Helping children realise their passions, dreams

In a small rented room in Barola, Noida, Kamiya Dargan has started her own school-cum-library called My Space. A school for the underprivileged, My Space is an initiative that started one and a half months ago. What makes this school extraordinary is the non-systematic technique of educating children. Children, from the slums of Barola and nearby places, come here not to just study but also discover their liking for a particular subject. Meant to break the system of education that instills fear and divisiveness in children with regard to intelligence, economic backgrounds, and choices the children make, My Space aims to create a space which makes children feel free to do whatever they want.

“It is the same reason why I left my job after four years. I realised what I was doing had nothing to do with my job. I have learnt the most through my experiences and exposure to the outside world,” says Dargan. Earlier working as a trainer for various companies and then as a social worker with NGOs, Dargan says she was somehow “not satisfied with policies they used to achieve their goals,” thus compelling her to launch her own My Space project.

“It’s hard to gather funding, being alone, but I started a ‘book donation drive,’ through which I have been able to gather 200 or so free books for the children.”
Children from the slums who go to school or don’t go to school are free to come here. There are weekly book reading, poem recitation, art and craft and yoga sessions that are organised for the children.

“I don’t intend to take care of these childrens’ degrees and certificates. I am here to make them recognise their talents, ambitions and hobbies. I want to give them a space where they can come and do whatever they want, from playing games to reading books,” explains Dargan.

“Degrees and certificates may be important to survive, but not to live. Many in our country don’t get jobs after graduation even. I am not saying don’t go to school, I want to call these children in their free time, when they may probably get into bad habits,” adds Dargan.

According to Dargan there are about 200 schools for the underprivileged children in Noida, “some are run by government, some by NGOs and some private. But still the drop-out rates are large.”
Children in the age group of six to 14 years attend My Space and they call it the library as Dargan points out.

“Every now and then I go on a field trip taking rounds of the slums in Noida. I see some children loitering around or picking rags, so I tell them about this place. Most of them don’t turn up but some do and I hope I am able to make the numbers go up,” she says.

There are books in both Hindi and English and some books with only pictures for children who don’t read. Some of them pick up a liking to novels and they ask Dargan to teach them how to read. “Also, some of them get involved with games and sports,” adds Dargan.

The aim of My Space is to create a school that instills free will in students. Some students also join the public and government schools after attending My Space.