Chandigarh, 14th May 2021: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an unprecedented crisis in all areas. The education sector is no exception; it has become extremely challenging for the kids of slums or deprived sections to avail basic education during the crisis.
In such a difficult hour an open school is set up in Jallandhar to provide regular education to children of daily wagers and laborers living in nearby slum areas. Their families reside in small hamlets, cut off from the city’s towering infrastructure.
A group of volunteer of Namdhari sect led by Thakur Dalip Singh spiritual head has been teaching the children for the past several years and bringing quality education within their reach and is currently providing them coaching as schools remain closed due to Covid-19.
This initiative started as a volunteer-driven project in the year 2015 that brought together Namdhari Volunteers from across the Ludhiana city in 2015, to educate the slum children.
Each volunteer dedicatedly taught one to four children at a time in their hamlets, giving them the much needed individual support and guidance, for at least three days in a week. The Students sit on rugs braving the extreme weather and eagerly attend the school.
Namdhari Sect volunteers have traveled a long way in the last six years Starting with just 25 children in 2015 and now teaching over 2500 students.
The classes are held in open street corners in the morning hours from Monday to Saturday. Because most of the kids are engaged in temporary odd jobs to support their families and can’t afford to lose out on their ‘jobs’.
These center of non-formal education was opened in other cities like Amritsar, Patiala, Kalanur, Jalandhar in the coming years where a sizeable Namdhari population resides.
The Namdhari Sect Volunteers have also started a community Library where underprivileged children can get books for home studies and can return them after few days. The organizations have also started campaigns where people can donate books. Through its book donation drives, the Namdhari sect manages to collect around 500 books annually which are given to the students for reading in their homes
The Namdhari Volunteers have opened multiple branches where extra classes for reading, vernacular languages, mental health program has been introduced for the students.