విద్యతో పాటు విలువలు, విశ్వాసం అదే 'పెహచాన్‌' : ఆకాశ్‌ టాండన్‌

ETVBHARAT

'పెహచాన్​ ద స్ట్రీట్​ స్కూల్'​ పేరుతో మురికివాడల్లోని పిల్లలకు ఉచితంగా విద్య - 10 కేంద్రాల్లో 1,200 మంది వాలంటీర్లతో 1700 మంది విద్యార్థులకు బోధన - సామాజిక సేవలో రామోజీ ఎక్స్​లెన్స్ అవార్డ్

Transcript

00:00Welcome to ETV Bharat. I am here with Mr. Akash Tandan. He is the founder of Pehchan the street

00:08school based out of Delhi. Welcome to ETV Bharat Mr. Tandan. Thank you. You started Pehchan with

00:14just 10 volunteers and it was a very small number of children also. What was the spark that made

00:21you think okay this is something I want to do? Okay so the story behind usually people get

00:27motivated when they start. We were actually at our low. We were very demotivated when we

00:33initiated this whole idea. So I was throughout the college early days I was working in different

00:41social fields until one day where we like we were a group of friends we went for a survey

00:47inside a slum and that time we realized that there were 10,000 people living in a slum adjacent

00:55to World Health Organization. So there is a building in Delhi Central Delhi World Health

00:59Organization 50 meters adjacent to it there is a slum where there are 10,000 people which

01:05who have zero health facilities there's there's no electricity there's no proper water supply

01:10no roads nothing and the only thing that separates that WHO building and that slum was a drain that

01:17passes by. So how is it that was so overlooked? Exactly so when we went to that it was actually

01:23a curiosity that made us go and visit the slum that how can such a big area sustain 50 meters

01:29adjacent to a building which is such huge and not just that building within one kilometer

01:36there was Delhi's CM office within 1.5 kilometers there's Delhi Commissionerate's office within

01:42two kilometers India gate Rashtrapati Bhavan and within five kilometers you'll find all

01:48the international embassies in Delhi. So that was a point when we went there and we were

01:53so disappointed that you know if all these people if they can't help them how can we we can't

01:59give them food we can't give them medications we can't do anything and while coming back we

02:04saw a few students a few children they were actually swimming in that dream for them that

02:10drain that was passing by it was the only source of water and that puts them at risk of so

02:15many diseases also. Yes and when we came across them we just called them out and we are when

02:19we just told them that this is dangerous for your life so that was the first moment where

02:24we realized that okay just teaching them this basic thing that you will die if you'll swim

02:29here can actually save their lives the only impactful social work is when you work in terms of education if

02:37you educate somebody if you share your knowledge with someone if you share skills with somebody

02:42even if you stop someday the knowledge that you have shared these skills that you have shared will

02:47always stay with the person it is never going to leave that person it will only make that person better

02:52so that day we decide that if we can't do anything let's just spend some time with all these children

02:57and a lot who are staying there and just give them that basic life lessons okay this is good thing this is

03:04not good and from there the whole journey started within first six months we had more than 50 students

03:10coming across coming to that location as we started taking our classes adjacent to that drain only

03:16because most of the children they used to play around the drain so the slum people they gave us a

03:21location they took it this is not a respectful location for you too because you're coming here and

03:25teaching our children so we'll give you a place so they gave us a small place inside a temple that was

03:31located in that slum so that was our first center and within first year we had more than 150 students

03:38from all across the slum a lot of them were drug addicts there were a lot of them they were used to

03:44beg outside the metro station but within a year we had more than 150 students who used to carry

03:50leave everything what they were doing and so the classes used to start at three so by 2 30 everyone

03:56used to stand outside the center in a line holding their notebook that this is our time to learn

04:01oh wow after 10 years when we look back uh this skills the knowledge that we have you know

04:07shared with so many like thousands of students in last 10 years nobody is going to take it back from

04:12them and you were already a working professional when you started pehcha yes yes so when did you feel

04:18like i should wait not wait for somebody else to you know change things and do things on their own

04:24so as i mentioned yes so we were we were already doing a lot of social work since our college days

04:30and while we get got into job uh we still had some time so we thought that let's let's whatever time

04:35we have let's give it back to the community and as i said like uh see every human as a human we all

04:41want to do some good work right we just don't find the right platform to do so so we just thought

04:46okay how can we help how can we help and eventually we came across this whole idea that okay it won't take

04:52much of our time it won't take much of our resources what you need to do is you need to just go

04:57interact with all these children and you need to just teach them some basic basic life lessons

05:02something that we have learned throughout life we have to just share that knowledge

05:05organization is also largely run by volunteers right um how do you manage to run such a huge

05:11organization in such a large scale purely what are the learnings when it when it comes to working

05:16with volunteers also uh see first is uh since it's a completely volunteer based organization we

05:23don't pay our volunteers we have around thousand people right now who are working across 10 different

05:29centers the basic definition if i tell you of pachanda street school it's a platform which connects

05:35the beneficiary to the person who's having resource so any individual who wants to share their resources

05:40their knowledge their skills they can come you are good with arts you're good with science you're good

05:46with math you're good with english come teach your subject for the beneficiaries it is again it is

05:50open for anyone and everyone irrespective of the background their cars their language their gender

05:57whosoever wants to learn from a four years child to a 40 year old woman anybody yes it is open for

06:04anyone grown-ups as well yes yes so we have a lot of women who come to us and they say okay we we want

06:10to learn basic english because when they go and they walk outside there's a basic requirement that you need to

06:15speak a little bit of english so they come for those sessions we also run a vocational center where

06:19we teach basics of computers from excel to powerpoint to how to use internet i'll tell you the youngest

06:25volunteer who we have is a 14 year old school student we also have volunteers who are 65 66 year old

06:31retired professionals they come and they spend time we have been working for 10 years there are so many

06:35people who are now referring their younger sisters brothers their parents okay you're free please go and

06:40work because i have worked i know how they work so you've also said that education should help

06:45children create a life on their own terms um so could you share a success story you've talked a lot

06:51about all the different uh things that people have learned so i'm sure there must be many success stories

06:56also so if we talk about success stories i can we can talk whole night uh but the one best uh which is

07:03very close to my heart is uh one of the students over the first in the first batch his name is deepak

07:09he joined when he was in third class he came to us and he kept on learning learning learning i guess

07:16this is pre-covid uh one day i was just working at the center i was having my laptop he came to me and

07:22said okay what is this bhaiya i said this is a laptop he says what is a laptop i said it's a portable

07:27computer that you can carry wherever you can go uh so he says okay can i get one laptop and i very

07:33casually mentioned that okay whenever you'll pass your 12th class i'll give you a laptop that was

07:38around 2017 2018 okay last year this student he appeared for his 12th exams he's the first in the

07:47entire slum to pass 12th exams he got 86 percent in cbsc wow he then we made him give his cvt exams he

07:56cleared that he got admission in delhi university in the very first cutoff list he's now in second

08:03year and the best part is now when he's in college he comes to our centers and every weekend he's a

08:07volunteer he's one of the volunteers he comes and he teaches everybody he has now full circle yes he

08:13has now because prior to him there were a lot of senior students and most of them they used to drop

08:18out by the time they were at in eighth or ninth class now there are so many families so families who

08:23were criticizing him and his family that why are you sending your child to college this is not good for

08:30you they are now sending their adults to children to the centers giving his example that he if he can

08:37do it why can't you he is an inspiration to all the people and he's a cycle breaker in his family

08:43also in the entire community where they stay now to have such impact uh you know in this day and age

08:50you know there's so much social media buzz everything everybody has a short attention span

08:55even charities are driven by celebrity faces so how do you keep the focus on paichan for the long run

09:04how do you create impact see the beauty of this initiative is it is driven by volunteers it is not

09:11driven by because we had some good influences it is not driven by because we have invested a lot of

09:16money it is not driven by that because we are generating some revenue it is an option for volunteers

09:23hey you want to do social work we are giving you the best platform to work come work so when you get

09:28the right platform and when you go when you feel that satisfaction that motivation you go and tell

09:33tell people that you know i'm working with this organization and these are my students this is how

09:37wonderfully i'm working here so more than influential thing it is like a word of mouth it is

09:44references that we are getting uh and it is and obviously it is because of the volunteering work

09:50uh we don't have to push people to work people come and they push themselves because that is their

09:55motivation that is what they always wanted to do every student has an id card we have our own

10:00curriculum there's an attendance structure uh there's a proper volunteer training so everything

10:05is tracked everything is monitored and when you come on ground when every time you have same set of

10:10students more than a job it becomes your responsibility our volunteer is to student ratio is hardly one is to

10:19three or one is two four which means every volunteer has only three or four students with

10:23them for three to six months so they get the right kind of mentorship also yes so it is more than

10:29teaching it is mentorship wherein the volunteer connects with the student uh they understand their

10:34language they understand their background and once that connection is built the input comes

10:39automatically then more than their students it becomes like they are my family member they are my

10:43younger siblings so how i treat my younger siblings they start treating the student that way as you

10:49receive the ramoji excellence award what is your message to younger people who want to work with

10:55street children find your objective like where do you exactly want to work so whatever you're doing

11:03whatever social work is your is of your interest at least put some of your efforts in terms of educating

11:09somebody even if you work for one person like there's a saying each one teach one so find people

11:16around you whosoever it may be educate at least one person in your life because as an individual you cannot

11:22change the world people who say we can change the world they are i don't trust them and you cannot change

11:27the world but yes you can change the world for at least one person uh if you can't work directly

11:33contribute to the causes maybe just sponsor education i can't work but okay i can pay the fee of a child

11:39it's not much so if we don't contribute in educating again we are you know even if we have thousands of

11:47schools and colleges in india the kind of education we are giving it's it's there's a there's a disparity

11:54there's a lack of connection and we should make it a habit and also believe that education is the

12:01basic right of everyone and anyone if you see around who is lacking this uh basic right come

12:09forward and help them that's how you'll make a better country that's how you'll make a better

12:13society and that's how you'll make a stronger community for yourself and and on that note

12:20congratulations for winning the ramoji excellence award thank you thank you so much and uh we wish you

12:25all the best with pechan thank you for joining us at etv bharat thank you

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