Rampur in January 2006

Everywhere in Rampur are the vestiges of its past glory. The train station where the Nawab's train stopped, the Arabic College, and the many minarets that spring above the modern day mess of unplanned construction, terraces and traffic. In its present form however, Rampur looks like yet another small town in Uttar Pradesh with many leaders and few good roads.

Pratham's work in Rampur is concentrated in the Ajitpur area. Our first stop is the Pratham office in a school. The winter sun is out for a brief while in the morning, and classes are being held outside with children and teachers sitting in different groups. There we meet Shobha and the other balsakhis. Shobha assists Niranjan in the paper work, and data compilation. The basti maps, attendance and test result records, are constantly updated, so that the work is efficient, and easy to monitor.

The catalytic programme is also being implemented in the villages around Rampur, where Pratham provides the Teaching Learning Material (the barakhadi charts, reading material etc.) and train local volunteers in the Pratham method, who then go on to work with the children of their village. The programme has been initiated in two villages, and more are to follow. We visited classes in Dabka, where local volunteers from the community are conducting four L2R Classes. Dabka is a lush village with fields of mustard and wheat. The classes are being conducted in courtyards and open spaces, with buffalos and neighbours looking on. Unlike in the urban areas, space is not a problem. The barakhadi is in place, and children are beginning to read….

The Rampur team is happy with the progress they are making. And already thinking of the future - working on the catalytic programme to include more villages, more training programmes for volunteers, starting balwadis, working out tracking systems to ensure that children who have been successfully 'bridged' and sent back to school stay there, getting students to take matriculation exams, and so on…and of course, the bigger vision of a Rampur where every child can read.

Parismita Singh