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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.

The show must go on

Assam’s cultural void and the Post Malone moment.

The cultural vacuum left by the demise of Zubeen Garg continues to echo through Assam, resurfacing sharply during the recent Post Malone concert in Guwahati. Zubeen, the state’s most beloved musical icon, had dominated the cultural landscape for over three decades. With songs in more than 40 languages and dialects, and a career spanning 33 years, he was not just a singer but a cultural force whose music stitched together generations. His Bollywood hit Ya Ali from Gangster (2006) catapulted him to national fame, but in Assam, he had long been revered as the state’s “first true rockstar.”


His sudden and tragic death on September 19 in Singapore where he had travelled to perform at a live show left an emotional void unlike anything the region had experienced in recent memory. The circumstances of the accident during a yacht trip triggered an outpouring of grief and anger. Assam came to a standstill: shops closed, schools shut down, and streets emptied. In a haunting echo of his earlier remark that Assam would “shut down for seven days” upon his passing, the state seemed to fulfil his prophecy. The cultural heartbeat he embodied fell silent.


Months later, when Post Malone arrived in Assam for a performance, the global superstar stepped into an emotional landscape still shaped by that loss. Guwahati was ready for a high-voltage concert, but what unfolded was a reminder of the immense cultural space Zubeen once occupied. As Malone paused mid-performance to honour the late legend, saying, “To be in the home of the great legendary Zubeen tonight… I’ve come to play some street songs,” the crowd erupted not just in excitement, but in collective remembrance.


Reopened Wound

The tribute was unexpected, and it reopened a wound that had barely begun to heal. Social media lit up instantly, with fans describing the moment as heartfelt and deeply resonant. The applause that followed was not only for the American artist but for the memory of the man whose absence still defines the cultural mood of the region.


In that moment, Guwahati became the stage where two worlds met: one global, electrifying and loud; the other, grieving, nostalgic, and searching for the familiar voice it had lost. The Post Malone concert didn’t fill the vacuum because perhaps it can never be filled but it made the silence Zubeen left behind feel alive again.


Assam still measures its cultural pulse against the space Zubeen once occupied.  Every tribute, every memory, every gathering reminds people of the unmistakable truth: the void he left is permanent, and the landscape of Assamese music will forever bear the imprint of the legend who is no longer here.


Charges Framed

A Special Investigation Team (SIT), probing into the death of singer Zubeen Garg, on Friday charged four accused – Shyamkanu Mahanta, Siddhartha Sharma, Shekhar Jyoti Goswami and Amritprava Mahanta – with murder in its chargesheet filed in a Guwahati court.


Shyamkanu Mahanta was the chief organiser of the North East India Festival, which was attended by Garg in Singapore, where he died under mysterious circumstances while swimming in the sea on September 19.


Garg's cousin and suspended Assam Police officer Sandipan Garg has been charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder in the chargsheet submitted at the Chief Judicial Magistrate's Court earlier in the day, lawyers said.


Sharma was the singer's secretary, while Shekhar Jyoti Goswami and Amritprava Mahanta were members of Garg's band.


The singer's two personal security officers (PSOs) Nandeswar Bora and Prabin Baishya have been charged under Section 31c of the BNS, which deals with criminal breach of trust by misappropriating funds or property entrusted to them, the lawyers said.


The Assam government had constituted the SIT, led by Special DGP M P Gupta, to investigate into the singer's death.


Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had claimed in the recently concluded assembly session that Garg's death was 'plain and simple murder'.


(The writer is a media professional and a Research Associate with IIM, Shilong. Views personal.)

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