Education / Migrant's daughter living on footpath scores 80.4% in Class X in Haryana

ROHTAK: Pooja Rani, whose father is a migrant worker from Madhya Pradesh, has scored 80.4% marks in Class X examinations of the Haryana Board of School Education, whose results were announced on Friday night. Living with parents and three sisters in a 10x10 tin shed on a footpath of an upscale Rohtak colony, Pooja says her matriculation result means a lot for her.

“Five years ago, I started my education from ‘Gandhi school’— then an informal school under a streetlight — where scores of children of migrant labourers get education,” said an elated Pooja.

Her father, Kailash Kumar, is a daily wager and mother works as a part-time cleaner in many houses. Both Kailash and his wife are illiterate and are busy most of the time struggling to earn a livelihood. “I am proud to announce today that I secured more than 80% marks and my parents are on the top of the world with joy, especially my mother who has to do odd chores like sweeping, cleaning to support the education of four daughters,” Pooja added.

“My daughters have found their lives in books,” Pooja’s father said about her exemplary Class X result and added that he finds his four daughters studying all the time — when he leaves for workin the morning and when he returns late at night.

Pooja wants to teach children of migrant labourers

The ‘Gandhi school’ is like a ray of hope for the migrant labourers in this area of Rohtak as they are slowly starting to expect that they can transform their lives through education, said Pooja, who hopes to become a teacher.

She wants to teach children like her, from families of migrant labourers, who often get behind due to lack of financial support or guidance and become uneducated adults. “If I can achieve this, then children of other migrant labourers can also do so provided they get timely help like I got at ‘Gandhi school’,” Pooja elaborated.

Naresh Kumar, a social activist who runs ‘Gandhi school’ in Rohtak, said he started this informal school 15 years ago after realizing that the children of migrant workers faced discrimination in local schools.

“Often, such children start working with their parents from a young age and are deprived of the opportunity of education and transforming their lives. I started evening classes under a street light gathering the children of migrant workers. Initially, lots of hurdles came but later people started helping us and today we have our own building where children come to study as they don’t have conducive environment at home,” Kumar explained and added that Pooja’s result had inspired other children belonging to migrant families from Bihar, UP and MP, who are studying in the school.