Kamal Parmar, 67
Nominated for : Teaching the needy children.
Initiative - Starting a free night School on a footpath
Nominated for : Teaching the needy children.
Initiative - Starting a free night School on a footpath
Visualise this. Footpath by a busy road with not so clean surroundings, cold winter nights, vehicles honking and cold steel benches. Does this sound like an idea of a surrounding where one can study? Think again.This is Kamal saheb’s “Footpath Shala” that the children of Bhudarpura throng every day. Just because they want to study while their teacher moulds their life.
A school drop out after class 7, Kamal Parmar, 67, runs an automobile workshop and a metal fabrication unit. But his story began after the ‘prime age’ of 50. One evening, standing outside his workshop he saw a group of municipal kids returning after writing school examination. They were extremely happy. Curious, Parmar asked them a few basic questions in mathematics and the children could not answer them. To his shock he also realised that the children did not even know how to read basic Gujarati and yet were in class 7. “This was a huge jolt for me. These poor children had in the exam paper copied the ques- tions,” Parmar recalls.
This was the beginning of the next chapter in Parmar’s life. He transformed from being a small- time welder to a teacher who has won an award for his contribution to the field of education.
“Kamal sa’eb” as he is lovingly referred to by his wards, is so loved among the kids in the neigh- bourhood that children are seen dragging their parents to get them admitted to the “school”.
A class 5 student, Tushar Rahesiya has come to the school with his mother Bhanuben, a domestic help. “Despite having a terrible headache today, Tushar dragged me here. He insists that he wants to come here to study. Our financial condition is not so good and we can’t afford tuition classes,” says Bhanuben. As for Tushar, he simply says, “This is because I want to study.”
Parmar’s eyes are moist as he says, “A lot of people ask me why I do all this. Why do I sit here every day from 5.30 pm to 10 pm when I can be living a relaxed retired life with both my sons settled? To these, I only say that when your chil- dren do well in life, don’t you get happiness? You might have two or three children, I have 115.”
He is not exaggerating when he says this. Three of the children, who come from a family of daily wage earners, studied to get admission to engineering colleges. One of them, Rahul Muchhadia, has made it to Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University. These children, in turn, then teach the younger ones.
Says Rahul’s elder brother Amit, “But for Kamal Sa’eb we would not have reached here. To give back to what he has done for us, we also try to teach as many needy students as we can.” Amit studies mechanical engineering at Gandhinagar Institute of Technology. Their father does plumb- ing job while mother is a home-maker.
Parmar admits, “I have studied till only class 7.I can’t be teaching kids of class 9. The education level has gone high, so I focus on giving them basic education and the right environment.”
Parmar not only focuses on school lessons but also tries to impart to the children a thing or two on lessons of life. “Education is not just about get- ting a job or earning money. Education is a way to live life. I keep telling them that it is the initial 25 years of the life that will decide the coming 50 years of your life so give all your time to it.”
Parmar has also been working on deaddic- tion among children. With no formal training in child psychology, how does he manage tohandle so many children? Parmar smiles and says, “Children want to be loved. Whenever a child misbehaves, I do not beat him up or scold him. Instead, I tell him to slap me. The child will never do this as he loves me and will stop misbehaving.”
He fabricated the benches when he began the school. Over time, a lot of Amdavadis have helped him in getting better quality benches for the chil- dren to sit on, stationery items and blackboards. “We also provide food to the kids. But now a majority of food items comes from donors. We have set up a kitchen near the school where fresh food is made. On days when there are no donors, there is enough that we have (through his busi- ness) to feed the kids,” he says with a smile.
He looks around. It is 5.30 pm. And his chil- dren are already waiting for the evening to begin.
A school drop out after class 7, Kamal Parmar, 67, runs an automobile workshop and a metal fabrication unit. But his story began after the ‘prime age’ of 50. One evening, standing outside his workshop he saw a group of municipal kids returning after writing school examination. They were extremely happy. Curious, Parmar asked them a few basic questions in mathematics and the children could not answer them. To his shock he also realised that the children did not even know how to read basic Gujarati and yet were in class 7. “This was a huge jolt for me. These poor children had in the exam paper copied the ques- tions,” Parmar recalls.
This was the beginning of the next chapter in Parmar’s life. He transformed from being a small- time welder to a teacher who has won an award for his contribution to the field of education.
“Kamal sa’eb” as he is lovingly referred to by his wards, is so loved among the kids in the neigh- bourhood that children are seen dragging their parents to get them admitted to the “school”.
A class 5 student, Tushar Rahesiya has come to the school with his mother Bhanuben, a domestic help. “Despite having a terrible headache today, Tushar dragged me here. He insists that he wants to come here to study. Our financial condition is not so good and we can’t afford tuition classes,” says Bhanuben. As for Tushar, he simply says, “This is because I want to study.”
Parmar’s eyes are moist as he says, “A lot of people ask me why I do all this. Why do I sit here every day from 5.30 pm to 10 pm when I can be living a relaxed retired life with both my sons settled? To these, I only say that when your chil- dren do well in life, don’t you get happiness? You might have two or three children, I have 115.”
He is not exaggerating when he says this. Three of the children, who come from a family of daily wage earners, studied to get admission to engineering colleges. One of them, Rahul Muchhadia, has made it to Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University. These children, in turn, then teach the younger ones.
Says Rahul’s elder brother Amit, “But for Kamal Sa’eb we would not have reached here. To give back to what he has done for us, we also try to teach as many needy students as we can.” Amit studies mechanical engineering at Gandhinagar Institute of Technology. Their father does plumb- ing job while mother is a home-maker.
Parmar admits, “I have studied till only class 7.I can’t be teaching kids of class 9. The education level has gone high, so I focus on giving them basic education and the right environment.”
Parmar not only focuses on school lessons but also tries to impart to the children a thing or two on lessons of life. “Education is not just about get- ting a job or earning money. Education is a way to live life. I keep telling them that it is the initial 25 years of the life that will decide the coming 50 years of your life so give all your time to it.”
Parmar has also been working on deaddic- tion among children. With no formal training in child psychology, how does he manage tohandle so many children? Parmar smiles and says, “Children want to be loved. Whenever a child misbehaves, I do not beat him up or scold him. Instead, I tell him to slap me. The child will never do this as he loves me and will stop misbehaving.”
He fabricated the benches when he began the school. Over time, a lot of Amdavadis have helped him in getting better quality benches for the chil- dren to sit on, stationery items and blackboards. “We also provide food to the kids. But now a majority of food items comes from donors. We have set up a kitchen near the school where fresh food is made. On days when there are no donors, there is enough that we have (through his busi- ness) to feed the kids,” he says with a smile.
He looks around. It is 5.30 pm. And his chil- dren are already waiting for the evening to begin.
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