We will provide education, please come!

We often listen about farmers committing suicide as they can't repay their loans. The situation of those family members is more devastating. They have to face financial hardships. Shamsundar Kanke from Aurangabad takes care of the education of children belonging to such families.

Marathwada and Vidarbha regions in Maharashtra are drought prone areas. Marathwada has been hit with severe drought from 2011. There was summer time when water was provided to the region through rail tankers. On the other hand, farmers were committing suicide as they fail to repay the agricultural loan taken. This is one of the regions in the country where more number of farmer suicides are reported. After the farmer dies, the burden of loan repayment falls on to the wife. Besides the loan repayment, she has to take care of her children food and education which are additional burden. If there are elder family members, their health expenses become difficult to manage. In this situation, children become child labourers to meet the family financial needs.

Shamsundar, who is the founder and director of 'Dr. Hedgewar Public School' in Aurangabad, thought about such farmer children. He is also the son of a farmer. He started the school in 2004 to develop education in the rural children. He was moved by the devastating conditions of the families of farmers who committed suicide. In 2014, he wrote letters to the family members mentioning that if they join their children in his school, he would provide them free education with residence and meals. 200 children joined in his school that year and later 100 more joined. Sham named this programme as 'Aapli Mule (Our Children)'. Sham says that "Such children have equal right to education and life like all other children. This is not only the responsibility of the government but also the society.' He rented a three storied building near by his school for such children. The medium of the school is Marathi but Science and Maths are taught in English medium. Having learnt about children from this school excel in studies, parents from nearby villages also joined their children in this school.

He established 'Shree Sai Gramin Punarrachana Sanstha' and donations received are used for running the school like children meals, residence, books, teachers salary, etc. Most of the donors are farmers. Besides cash, few donate rice, sugar, old clothes. Some of the widows who do not have any support also earn by cooking and doing other activities in school. There are 5 children of the same family who study in this school. Their mother and grandmother work in the school hostel and go to their village for festivals. Bank accounts are opened for girls and small savings are done in those accounts. The amount is returned to the girls on the day they complete their education.

Government and NGOs focus on water during drought conditions. There is no priority in such planning for widows and children who lost their father. Society and Government should take inspiration from people like Sham and recognize such children. Otherwise, we might lose them.