Kajal, a daughter of a labourer, was forced to leave studies after class IV since her parents wanted her to help them look after her younger siblings when they were away for road repair works. Thanks to a young lady who took the daunting task of convincing her parents and bearing the expenses of her books, copies and resuming her classes, Kajal is now in class V in a Government primary school at Jwalapur. She is attending school regularly to school along with her brother and sister.

It took Manu Kajla, a B.Sc student of final year, to convince the parents of these children staying in a slum and bring them to her Sunday school in the slum colony. “In October last year, when my family shifted from Haridwar to Jwalapur, I used to see a group of children begging while I waited for auto rickshaw to go to college. I tried to convince them to go to school but then realised it would not work.

So, I followed them to their slum shanty and talked to their parents. I realised that her parents were unable to send her for free education to a Government school. So, I bought books for the girl Kajal. I started approaching other kids and by February, I could speak to 50 students. Now, 20 students are regularly going to the Government school and others are coming to my Sunday school in the slum colony.”

When asked about what made her devote time for the poor children, Manu says that she was inspired by her teachers and college principal. “Many of my class mates Himanshu Bhatt, Manoj Kumar, Rahul Rana joined hands with me in imparting education and my parents and college principal gave me full support to change the lives of these children from bhiksha to shiksha,” she said.