Rotary Club of Bombay presents the Somchand Parikh Award for Best Teacher to Mr. Ajit Bhoir
Greetings to everyone. I am very grateful to the Chirag Foundation, Chirag Rural Development Foundation, and all the dignitaries here for this opportunity. Today, I want to share some thoughts with you about my work as a teacher at an Adivasi school. This is a school where students lack even the most basic amenities. They don’t have slippers, books, no method of learning – mobile phones, or TVs, etc. Whatever little support we get comes from the government, and it’s our job to make the most of it for the students.
When I joined the school, 190 students were studying there. Not studying, they were playing there. I began to think about how we could change the situation and what we could do for these children, but I knew I couldn’t do it alone. I began with teaching them but I did not have anything to provide them a good education. I reached out to friends and acquaintances and started seeking donations. Slowly, various NGOs joined in, and today, my school is fully equipped with infrastructure.
Where the students once studied only from textbooks, they are now learning through technology. Several organisations like Chirag Foundation, Seva Sahayog Foundation, Pareta Foundation, E-Learning Space Foundation, and Inner Wheel Club of Bombay Airport have supported us in various ways. Over time, we partnered with more NGOs, and now our students are studying digitally through those NGOs.
Every student needs to develop their personalities and whatever qualities they may have. I always thought about which angle to teach the student though.
Like, we began small computer courses for them, but we did not have computers. Chirag Foundation provided those to us.
We’ve been teaching students the importance of nutrition and health, especially addressing issues like child marriage, which is common in our community. Many girls are married by the age of 15 or 16, and boys by 18. We conduct health camps and sessions with doctors and nutritionists to teach them about bodily development, and we also provide sports equipment to encourage students to pursue athletics.
Along with sports, we’ve introduced music, dance, and cultural activities to help students connect with the world outside their village. We’ve organised city visits for the students so they can experience life beyond their immediate surroundings. We take them on visits to institutions where things are made. The result of all this has been that children from other villages nearby joined in and now we have about 250 students.
Our school is till class 8. For 9th and 10th, we have to go 7 kms away to teach kids. There are no buses, you have to get up early and walk 7 kms. When school gets over by afternoon, you walk back. We have placed a proposal to introduce 9th and 10th standards in our school. It may be approved this year. If so, we will need infrastructure. We are wondering where we will get that from.
Kids in the village should get the same education as kids in cities. So, we have introduced modern facilities like robotics, science and maths labs, and we continue to think of ways to improve the lives of our students. We see children using their minds in the robotics lab. They are thinking of what to do next with it. So, we have changed the way they think. First, we just had 4-5 kids passing 10th standard exams. Now, because of these efforts and changes, 30-35 kids have passed 10th standard and are studying till graduation. Our goal is to help them not only graduate but excel in areas like nursing, ITI, engineering, and medicine.
In the last two years, we’ve sent about 12 students into nursing, and our aim is to guide even more into professional fields. Just like our Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, envisions growth for every sector, we too want to ensure that children from our Adivasi communities have the same opportunities.
Seeing these changes fills me with satisfaction. When a student graduates and becomes a responsible citizen, I feel like I’ve fulfilled my duty as a teacher. It brings me great joy to see their progress, and I am immensely proud to be a part of this journey.
Thank you all for this recognition and for giving me this chance to share my thoughts. It’s a moment of great joy for me. I invite you to our school to see the work we are doing there. Thank you.