Extending Support To The Underprivileged! - Chakradhar Pradhan

 

“In the 80s, education was suppressed due to the ongoing rebellions in the State. The fight had sparked due to the murder of a student. Children belonging to rural areas were majorly affected by this. Since then, it has been my goal to provide quality education to kids who are most exploited. I built an organisation called “Sankalp”, along with a group of advocates, teachers, social workers and 113 students from 9 districts.

We usually enrol Maoists and orphans. To bring them from such challenging backgrounds and help them learn and grow, is a tiring task, which at the end, yields beautiful results. Our children secure first division and go into colleges like Ravenshaw, which is beyond their imagination. Some of them have also started working in companies. Utsa Foundation has also helped us with this. If this is the fruit of our efforts, I don’t mind persevering.

A girl named, Sita Mallick, used to sweep the school premises. While doing her job, she would stand outside the classrooms and learn along with the students. She would also ask the students for their books and read them. One day, she asked me to admit her as a student into the school. Then after, she not only swept the students’ rooms, but also started studying with them.

I feel our foundation helps in eradicating poverty by doing what it does. Seeing our once, unable to understand anything children, evolve into learned people of the society, makes me proud. In this pandemic, I miss all of them so much. From seeing them every single day to not even being able to talk to some of them (due to non-availability of phones), makes me a bit gloomy.” – Chakradhar Pradhan.