Darjipurwa, a remote village situated in the Bahraich district of UP. The literacy is below the national average. The majority of the population follows Islam and are depended on agriculture. A major percentage of men population migrate to Saudi Arabia for livelihood as labourer, helper etc. The girls are married at an early age as conventionally they are considered to do household works only and education is not considered essential for them as evident during field visit of AGAM team, team met a young girl of about 12 years old who was doing some household work and upon enquiring team got to know that her little sister of about 7 years old was coming to our Shiksha Kendra but she was not attending classes for no valid reasons. Although her little sister is attending classes at our center but who knows the future that she might have to leave her study as she will attain the age of her elder sister.
Similar situation exists for boys as well. We rarely met any boy of age more than 15 studying at our centre mostly because they help their family by earning some money doing part-time job. In the village there is only one primary government school and one urdu school. Some of the little faces who attend urdu school don't know how to write their names in hindi/english they lag behind others who goes to primary school in terms of modern education. studying in class 2 and got 84 % marks in his final term of class 1 exam.
In the above all hardships, there is still some hope, some of the parents understand the importance of modern education and they were very much eager to communicate with our team. We got to know about a student Afzal, studying in class 4 at our center and amazingly, he is preparing for Navodaya Entrance Exam. Then a little face, Ashfaq, popped out saying sir, I too want to prepare for Navodaya, upon questioning he told he is studying in class 2 and got 84 % marks in his final term of class 1 exam.
Apart from little boys, there were some of angels there who were so much excited to talk to team e.g. Rajia, Gulfisa, Salmona, Parmina etc. studying in primary classes accompanied team during the village visit and they are also regular in attending classes. All these little faces especially girls, students preparing for Navodaya and all others are being given proper mentoring and guidance.