If there is ever living proof that education can help kickstart, uplift or even drastically change not just a person but a whole village, then Kabeer (who doesn't use a surname because his fight is against caste discrimination) would be it. Born in the town of Nagda in Madhya Pradesh, he managed to complete his class X from a government school and passed with distinction, completed his plus two in Aditya Birla Senior Secondary School on a merit-based scholarship, pursued BSc from Delhi University via the sports quota and completed his MBA from Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Institute Of Business Management. He overcame many roadblocks, including those that were financial, religious, caste-based and even child marriage in the pursuit of education. He worked in a call centre, worked with a corporate company and did many part-time jobs in between.
But despite all of this, life left him with a sense of dissatisfaction.
Education is the answer Searching for answers, he turned homeward. It helped when Kabeer went back to his hometown in 2016 and started teaching underprivileged children for one and a half hours every day. And then, he realised that there are more children that could do with this help. That's when he took over his cousin's school, Nagda International Public Nobel School and resolved to make providing education his purpose. "I was educated but who else was benefiting from it? A labourer's child from my village was still growing up to be a labourer. There was no change. I wanted to put my education to good use and bring about a change," says the 29-year-old. During a Corona awareness session | (Pic: Tedhi Lakeer)
Putting everything into it - cows and all! And with that in mind, he also started Tedhi Lakeer, his initiative in the realm of education. Under this, he would visit homes of minority, dalit and underprivileged families in a bid to convince their parents that their children needed to study. "Their parents would ask me what would happen to the income that the child gets through minor jobs and how they will be able to afford their fees, books, bags and so on. I said I won't be able to help them on the income front, but will provide education, midday meals, books, bags, shoes and everything else in between for free," says Kabeer. He was able to offer this because he had about Rs 12 lakh saved up from his previous jobs. He also purchased two cows and sells milk, gobar, khad and so on which helps him earn anything between Rs 12,000 to 20,000 every month. Today, the school, that has classes from nursery to class VIII, has about 100 children, six teachers and is functioning as smoothly as it can.
One man army But this is not all that Kabeer does. He cooks the midday meals himself, alternating between poha, dal chawal, pulao and so on. After school ends at 2, he visits nearby slum areas with the remaining food and distributes it there — along with teaching some lessons there. He also runs coaching classes from 5 to 7 pm in the evening and in the early mornings. Recently, he started teaching widows and the elderly thrice a week. He teaches them basic English, reading and so on so that they can claim their pension, avail government schemes and are not scammed into fraudulent schemes.
Clearly, he is doing a lot of good.