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