The Other India

  It is said that the most beautiful flowers flourish in the worst conditions and environment possible.  The perfect example of the same is in Mumbai, the Govandi slums. An 18-year-old girl who is challenging stereotypical gender norms to achieve greatness. Govandi slum is a place that has High poverty and illiteracy rates. The name of a girl is Khan Rushda Praveen who cleared the National eligibility to come entrance test to be admitted to a government-aided college to pursue an MBBS degree. Rushda who cleared her class 10th board exams with 86% in 2017 from Sri guitar Vidyalaya comes from humble beginnings of one room kitchen house and like most of the girls her age living in her locality. She was never asked to quit studying she is always encouraged to study as much as she can.  Her biggest supporter is her mother Saira Praveen 39 year old studied only till class 11th and henceforth has been a housewife to Rushda’s father Nusrat Ali who studied only till class 10th and...

  Any rags to riches story is basically the determination to succeed and succeed despite the odds. The story of Ahmed Khan is no different. He had a dream and the determination to make it come true. He was a small-time grocer’s son who once lived in the slums with his mother wife and two daughters. After some waiting for many years to achieve the success he now lives in a posh locality. There was a time when Automobile in the logistics sector across the country is witnessing a slump. Khan transferred from the city and placed an order for 50 trailers. This is not the first time that he has made the news. Khan was awarded by Mahindra trucks and bus controllers. Subsequently, the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad announced him as the winner in the logistics sector across the country and was also selected for success story as a case study for management studies at its Institutions across the country. Sharing his success story Khan faced numerous objections in life but never gi...

In our country India, where several female Goddesses are revered with a sense of respect and fear, a huge section of the society still continues to be uneducated. A major segment of girls in the rural areas, more than 75% of the total women population in 6 out of 29 states of the subcontinent are denied their basic right to education, mainly in an attempt to hinder their insight to the outer world. Despite various campaigns by Government and Non-Government organizations in the past and present that aimed at social-awareness, the mentality of the rural population of India hasn’t undergone any complete change. The main reason for this injustice remains to be the open resistance by the old minds in the rural areas, to new ideologies, since any ideology which is not parallel to their mind set is seen as an insult and as an attempt to demean their culture. The spiritual books that are worshiped had not expressed any disapproval to girls being educated, but on the contrary has championed the...

The turning point - Part 2 At that time, Chandni did not even knew how to hold a pencil. But she tried hard and received her education, after enrolling into an open school program. When began her education , she was 10 and now she is pursuing her higher Secondary Education . This was the turning point for the young girl who went onto make Education of Street children the Mission of her life.   While serving for Badhte Kadam, she met her first challenge where she found a couple of children imprisoned after being accused of stealing. “I remembered the horror of the day I was in prison and went to the police station to get the children released. It was one of my proud moments and it was then when my life took a turn for the better.” She added. As Chandni’s motive was to serve for the underprivileged children she was determined she wanted to continue working for Badhte Kadam, as a result new education centers were opened, and more and more connected to these centers. Considering her ...

There is a saying “ It takes only one voice at the right pitch, to start an avalanche ”. Hers is a story about a girl from the slums who herself held a pencil at the age of 10 and now she is reshaping the life of many children who dare to dream and desire to fulfil them. This story must be told to everyone and this is a voice that must resonate ,so that children in the streets are taken care and are equipped to lead their lives better. It’s also Story of a past filled with suffering, a Present full of hope and endurance, and a Future that promises to be brighter than ever before. I am talking about Chandni Khan who was born in the slums of Noida, a place where several kids are born and die in oblivion. But she refused to lay back and make her peace with her grim destiny as she climbed out of the darkness and now she is extending her hands to pull others out of the same misery too. This girl started working from a very young age. “From the age of five, I used to travel along with my fa...

It's Chandni 's first time at KFC and she is positively happy about it. As she steps in, she loses some of the inferiority she felt before, when she used to believe that she can never enter a KFC. But today, she feels included and equal to all in the society. A long life, suppressed in poverty and feelings of inferiority can lead children to the concept of "Never dream for better skies". Life in poverty can be depressing and it is almost true.  Ashman foundation is a charitable trust working wholeheartedly towards empowering slum children and women from the society so that they can live with pride and respect. Chandni 's story is not just a single case, but a lot of children out there in the society face such inferiority complexes and are unable to dream for a better life. Ashman foundation reaches out to such sufferers and treats them the way they want to be treated and helps them to dream bigger and achieve bigger. A country like India requires hundreds of Ashma...

  Among the handful of men and women Indian athletes pushing the boundaries to make a mark on the world stage is a 16-year old from Delhi who has been burning the tracks. Nisar Ahmed shot into prominence in 2017, when he clocked better timings than some of his senior State mates. His growth since then has increased and his travel to the Racers Track Club in Kingston, Jamaica - home to the legend Usain Bolt, has added to his hunger and belief. Nisar Ahmed live in the Delhi slums near Azadpur.With his father Mohammad Haq, pedalling a rickshaw and mother working as a domestic help earned a salary of ₹6,000 combined. Nisar showed his capability at Delhi State meet in September 2017. With a 11-second timing in the 100 meters for the junior gold, it was 0.02 seconds better than the winner in the men’s category. He broke 2 national under-16 records on a single day and was on his way to better things. He bested his own 100 meter record with a timing of 10.76 seconds at the Khelo India Game...

In 2014, Neel Ghose and a couple of his friends spent an evening distributing excess food that they had collected from local restaurants to the under privileged living under the Hauz Khas flyover in South Delhi. Four years later in 2018, that little act of kindness form Neel and friends laid the foundation of “The Robin Hood Army”, an organization entirely supported by volunteer work that used the act of food redistribution to bring out the simplest in humanity. By the start of 2019, the Robin Hood Army was present in twelve countries, was serving over 500,000 meals per month, and had helped around 750 children enroll in public schools. All of it without raising one rupee, in line with their “golden rule” of being a zero-funds organization. The Robinhood army is now a Harvard Case study: This case explores the challenges and opportunities related to fast growth and international expansion of a start-up organization that operates with no monetary assets. The discussion of this case offe...

I was 16 when I joined an NGO that gave education to underprivileged students. My very first day was in Dharavi - Mumbai. As my taxi went through the road deeper and inside the lanes of Dharavi, I could feel the Mumbai which is shown in movies and which is written in books is gone far away. The place I was in was full of life. It looked like the scene where ants are working together in places everywhere. Every house had ladders and life built upon life, families lived upon families. I was directed to a room where I was supposed to teach the kids. I passed door after door. Doors that were open wide. Houses had women working on sewing machines, creaking table fans, swings made of saree for just born kids, piles of vessels filled with water and small photographs on the walls with garland on them. In the rooms of 10*10 square feet, people created homes. The room I entered had no roof. Walls were broken. It had a black board and a chair. One hour went by, nobody showed up. Just when I was...

Pursuit of Happiness What is it that gives you joy? For some its power, while others say its pride. For some, it’s money while for some, its wisdom. But for the people of Basanti slum, S urvival made them happy. The Dual Disaster Basanti slum, Kolkata , the city of joy had been home to approximately 6625 according to 2011 census but this was in 2019 and people around the globe were struggling with Covid-19. But for the people of the slum, another disaster was in line. It was when Amphan hit. This dual disaster shook West Bengal and Orissa to its core but the severely affected were the slums. The Fateful Survival “Wind blowing at a speed of 115km/h blew off the houses made of vinyl sheets, scarp, tarpaulin and cardboards leaving just the skeletal roof. The cyclone left the narrow streets clogged with filth, fallen trees and broken electric wires. Amidst the howling winds and incessant rainfalls, those who survived considered themselves to be lucky. Hunger and fear started t...

    It is rightly said, if you want to know the real side of a country don’t look at their urban or developed area but have a look at their slums, that’s where the reality lies.   A slum shows the true picture of every country. In India, according to census 2011, nearly 17% of the urban households live in slums, which was around 23.5% in 2001. Although the percentage has gone down but the number of households living in slums have gone up from 10.5 million in 2001 to 13.75 million in 2011. Let’s have a look at the reasons for growing slums in India. First and foremost being the forever growing population of the country. India is the second most populated country in the world and soon it is going to overtake china. The problem with growing population is the lack of equally growing employment opportunity. People in search of better earning opportunity move towards the bigger cities and towns and are trapped there with low earnings and high living costs and the lack of avai...

  What is the first thing that comes to our mind when we think about slums? Do we know what deplorable health and environmental conditions exist in slums? Every now and then we come across news that reports eviction of slum dwellers due to encroachment? Their houses are demolished and asked to leave. Do we ever wonder where would they go after getting evicted? They just get settled in another government or private land only to get evicted again just when they think that they have a home now. The cycle just keeps occurring again and again. Why aren't we able to solve this problem and help them to give a sense of belonging? Slums are the other India that we should focus on. Ok, let's understand the cycle first before thinking about a plausible solution. Due to rapid urbanization more and more people come to cities with a dream to improve their lives. They get settled on lands that are open and unclaimed what we call slums. These slums have people who work as daily wagers, dr...

  The Gully Boys: Naved Shaikh or Naezy is the torchbearer of Indian rap from Mumbai. He was born and bought up in a Ram Bachan Chawl in Mumbai. Coming from a lower middle class family and living in impoverished living conditions, Naved’s rise to success was through his unique music - rapping. Naezy got interested in hip-hop when he heard Sean Paul's 'Temperature' playing at a wedding in his society. His music concentrated on the struggles faced by himself and others. He made his Bollywood debut in the movie “Hey Bro” with the song ‘Birju’ that starred superstars like Hrithik Roshan, Akshay Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, and many more. His inspirations were Seal Paul, Lil Wayne etc. His single debut was done through “Aafat” in 2014 and the video garnered many views making it viral.  “I come from an orthodox Muslim family and I grew up in Kurla, a Mumbai neighbourhood known for all things bad. Growing up, no one wanted me to pursue rap as a career. There were a lot of problems, lo...

Ranjitsinh Disale, a Government School Teacher from Paritewadi, Maharashtra, had made history and made India proud. This is not because he won the 1 million USD Global Teacher Prize 2020 which brings incredible honour and glory in itself, but because in a never-before-seen instance, he decided to share half of his Rs 7.4 crore winnings with the rest of the nine finalists for the Global Teacher Prize to support their work. “The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed education and the communities it serves in a multitude of ways. But in this hard time, teachers are giving their best to make sure every student has access to their birth right of a good education," said Disale, as per PTI. Disale aspired to become an IT engineer but it didn’t turn out to be the way he wanted to that’s when his father suggested him teaching as a career. However, his experience in a teacher training college changed him as a person completely. He started off with his incredible work in Zila Parishad Primary Scho...

  “Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal." – Henry Ford Prathamesh Hirve, Scientist, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) never took his eyes from his goal despite it all. His hard work, self-belief and determination helped him realize his dreams. Hirve completed his engineering from Smt Indira Gandhi College of Engineering in Navi Mumbai and has also interned in companies like TATA steel and L&T. Getting selected for a Diploma was the initial step to his achieving his dream.   But his journey to success was not an easy one. When he attended a career guidance session, he was told to choose a stream different from science as he may not have aptitude for it. Coming from a Marathi medium school, he faced difficulty in understanding the technical terms and concepts in English when suddenly exposed to them while pursuing diploma. Many advised him that engineering wasn’t his cup of tea and it required immense talent. Living in ...

V. Unbeatable is a dance crew based in Mumbai, India. The team was formed in 2012 by Vikas Gupta and Om prakash. They called it ‘Simply Unbeatable’. The acrobats team from Mumbai slums changed its name to V. Unbeatable for a reason. In 2014, Vikas Gupta got injured while performing a stunt during rehearsal. He was paralyzed neck down and passed away a couple of weeks later. It is in his honor that the team changed their name. The team also wear Vikas’s name on the backs of their T-shirt during performances. Vikas’s death highlights just how dangerous the group’s performances are, as they fly through the air without nets or mats under them. The dancers came from the slums and underprivileged backgrounds in Mumbai. V Unbeatable is comprised of dancers between the ages of 12 and 28. They live in poor living conditions with many people staying in a house and face lack of electricity, drinking water, clean space etc. Despite it all, their love and passion for dancing kept them moving. The...

“Don’t need to ask. If you ask, they will say no. Just make a picture.” This is what Nils Heininger's companion said two years ago when both of them were exploring one of the lesser known shantytowns of the country. Today I happened to read an article written by Nils Heininger who is a photographer, traveller and Anthropology student whose area of focus is Culture of India .As a part of this, he had travelled across the country and lived his life with different communities including the Balmiki Community, a well-known minority group of India. But what captured my attention was his passion towards photography and views on Photo Journalism.  The article started off with his entry to the world of Travel Photography. According to him, 'Travel Photography' is an overused western term which basically means that a foreigner exploring a place and capturing pictures of exotic people , but Nils's version for the same is entirely different and for him the concept of Travel Photog...