Books and us

Nimesh Ved and Anshumalika Rai
In this article, the third and final in the series, the authors move beyond the rooms and walls. They look at themselves.

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Resolutions

Ramya Sriram
The Lifelong Learner is a monthly comic strip that illustrates how continuous learning is
embedded in the human experience. The strip emphasizes that learning is not confined to
just school: we learn from nature, relationships, conversations, listening, making mistakes,
trying new things, and reflection. And of course, learning isn’t a one-way street, it’s a
dynamic exchange between teacher and student, adult and child.

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Imagining an education for all

Usha Raman
The right to education is a fundamental right. But is education accessible to all? In 75 years of being a republic, how far have we come in bringing education to every section of the society?

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Savitribai Phule and Fatima Sheikh: Pioneers of Indian education

Anjali Noronha
January is the birth month of two extraordinary women teachers – Savitribai Phule and Fatima Sheikh – who worked to uplift the downtrodden despite belonging to the less privileged sections of the society themselves. At a time when educating girls was shunned in society, these women braved insult, abuse, and atrocities to teach girls from the deprived communities.

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A community’s struggle for dignity

Sawni, Sanjhali, and Tasveer are all from the Pardhi community in Bhopal. They share their experiences, struggles, and thoughts on what can be done to improve the situations of communities like theirs. Sawni is a first year college student in Bhopal. Sanjhali studied till class 12. Tasveer, is a lawyer. Once skilled trappers with deep knowledge about forests and their conservation, their livelihoods were criminalized by Forest Acts during the British times. The community was listed in the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871. This Act was repealed in 1952 and ever since the Pardhis along with a few other communities have been known as de-notified tribes. However, these tribes have been included in the Habitual Offenders Act of 1952. Thus more than 150 years after being labelled criminal, they are still unable to overcome their stigma and harassment. These communities have not been beneficiaries of positive discrimination policies in Bhopal as they are not often a part of the Scheduled Caste or Tribe list. Their lives and struggles for education, we hope will help us question the many assumptions about merit and educational advancement and work to create a more equitable society. These are first generation girls and boys who have beaten the odds to get an education. Muskaan, an organization that works to empower children and young adults through education in Bhopal has been a constant support in their oppressed journeys. (Translated and put together by Anjali Noronha) SawniI am the youngest of five sisters of a Pardhi family, living in Rajeev Nagar, Bhopal. We had a younger brother too, but he died in an accident at the age of two. My life has been a constant struggle to educate myself. I am doing my first year BA now. My mother used to collect waste. My father sold watches, balloons, etc., in the bastis apart from also helping my mother collect waste. We lost both our parents while we were very young. My uncles distributed all that we had amongst themselves, including us. We were made to beg and collect waste. The money that we thus earned was taken by my uncles. They beat us if we complained or said we wanted to go to school. I love to study. Among the Pardhis, girls are discouraged from studying. When I was very young and my parents were still alive, my elder sisters used to teach me at home. They would go to the Muskan residential camps and when they returned there would be a

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