Whatever it takes to sail this boat…

India is the land of sages, it is a culture that promotes literature and ironically has the maximum load of illiteracy which is nearly 37 % of the global total.

Effects of illiteracy

Illiteracy has both social and economic ramifications:

-Unemployment

-Underemployment

-Poverty

-Ignorance

-Low self-esteem…….to name a few.

 It is a dismal picture and before we talk of any other issue,it is imperative to remove illiteracy.

Let me tell you a story…

It is set in the city of Varanasi,on the banks of the River Ganges. Varanasi is known as ‘the spiritual capital of India’ and ‘the city of learning’. On the banks of the river, amongst the religious chants and vivid colours, there were many children,of different ages,involved in petty trades,begging or just roaming about aimlessly. At a time when children should have been in schools studying,they were anywhere but there. It was India’s future,lost on the streets.

Every pilgrim and passer-by who visited saw it happening but chose to go about the religious business he came for. That is how most of us are, wishing to do good but never taking out the time to actually do it. Some of us are different. …some of us like Ajeet Singh who made it his mission to ensure that the children of Ma Ganga were blessed with the power of education. He created a very unique boat school where children were imparted education for two hours a day and given a space to play,study or revise without any pressure or tensions. In the innovative boat school, the children did not only study but also learnt computers and drawing.  Days passed into years and the number of students grew, so did the requirement of funds to support the cause. The Varanasi boat school strived to provide them with an ideal learning environment.

What was needed was a magical transformation that would give the children an enhanced learning environment.

At this point in the story, we would want a fairy Godmother to appear out of nowhere and do the needful with a wave of her magic wand…but this is not fiction! The story I told you is real but incomplete. The end of it is undecided. You can choose to give it a magical ending by just doing what is right. Go to www.doright.in to learn more and contribute however you can in giving the children of the Ganga the learning environment they deserve.

For Ajeet Singh,the journey of doing right has already begun. When are you going to start?

Do right and kickstart the journey of the nation towards becoming a literate,knowledge empowered state.