After twenty minutes of winding through the crowded streets of Jaipur, on the back of a scooter we reached our destination in one of the largest slums in Jaipur. This was the house of a Muslim family. As we walked in I saw that the rooms on the bottom floor of the house had been converted to classrooms. There were blackboards, and mats on the floor, coloring pencils, reading cards and slates. A class was in progress and one teacher sat teaching the alphabet to a group of 25 pre-school children.
We were soon joined by another lady. She was smart, eloquent and spoke English fluently. On conversing with her I found that she was convent educated, had a bachelor’s degree and loved teaching children. However, she had been married into a family that believed in the ‘purdah’ system. After marriage, she was not allowed to leave the house unaccompanied or do any sort of job. Once, the headmaster at her son’s school had asked her to join their faculty as an English teacher as she was fluent and good with children. She had to decline.
Later, she tried and convinced her sister-in-law, the daughter of the house (who did not have to follow Purdah), to convert the rooms in the house into classrooms so she could teach without leaving the house. Here the sister-in-law ran a pre-school class in the morning and she, an English class in the afternoon for five days a week. When she could not go out, she decided to bring her passion home.
Her passion for teaching also showed in how she managed her work and life. Whenever she had to go for trainings or meetings for Pratham, she made excuses to her in-laws about going to the market, or to the doctor or to her parents place. Unlike many others, she found a way to follow her heart despite the many restrictions on her…..a small and hopeful example which makes our work all the more worthwhile.
Meghna Mittal
We were soon joined by another lady. She was smart, eloquent and spoke English fluently. On conversing with her I found that she was convent educated, had a bachelor’s degree and loved teaching children. However, she had been married into a family that believed in the ‘purdah’ system. After marriage, she was not allowed to leave the house unaccompanied or do any sort of job. Once, the headmaster at her son’s school had asked her to join their faculty as an English teacher as she was fluent and good with children. She had to decline.
Later, she tried and convinced her sister-in-law, the daughter of the house (who did not have to follow Purdah), to convert the rooms in the house into classrooms so she could teach without leaving the house. Here the sister-in-law ran a pre-school class in the morning and she, an English class in the afternoon for five days a week. When she could not go out, she decided to bring her passion home.
Her passion for teaching also showed in how she managed her work and life. Whenever she had to go for trainings or meetings for Pratham, she made excuses to her in-laws about going to the market, or to the doctor or to her parents place. Unlike many others, she found a way to follow her heart despite the many restrictions on her…..a small and hopeful example which makes our work all the more worthwhile.
Meghna Mittal
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