Dev Pratap Singh
Chauhan, 22, who spent his teen years on platforms consuming cheap contrabands,
now runs Voice of Slum, an NGO which aims to save many a childhood
I was a child when I left home and became an urchin. I
would roam in trains, used contrabands and became an addict like many children you
may spot on platforms across India. After spending almost my entire teenage on
tracks and platforms, I got in touch with an NGO which enrolled me for detoxification,
rehabilitation and education. I must consider myself lucky therefore.
Hence, as I grew up, I always wanted to give back to
our society; particularly to the underprivileged children. Although I had been
employed in various positions in marketing, I was not oriented towards a career
there. It was my friend Chandni, a rag-picker in her early years, who suggested
that we could start our own NGO and translate our dreams into reality.
We discussed a blueprint and quit our jobs. We had
little savings so we connected with like-minded people through NGOs and laid
bare to them our plan. Finally, in 2017, our own NGO Voice of Slum, came into
being.
The original plan was to provide basic behavioural training,
in some cases even elementary education, to children from poor families and
then lobby with local schools to get them admission under EWS (economically
weaker sections) quota mandated by the government.
During early, struggling days, sometimes I had to
sleep hungry as we had a rented an accommodation and had hired an expert
teacher to impart the enrolled children basics of a civil society, etiquettes and
language skills so that they may fare well in their interviews for school
admission.
We successfully placed many slum kids in good schools from
our first batch and the work got us some attention from people with similar motivations.
Some of these people offered monetary help too, and number of children in our NGO
grew further. We contacted children of housemaids, security guards, sweepers,
housekeepers, drivers, roadside vendors and many other such people from
economically weaker sections and encouraged them to enroll with the NGO.
We had started with one rented hall for training the
children two years back and now with growing numbers, we have to rent a three-storied
building to accommodate all members. As our resources grow, so does the number
of our enrollment.
We were charting a steady growth when the pandemic
struck in March 2020. The lockdowns
wreaked havoc on daily wagers. The children in my NGO mostly belong to that
strata. Many parents of these children became jobless. We decided to shift
gears immediately. We focusing on and provided food to the slum dwellers. We
sought help from Donatekart in providing quality meal for these families.
Noida police
officials also came forward to extend their help in distributing food packets. During
a series of lockdowns and subsequent weeks of uncertainty, we have been able to
distribute food worth Rs 50 lakh, through various donations.
I do not want to see our children begging on the
streets or selling flowers and other wares on traffic signals. I do now want these
children to be susceptible to same threats that I faced.
I am proud that many of the children who trained with
us are also helping their parents in their work, in addition to pursuing their
studies, as they have picked up hard lessons at an early age. It is a long road
ahead of us, but we haven’t stopped; we are marching on.