Coloring Mumbai Railway Stations: From Boring to Beautiful

BMC school students at Santacruz East station with CACR 

Art is something that brings a smile on my face and a pleasant sigh making me feel “Today is going to be a great day!” So, imagine my happiness when every step I took at the railway station I found a painting; especially when a Van Gogh’s “Starry Nights” played right in to my vision. I was standing there for a few minutes just looking at it, giddy with happiness hoping to stop everyone and say “This is a Van Gogh, even though it is not the original.”  

As kids, we loved doodling; on our walls and in our notebook. Unfortunately the wall thing was banned both by school and parents as it was a risk to their sanity. But giving it an outlet through decorating your railway station is an exciting idea. It kills two birds with one stone; one’s fantasy of painting on walls, with the added benefit of beautifying one’s stations.

Mumbai First and Making A Difference (M.A.D) initiative in collaboration with the Western and Central Railways came up with the Beautification programme, called ‘Hamara Station Hamari Shaan’ as part of a Nationwide voluntary initiative called Daan Utsav, executed from 2nd to 8^th October 2016.

Citizen Association for Child Rights (CACR) decided to take this opportunity to the MCGM Children too, giving them a chance to explore the world of art and be a part of the Clean India movement. Not only did they get a chance to see their works on the wall being viewed by millions, but they also got chance to be meet other artists and support PM Narendra Modi’s Swachh Bharat dream.

CACR members Vidya Vaidya and Ar Deyasini Choudhury supervised the entire project. MCGM school students from both western and central side participated in this program for a day each. There are 21 stations in western suburb and 15 stations in central suburb. A total of 164 BMC school students from seven schools helped in coloring six railway stations (two in central suburb and four in western suburbs).

In order to understand this program, I went to Santacruz East Station on 8^th October, where Ar Deyasini Choudhary and Vinita Menon of CACR and Viren Shah of MAD were coordinating the project. A total of 60 MCGM school students from Juhu and Andheri were ready to give the walls of the station ticket counter area a much needed makeover. They all were eagerly awaiting instructions with paint brushes in one hand and paint in other. While some were painting the trains, others were painting flowers, butterflies, leaves and grass.

At Mulund

At Vile Parle

At Bandra

A few students from NMIMS Mukesh Patel School of Technology – Vidhi Shethi, Daanish Gandhi and Vinay had also volunteered their help. Our graduates and under graduates have realised that to make a change, we have to be a part of the change and participate in such programs, stating “Where there is a will there is a way”.

CACR volunteers from NMIMS-MPET

Along the way I also met Allwyn Pereira, the R N Podar School Art Teacher with some of his student volunteers painting on the walls of the foot over bridges(FOB). It is great to have teachers going beyond the four walls and supporting such initiatives.

I also met the artist of Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’, Snehal Patil (an independent artist) who had beautified the outer walls of Station Master’s cabin, the Ticket Window and the FOBs.

Art is really underappreciated in our country, in spite of our vibrant cultural history and our living arts. So through this program, we are providing a medium to both art and artist to showcase their potential to the world, especially in a locale where the commuter otherwise would not have the time to go beyond his/her daily routine to view art.

Also, art plays a very big role in a city’s holistic development. A “smart city” that we talk about so much should have both art and technology going hand in hand.

It is also important for children to participate in such initiatives from an early age to respect public spaces, to understand the concept of ‘giving back’- especially for MCGM School children, who have very few avenues of participating in such events, giving them a sense of belonging and help inculcate in them a sound civic sense, of responsibility, and the most important the joy of creating beauty!

From tomorrow onwards, the people of Mumbai will have something exciting and interesting to see on the platforms, FOBs and ticket windows daily, rather than the dark and dirty drudgery they are accustomed to.

It just depends on how many are willing to pause for a second and appreciate these efforts.



Visit www.ngocacr.com to know more.

A day with BMC students at Kalaghoda Festival

BMC students at Kala Ghoda Arts Festival,KGAF

Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn – Benjamin Franklin

My name is Utkarsha.Sanjay Thakur and I am a part of the NSS unit of Ruia college. I got an opportunity to be a volunteer for the Kalaghoda festival on February 6th by CACR (Citizens Association for Child Rights). Students had participated for both February 6^th and February 7 workshops.

This was my first experience to work as a volunteer for CACR.  CACR is an institution which work for the betterment of children’s from BMC schools and their rights for education.

  BMC schools students from different BMC schools had participated in the workshops organised in this festival that would help them develop their social skills and learn new things. Students were provided with snacks and other things by CACR.

My role as a volunteer was to take care and help these students in understanding the workshop activities. Some were facing communication problems due to language barrier and it was my duty to help them overcome it.

The Tara Sharma Show at Kala Ghoda Arts Festival,KGAF

It was great to see all the students enjoying these activities, learning from it and getting an opportunity to visit the Kalaghoda festival. It was fun an exciting experience for me as well. The smiles on their faces made me happy.

3D model making by Arzan Khambatta & Sunil Padwal at Kala Ghoda Arts Festival,KGAF

CACR is doing a good job by initiating all these activities for the BMC students. It gives them a platform to be a part of these festivals organised in Mumbai, develop social skills by working and communicating with students from schools all over Mumbai and also learn different things.

 By making them participate in such activities, CACR and the schools are giving them confidence to compete on a bigger level in the future.

I hope CACR keeps on doing this work and give every BMC student a chance to be part of such events and activities.

 I am looking forward to be part of more such activities and help in empowering BMC schools.

Thank you CACR for giving me such a great experience!

The Irony of Indian Education

“Irony is the gaiety of wisdom and the joy of reflection.”

In India however, irony seems to be the daily staple of our lives as we reflect on the happenings in the country.

The best defense to a false degree accusation.

From being a country where pissing on the road is fine, but kissing/any form of PDA isn't and where moms want their daughter to control their husbands and expect their sons to control their wives, the latest in a long list of ironies is that Smriti, Irani, the cabinet minister for Human Resource Development, responsible for education in the country herself has extremely murky education credentials.

In the ongoing furore that followed this revelation, one could not help but wonder, how education came to be such a controversial topic at times.

Even before the above mentioned incident occurred, a massive “fake degree scam” in Bangalore was unearthed where offers of degrees and certificates were openly advertised. The ads, posted on various websites, claimed to provide degree certificates from various varsities in no time to (un?)suspecting netizens. Another popular example of disrespect for our education system was the famous  IIPM or Indian Institute of Planning and Management issue, where a complaint by the University Grants Commission UGC, revealed that the institute is ‘cheating’ and ‘fooling’ its students as it is not recognised by any regulatory body.

Scams are more staple in our country than rice and wheat.

Even despite outright illegal acts, a  lot of activities in India’s education sector have been in a certain grey area; these include the system of “donations” to gain entry into universities, the setting up of universities and educational institutes without accreditation etc.

The main reason for a general sense of disrespect and heedlessness towards the education sector, is mainly that education is either viewed as a simple means to an end; students look at degrees from colleges as one way tickets to placement with an MNC and lifelong series of foreign trips and a priority savings account with Axis bank, or education is viewed as an inconvenience to be dealt with before entering the job sphere.

Education is neither of these two; it is meant to be an enlightening experience, to prepare you for the numerous challenges that you are inevitably to face in your later life.

Rural areas have particularly low literacy and education rates

A degree is meant to be nothing but a proof of these efforts, and a sign that you have the knowledge required to survive in the world, instead of being a “employable” stamp.

The moment that we as a country realize this, education and fake degree scams will cease to exist, and rural parents will start sending their children to schools 57.8 million children are out of primary school globally with India, ranking among the top five nations with 1.4 million children being out of school.

In the meantime, one can only hope that our other ministers make more educated claims henceforth.

- Anand Banerjee is a  creative intern with +Citizens Association For Child Rights, a non profit working in public schools on India to improve the standard of education and well being of children.

www.facebook.com/CitizensAssociationForChildRights

www.ngocacr.com

Video Tutorials: Possible future or an illusion?

We have read countless time that the basic problems facing public/municipality school is lack of empathy/support from Government and teaching staff. Government is always facing shortage of resources -Teachers, school buildings, study aids, etc 

The obvious solution found a few years back was using video tutorial. The advantage of it was you do not require a teacher or internet facility on your computer. It was an answer awaited by all children whose parents’ were not in position to sent them for private education. The technique was low-cost and effective.

CACR volunteers use Video Tutorials to teach English 

But has this idea brought out the required change or relief to these common woes? You could say in a small measure they have helped, but looking at the larger picture it probably has a long way to go.

The basic problem this idea faces:

• No room for computer lab in schools. Certain classes in government schools are being closed down due to insufficient number of students, there is still no provision for a computer lab in many public schools of India 
• A mandatory law that every school should have a computer lab with fully functioning computers and a computer teacher assigned is a must. A large population of educated Indians is unemployed and it’s time to accommodate them into public schools thus providing them an employment opportunity and resolving the teaching staff situation. Even retired or handicapped people should be given an opportunity for teaching positions.
• Maintenance of computers is another issue. In those schools where a lab is provided with the necessary software and a maintenance contract, still many of the computers are inoperable. No maintenance is done and no sign of future actions to get it done are in the to-do list. Neither the government nor the required school personnel are accountable for it.
• How to operate video tutorials? Students are definitely not born with an internal manual on how to operate computers or video tutorials. The only advantage the current and future generations have is their ability to grasp computers and other electronic gadgets like smartphone/tablet at faster rate than their parents.

E-Learning via Video Tutorials 

           Few solutions could be -getting into a five year contract with the I.T. firms (who have made India famous in the world of IT)who  will solve the problem of maintenance and provide regular updates to software. A special audit team should be created by the Government for random checks in school regarding student welfare, day-to-day operating problems in schools and computer labs functioning.

Students learn basic IT skills via Video Tutorials

           So, what we essentially need is a teacher for some period of time to teach them basics and an access to computer lab to practice it on regular basis. Practice is what is needed to make these students masters in their game and for a possibility to use more video tutorials to expand their knowledge. These same students can in turn help their juniors who are on a novices to  the world of computers.

Once these bottlenecks  are removed, we will have a bright future for the BMC (inner city) schools and its students. All we need is participation from all the stakeholders – parents, Government, teachers, volunteers and public to give their time and effort to this endeavor.

-JZ is a engineer and a  volunteer with +Citizens Association For Child Rights a non profit working in public schools on India to improve the standard of education and well being 

My Experiences As A NGO Volunteer So Far

It was March 2014 I suppose; I was discussing my new goal of joining a NGO where I could work in volunteering capacity with few of my friends. We searched for NGOs that we could join on the net and I stumbled upon Citizens Association for Child Rights. We contacted Dr.Richa Singh, who explained the working of the organization, the need for more volunteers as well as of people who could spread the word through the net and I was hooked.

          The truth is that I never gave any thought to the plight of children who were not as privileged as me or the people I interacted on a daily basis. I volunteered to work for the organization by going to schools and spending 2 to 3 hours to teach the students basic computer courses. However, I soon realized that I was more interested in spreading the word about this organization via my writing skills. I contacted Dr. Richa and she appointed me as a volunteer in maintaining the blog.

How to get in touch with CACR

          Writing and editing the blog posts was a major exposure for me. The experiences shared by the volunteers told a horrific story of neglect suffered by the children in our country. We shared these stories on the blog which garnered an impressive response. However, it was not enough. The fight is to change the condition of children all over the country; we had to reach a larger audience to make a significant change. We decided to change the look of the blog and the technical team played a major role in that endeavor. Guest writers played a crucial role in branching out and spreading the information to a larger audience.

          I did not have a history of working with NGOs but CACR gave me a strong platform to help the organization spread awareness about its cause with my talents from day one. I understood the various fields in which we could help our society and the rising need for the efforts to make it a better place. It also brought in sharp focus the fact that for uplifting each section of the society it is necessary that the whole society works as a single body. For this the citizens need to know the problems faced by the various sections, and hence spreading knowledge about it is equally important as making efforts to solve the problems.

     CACR. The team working for is efficient in planning as well as execution of events and plans. The smiling faces of hundreds of children are a mark of their efforts and the milestones that this organization that CACR has achieved.Writing has become my passion and I am actively aware of the society I live in. This has been the gift of joining CACR. It has given me the incentive to fight for the deprived classes and to make the country we inhabit a better place to live. 
        Working with an NGO can be a frustrating experience if the organization is not organized to meet the demands. I am proud to say that I faced no such qualms while working for

-by +KAVISHA SHAH is a engineer by profession who loves to blog and volunteer with +Citizens Association For Child Rights 
website : www.ngocacr.com

Images : https://instagram.com/p/1j8KUTG2Rh/