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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.

Shiv Sena (UBT) rattled in Dahisar

Tejasvee, widow of slain corporator Abhishek Ghosalkar joins BJP

Mumbai: In a severe poll-eve jolt to the Shiv Sena (UBT), its former BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) corporator Tejasvee A. Ghosalkar abruptly quit to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday.

 

Tejasvee is the widow of the popular former corporator Abhishek Ghosalkar who was shot dead on Feb. 8, 2024, during a Facebook Live interaction with his local constituents, sending shockwaves in political circles.

 

Incidentally, Tejasvee’s father-in-law is the SS (UBT) strongman, ex-MLA Vinod Ghosalkar, who also served as Chairman of Mumbai Building Repairs & Reconstruction Board. A municipal corporator from 2017-2022, Tejasvee’s switchover is likely to enhance the BJP’s prospects in the Dahisar west area where the Ghosalkars and the SS (UBT) held sway for several decades.

 

The development comes as a massive smash to the SS (UBT) north Mumbai unit which was hoping to encash on the ‘sympathy wave’ generated after Abhishek Ghosalkar’s killing by a local goon Mauris Noronha, who committed suicide minutes later in the IC Colony area of Borival west.

 

Tejasvee, who visited and offered prayers at the Siddhivinayak Temple in Prabhadevi after joining the BJP, has justified her move on grounds that the decades of work by the Ghosalkar family at the grassroots level (Ward No. 1) is not hampered.

 

Earlier, she and her supporters were welcomed to the party fold by Mumbai BJP President Ameet Satam when she acknowledged that while the SS (UBT) gave her a political identity, she “was very keen to work with the BJP for the development of her region”.

 

“I always wanted to strive towards development… I am ready to accept any responsibility given by the party. I am confident that under the leadership of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, we shall continue to strengthen the work at the ground level,” said Tejasvee, who was peeved after the SS (UBT) denied her a ticket in the Nov. 2024 Assembly elections.

 

Earlier, she had targeted the ruling MahaYuti for the tardy pace of the investigations into her husband’s killing and expressed disappointment at the lack of progress even by the CBI which was handed over the case in Sep. 2024.

 

The young, educated, and outgoing couple was a favourite among the cosmopolitan population of Dahisar west as the (undivided) Shiv Sena considered it as one of its key strongholds for many decades.

 

The Ghosalkars were known to be very close to the Thackeray clan since the days of the late (undivided) Shiv Sena founder-patriarch, the late Balasaheb Thackeray.

 

BJP ‘lure’ via co-op. bank post 

After she was rebuffed for a ticket in the Nov. 2024 Assembly elections, in favour of her father-in-law Vinod Ghosalkar (who lost), speculation was rife on Tejasvee A. Ghosalkar’s political moves but she clarified her position to the SS (UBT) President Uddhav Thackeray, ex-CM.

 

In June 2025, political motormouths went into hyper-buzz after she was appointed a Director of the BJP-dominated Mumbai District Central Cooperative Bank, raising eyebrows even in the SS (UBT).

 

She quickly went to meet the SS (UBT) chief and made it clear that “Uddhav Thackeray is the head of our family”, but she was fulfilling the dreams of her late husband by taking her maiden plunge into the cooperative sector through MDCCB.

 


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