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By:

Shoumojit Banerjee

27 August 2024 at 9:57:52 am

Classroom of Courage

In drought-scarred Maharashtra, a couple’s experiment in democratic schooling is turning child beggars into model citizens In the parched stretches of Maharashtra, from Solapur to the drought-hit villages of Marathwada, a modest social experiment has quietly unfolded for nearly two decades. It is neither a grand government scheme nor a corporate-backed charity. Since 2007, the Ajit Foundation, founded by Mahesh and Vinaya Nimbalkar, has worked with children living at the sharpest edges of...

Classroom of Courage

In drought-scarred Maharashtra, a couple’s experiment in democratic schooling is turning child beggars into model citizens In the parched stretches of Maharashtra, from Solapur to the drought-hit villages of Marathwada, a modest social experiment has quietly unfolded for nearly two decades. It is neither a grand government scheme nor a corporate-backed charity. Since 2007, the Ajit Foundation, founded by Mahesh and Vinaya Nimbalkar, has worked with children living at the sharpest edges of society in Maharashtra. The foundation has become a home for out-of-school children, those who have never enrolled, the children of migrant labourers and single parents, and those who scavenge at garbage dumps or drift between odd jobs. To call their foundation an “NGO” is to miss the point. Vinaya Nimbalkar describes it as a “democratic laboratory”, where education is not merely instruction but an initiation into citizenship. The couple were once government schoolteachers with the Solapur Zilla Parishad, leading stable lives. Yet what they witnessed unsettled them: children who had never held a pencil, begging at traffic signals or sorting refuse for a living. Prompted by this reality, the Nimbalkars resigned their jobs to work full-time for the education of such children. Leap of Faith They began modestly, teaching children in migrant settlements in Solapur and using their own salaries to pay small honorariums to activists. Funds soon ran dry, and volunteers drifted away. Forced out of their home because of their commitment to the cause, they started a one-room school where Vinaya, Mahesh, their infant son Srijan and forty children aged six to fourteen lived together as an unlikely family. The experiment later moved to Barshi in the Solapur district with support from Anandvan. Rural hardship, financial uncertainty and the pandemic repeatedly tested their resolve. At one stage, they assumed educational guardianship of nearly 200 children from families that survived by collecting scrap on the village outskirts. Eventually, the foundation relocated to Talegaon Dabhade near Pune, where it now runs a residential hostel. Twenty-five children currently live and study there. The numbers may seem modest, but the ambition is not. Democracy in Practice What distinguishes the Ajit Foundation is not only who it serves but also how it operates. Within its walls, democracy is practised through a Children’s Gram Panchayat and a miniature Municipal Council elected by the children themselves. Young candidates canvass, hold meetings and present their budgets. Children maintain accounts and share decisions about chores, activities and certain disciplinary matters. In a country where democratic culture is often reduced to voting, the foundation’s approach is quietly radical. It treats children from marginalised backgrounds as citizens in formation. The right to choose — whether to focus on sport, cooking, mathematics or cultural activities — is respected. “We try never to take away what is their own,” says Vinaya Nimbalkar. Rather than forcing every child into a uniform academic mould, individual abilities are encouraged. A boy skilled in daily calculations may not be pushed into hours of bookish study; a girl who excels in cooking may lead the kitchen team. For children who have known only precarity, standing for election, managing a budget or speaking at a meeting can be transformative. On International Women’s Day, the foundation seeks visibility not just for praise but for partnership. If you are inspired by their mission, consider supporting or collaborating—your involvement can help extend opportunities to more children in need.

BJP engages ‘Flexible Power Play’

Mumbai: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Maharashtra is executing a highly adaptable and aggressive strategy, branded as 'Flexible Power Play', to not only register a sweeping victory in the upcoming local body polls – including 246 municipal councils and 42 Nagar Panchayats – but also to emerge as the single largest party across the state. The local body polls, which are taking place almost after 9 years, are being viewed as a critical stepping stone to consolidate the party's position ahead of the next Assembly elections.


The biggest challenge, before the state BJP leadership, while going in for the local body polls was the huge number of ‘ticket seekers’. Moreover, almost till the last day before filing nominations, the party continued inducting influential local leaders from all the other parties. This maximised the pressure on the leadership as giving a ticket to one single person would certainly disappoint many and would eventually lead to dissidents. Hence, to avoid this unwanted scene, the party didn’t officially announce the list of candidates. Instead, based on numerous surveys and internal assessment reports, the party had already shortlisted around three to five names of probable candidates in each constituency and got their forms filled. Apart from these ‘would be’ candidates, whoever approached the party leadership were told that they are free to file nominations. The, AB forms, however, were given to the selected few only at the last moment.


This strategy helped the party keep the number of rebels low. Also, for the first time, this system of getting the forms filled up from select candidates was not centrally controlled, but was operated on each district level. Despite this kind of decentralization, the party could keep the operation secret till the last day shows the organizational strength that party has gained in the state.


New approach

Moreover, the core of the BJP's strategy revolved around three dynamic elements - hyper-localised alliances, magnanimous campaign mobilisation, and the please-all governance narrative.


In a significant tactical move, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced last weekend that empowered district-level units would make autonomous decisions regarding alliances with partners in the ruling Mahayuti coalition (i.e. Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party). This decentralisation was to ensure maximum seat conversion, even if it meant individual non-cohesiveness in the actions of different BJP units.


“Wherever possible, we do want to form a grand alliance. Wherever it is not possible, we will not do so. However, we must remember that wherever we have not formed a grand alliance, the parties contesting against us are our friends. We will try to ensure that whoever wins the local body elections is from the grand alliance,” Fadnavis stated, outlining a strategy that prioritises the coalition’s collective strength over a uniform, top-down mandate.


This flexibility is crucial in Maharashtra’s complex political landscape. It is expected to allow the BJP to maximise footprint by contesting seats independently whereever the local party organisation is strong enough to win and prevent anti-Opposition splitting, by ensuring that where an alliance is not feasible, the winning candidate still belongs to a Mahayuti partner. This way the BJP plans to prevent the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) from gaining an advantage while bolstering its own strength.


Booth management

The party has unleashed a massive campaign machinery, deploying a list of 40 star campaigners including Union Ministers, former Chief Ministers, and senior state leaders like Nitin Gadkari, Devendra Fadnavis, and Chandrashekar Bawankule. This star power is designed to elevate local contests and link them directly to the success and popularity of the state and central government’s work, especially the image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Secondly, it will motivate the cadre to operate on a "war footing" and meticulously focus on booth-level management to ensure high voter turnout from core support base.


The final, and most potent, element is the focus on the Governance Narrative. BJP candidates are directed to draw a sharp contrast between the party's focus on development and the opposition's alleged corruption during their previous tenures in civic bodies. A key battleground is the upcoming BMC election, where the BJP aims to dislodge the decades-long rule of the Shiv Sena (UBT). The campaign here will heavily focus on highlighting the Mahayuti government’s infrastructure achievements like the coastal road, Atal Setu, and metro corridors as examples of development under the BJP's watch. It will also raise the issue of civic accountability flagging "scams" and "lack of accountability" in civic administration during the previous regime to generate anti-incumbency votes.


The BJP had always been labelled as an ‘urban middle class’ party. By successfully navigating the alliance maze and leveraging its development agenda, the party seeks to demonstrate its absolute control over the Maharashtra's crucial urban bodies.

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