/Avg.            H/L/Avg.            H/L/Avg.                       H/L/Avg.              H/L/Avg.

      UKG                 99/49/83            98/72/85              N.A.                           96/50/83               N.A.

        I                    100/69/88            98/63/87          100/68/88                        98/56/83           99/71/88

       II                     92/53/73              98/50/78           99/58/81                        98/55/80           98/66/83

       III                    79/56/68              95/63/78            99/67/83                        89/62/75          97/59/78

      IV                     67/46/67             99/57/80            96/43/77                        92/54/73           99/39/76            

      V                      82/57/70             96/68/82            95/68/82                         93/66/80          94/61/77

      VI                     85/60/72             88/61/74             88/59/73                         92/73/82         87/59/73

      VII                     70/62/76             77/52/85             78/60/68                         77/68/73       81/56/68

       IX                     90/79/85              99/86/94            99/75/90                         94/91/93        96/85/92      

                        H – Highest, L – Lowest, Avg. - Average

        E.          Shoshit Seva Sangh has been able to obtain the support of Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, perhaps, the most well known and the biggest foundation supporting grassroots NGOs in India. The EdelGive Foundation a subsidiary of well established financial company, Edelweiss, has also agreed to extend support to SSS. Both these organizations carried out a thorough due-diligence including site visits by their representatives. An NGO called ‘Caring Friends’ comprising highly dedicated and motivated social activists have also come forward to extend support to SSS. HSBC under the second phase of its ‘Future First’ programme has also decided to continue to support SSS. The budget for the financial year 2011-12 is Rs.77,42,000/- (Rupees Seventy Seven Lakhs Forty Two Thousand Only). 

   J.K. Sinha

   Founder-Chairman

  Shoshit Seva Sangh

Shoshit Samadhan Kendra, the fully free English medium residential school for the children of the poorest of the poor, the musahar community of Bihar, run by Shoshit Seva Sangh held the half yearly examination in September 2010. The final exam for the academic year 2010-11 shall be held in March 2011. Given below is the average of marks obtained by the children in all the classes in each subject -

Class                     English                     Maths                     Science             Soc. Studies 

                        H / L/Avg.                      H/L/Avg.                H/L/Avg.               H/L/Avg.

UKG                 99/45/83                        99/54/85                    NA                          NA

I                      100/66/88                     100/45/86                 100/68/89                  99/63/84

II                      93/48/74                       99/48/82                   99/56/80                  96/50/78

III                     91/52/73                       99/46/75                   99/64/90                  96/48/83

IV                    91/46/67                        99/33/67                   94/51/74                  99/46/78

V                     83/50/67                        98/55/80                  97/73/84                   92/56/76

VI                    89/54/68                        90/68/86                  89/54/70                   86/57/70

VII                   79/66/72                        73/40/53                  76/56/64                   83/60/69

IX                    76/62/68                        87/44/64                  75/51/66                   87/73/82 

H – Highest, L – Lowest,  Avg. – Average

The standard of question set as well as the standard of correction of  answer books by the teachers were evaluated by the Mr. B.C. Verma, IPS (Retd.), a very senior retired government servant who is also in the Board of Trustees and is Director of Shoshit Samadhan Kendra. The overall performance is indeed satisfying.

(b) The NDTV, the leading English news channel did a video clip of three and half minutes on our project and this was telecast at prime time on their channel. It is a powerful presentation of the abysmal conditions in which the musahar families live and how the prospects of quality education can really bring hope to the hopeless. The link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0IuLQseut.

(c) Admission test were conducted at the school on November 26 / 27. More than 1000 musahar children were brought by their parents and guardians to appear at this test for 50 seats. As there is no education in this community, the tests were for admission in pre-school class and class I. Children in the age group of 7-10 appeared for the test. Some photographs are attached as these may be of interest. With the admission of these 50 children at the commencement of the next academic year 2011-12, the total number of students at SSK would be 250. It is significant that SSK has no school drop-out and the fact that over 1000 appeared at the test completely contradicts a popular perception that the poorest of the poor are not interested in sending their children to school and would preferred that the children work along side them and earn some money. One is convinced that dropouts are there because the parents as well as the children feel that the school in which they go to provides little or no education and that going to school is therefore a waste of time.

     J.K. Sinha                                                                                                                        

Founder-Chairman 

Links:

• Video-clip