This is the story of a changemaker who believed in the power of education and kindness. What it resulted in came to be known as the “Free School Under the Bridge”.
Rajesh Kumar Sharma from Delhi has been running a makeshift school under the Yamuna Bank metro bridge flyover since the past 16 years. The school teaches students from nearby slums and underprivileged areas. His mission is to educate every child and build a brighter future for them. This is his inspiring story of practising kindness through educating the underserved children.
49 year old Rajesh Kumar Sharma started a makeshift school in 2006 under the metro bridge flyover of Yamuna Bank, Delhi. It helps more than 300 underprivileged children. The school also helps these children in getting admissions in government schools. There are five blackboards painted on the walls and basic supplies of chalks, dusters, pens and pencils. Children come in shifts to study there with their own notebooks. With a little spark of changing something at the grassroots, he is moving ahead.
Kindness for Sharma is spreading awareness and giving education to those who can’t afford it. He hails from Hathras in Uttar Pradesh and lives in Laxmi Nagar, Delhi with his family. Sharma owns a grocery store in the locality and runs the school in two shifts- 9AM to 11 AM for 120 boys and another from 2 PM to 4:30 PM for 180 girls. He has seven teachers in the school. These teachers live in the nearby areas and volunteer to teach the students aged between 4 to 14 years.
Back in the days, Sharma could not complete his BSc. degree due to financial constraints. He pledged to himself and decided that nobody should be deprived of education. He dedicates more than 50 hours a week to support and educate these children who can’t afford it. The school started in 2006 when the idea struck in Sharma’s mind while wandering around the empty fields close to the Yamuna river.
The children sit on the ground covered with carpets and they study in groups. This makeshift school teaches children of slum dwellers, ragpickers, rickshaw pullers and beggars living close to the Yamuna Bank metro station.
The curriculum that the “School Under the Bridge” follows focuses on basics of language, mathematics and science. His goal is selfless help and educating poor children and making them smile is all that he wants.
Sharma’s efforts have proved life changing for his students who got admissions in government schools through his guidance. They are now building a brighter future for themselves and their families. Kindness can come through a small act of even realising the need to change, and that’s exactly what Rajesh’s story proves to us all.
Here’s to more kindness heroes like Rajesh Sharma and their pledge to change the world, one child at a time.
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Stay kind and spread smiles.
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