Our Bureau Dharamshala
Children of the slum area of this region have the facilities which are not even affordable by the higher rich class families in Himachal Pradesh. They have live classroom to chat with students of foreign countries on various projects, they have high speed internet, digital studios and an atmosphere of a cabinet meeting at the kindergarten level.
Jamyang (43), a monk has facilitated them with all these facilities. About 130 children are undergoing a holistic education which includes secular ethics, emotional management and subjects like management and leadership. This study starts from age of five years. Slum kids study only three classes in monk’s place. Foundation class, first and second but during this course every student gets his own laptop and have various other activities. They are taught how cabinet meetings, live interviews goes on. They also interact with students of other countries from live classrooms.
This monk Jamyang is from Tibet. He had arrived in India in 1997 and stayed in south Indian monasteries till 2001. “My only aim of the life is the transform these slum kids into a better and excellent human being so that they could lead the masses one day. They will be the winners while other will be the losers as they have adapted themselves to ultra modern techniques of education while many other institutions are only after academics only” he said.
Talking about his motivation for this work he narrates the story when he arrived in this hill town and saw three rag pickers eating out of garbage where he had seen people urinating. “In 2001 I stayed in a room in Mcleodganj, near to it was a street where garbage was dumped. I daily see three kids coming to it collecting out something out of this heap. They use to take out bread pieces and tomatoes stuffing them to eat without any grudge” he said.
“One day I saw few people urinating on garbage and these kids came and ate it. That was the day I decided to live for these people. I make extra lunch and offered them” he said. This monk got the aim for his life and started working for slum people from 2001. He says that when he visited their shanties, he was moved. “I saw one lady delivering a baby on the rock in front of everyone. Few ladies were giving her the smoke of chilies. That was disgusting, how this can be in open in front of everyone?” he added.
Finally this monk was joined by other likeminded people and formed an organization Tong-Len (it means give and take). Language barrier was the biggest challenge before this monk but he managed to overcome that. Then next task before him was to convince the slum people.
“If I give them money they spent it on drinking. They were just focused for the present day. If I give clothes and shoes, they sell it off to get money. Kids at that time use to die with diarrhea. I have to grab children from their mothers to feed them and give medicines” he said adding that mothers use to take their skinny babies with them for begging.
Finally, this monk is nearing success in his goal. There are 300 kids who have been benefited due to his presence in this hill town. There is hostel facility for 148 kids provide by monks, about 30 were seeking educations in universities across country. An American top consultancy firm has offered them free service to work for the bright career of these students.
