Focusing on the Greatest Need

Ankur was started in 1983 to help build "bridges of empathy" by a prominent group of Delhi residents that included development activist and feminist Kamla Bhasin, educator Lalita Ramdas, and theater artist Feizal Alkazi. They believed the rigid system of textbook-oriented education followed by schools did little to develop true learning or life skills. They wanted Ankur to push for a learning that goes beyond textbooks and examinations, helping children to develop into compassionate, empathic, sensitive, and aware young adults.

Ankur's vision of education goes well beyond improving literacy. "It involves building empathy and an appreciation of diversities," Shrivastava said. "It focuses on inculcating a sense of social justice and empowering young people to proactively seek the same."

Photo by Ruhani Kaur

Jaya Srivastava in her office with posters made by Ankur workshop children

By the mid-1980s, Ankur was operating up to 30 units in Delhi, especially in the aftermath of riots that followed the 1984 assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. During the first four days of November 1984, 2,733 Sikhs were brutally killed in Delhi, according to official figures.

Ankur had just started its programs for children in several slum communities and a handful of privately-owned schools. "They put their ongoing work on the shelf and poured all their human resources into relief work and rehabilitation of riot victims through several centers in slums and relief camps," Shrivastava said.

Although Ankur had run its program for children in private schools in Delhi and in shantytowns, after a few years it decided it could use its limited resources more effectively by focusing exclusively on underprivileged children. "We felt the need of this group was greater, and there were very few organizations working in the slums at the time," Shrivastava said.

By the mid-1990s, Ankur's organizers realized that its resources were still spread too thin, so during the past three years Ankur has focused its activities on eight centers in targeted slum areas of Delhi. Currently, its programs reach about 10,000 children and women, Shrivastava said. Ankur supports the education and empowerment of women because it is linked to the value they place on educating their children.

Self-Discovery Leads to Empathy

Ankur serves children between ages 6 and 13 and 14 to 15. Most of the approximately 400 children in these age groups also attend formal school. Ankur's classes are offered before or after regular school hours in rented space in slum communities, or in rooms provided by a community or local authorities. Ankur's facilitators are drawn from the same community as the children, so they understand their environment and can shape the program to respond to their needs.

Ankur's classes always begin with lessons that lead to discovery of the self. "The first step in understanding another is understanding oneself," Shrivastava said. The first lesson is "Mein" (me). The second, "Mera Parivar" (my family), the third, "Dosti" (friendship), and so on, until students progress to larger issues of violence and conflict. The lesson on conflict begins with "Aaspaas Ladai" (conflict in the neighborhood), and moves on to India's fragile relations with Pakistan, and the Iraq war.

Through these lessons, and interactive activities that include crafts, paintings, creative writing, song, dance and theater, the children

Photo by Ruhani Kaur Ankur children from the Sashi Gardens slum community

are sensitized to the suffering and needs of others. Interaction with other communities of children is an important component of their education, as is participation in rallies and workshops on issues like the sectarian violence in Gujarat and the displacement of villagers of the Narmada Valley. After these villagers' land was flooded as part of the Sardar Sarovar mega-dam project, large numbers of the displaced – deprived of their ancestral habitat and way of life by the project – joined with citizen sector organizations to oppose the scheme and protest the poor rehabilitation process.

One year ago, Shrivastava organized a meeting of children from a Delhi slum with a group of children who were among the displaced families from the Narmada Valley that had come to the capital to present a petition to the Indian president. "They were so excited, exchanging notes about the difficulties their communities faced," Shrivastava said. While the Narmada children suffered from being forced to leave their homes, those in the Delhi slum, largely born to migrant laborers from different parts of the country, lacked a sense of rootedness in their temporary homes.

The children learn about each other by interacting, but they also ask very basic questions as they attempt to develop an understanding of the values of diversity and empathy for others. The children search for answers to questions like: "Would you like flowers of one color in a garden or different colors? Which different religions are followed by people in your colony? What do you mean when you say 'I am a Hindu' or 'I am a Muslim' or 'I am a Sikh'? Why do you think people fight in the name of religion Can you do something about it?"

Encouraging and Satisfying Curiosity

Children in the Ankur program are taught to analyze and understand others. "Through this, they develop a humanist perspective and a larger vision of goodness and tolerance, and respect and empathy emerge." Shrivastava said.

"There may be lessons on nonviolence and justice in textbooks. But the child sees the opposite around her in the larger world. Unless she understands the dichotomy on her own terms, how will she cope with the contradictions and conflicts she encounters in real life, the differences and diversities she sees around her?"

Jaya Shrivastava recalls an incident that occured when Ankur was working with traumatized children in 1985, soon after the anti-Sikh riots in Delhi: "An 11-year-old boy would constantly draw guns of different types. I asked him why was he collecting this deadly arsenal, and he replied, deadpan, 'To kill all Hindus.' His father and uncles were Sikhs killed brutally during the riots. "'Well, then you can start with me and your didi (his teacher), we are Hindus,' I told him. He was stunned. 'But you are not them,' he said. "'I will kill those jamadars (people belonging to a Hindu lower caste) who live in the jhuggis (shanties). They killed my Papa.' Then another Ankur facilitator came forward. "'I am a jamadar. Will you kill me?' 'No, not you,' said the bewildered boy. "After that, we held discussions and games to get acquainted with each other as persons and as members of different communities. Soon, we had a strong bond of friendship."

Children have a natural curiosity about people and things that are different, Shrivastava said. The task is to encourage and satisfy this curiosity, and to help them realize that diversity is an asset and need not be the root of conflict. "Familiarity leads them to empathize . . . to respect other cultures, religions and identities," she said.

Children should not be sheltered from exposure to tragic occurrences, or from the ugly and violent, Shrivastava said. She argues that the opening of wounds is also sensitizing. "The children are made aware of ugly realities and then work out ways and means of transcending them. It is in these situations that the 'good' side in all of us – the core values of empathy, compassion, sensitivity – must be encouraged to come to the fore."

Photo by Ruhani Kaur

Jaya Srivastava at work with craft done by Ankur workshop children

Shrivastava recalled the comment of a Sikh girl, age 10 or 11, who had been in an Ankur learning center since she was six, after the assassination of prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991: "Koi bhi mare to accha nahi lagta. Sonia hamare taraf ho gayee. (Any death like this is terrible. Sonia [Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's widow] is now like us." This girl had lost members of her family in the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 after the killing of Indira Gandhi (Rajiv Gandhi's mother) by her Sikh bodyguards.

Ankur's learning programs use subtle methods of getting children to think about their diversities. For instance, in a session on kite-flying, they might hear: "The kite originated in Greece (find it on the map), a country very different from India. It was patronized and popularized by the Mughal emperors and their courts. Today it is a beautiful sport, both popular and a cultural heritage in India. It's a favorite with young and old, rich and poor, Hindus and Muslims, boys and girls. Yes, girls do fly kites as well. A middle-aged, illiterate Muslim woman made these kites. She has taught me and can teach you how to make kites."

These types of sessions kindle interest in various dimensions of diversity – national, community-wide, class and gender, Shrivastava said. The children learn to respect others and to understand that everyone has something they can teach another – we can all learn from others.

Converting Training into Strength

The facilitators at the Ankur centers are all women and rarely have formal education beyond Standard XI (11th grade). Most of them joined Ankur during the early 1980s and come from the communities where they work. Their work with Ankur has helped to introduce them to the women's movement in Dehli.

The facilitators receive regular training on methods of teaching and on legal rights. However, most of their learning is through daily experiences and sharing of knowledge within peer groups, Shrivastava said.

Ankur organizes weekly and monthly meetings at its office in South Delhi where facilitators from the different centers meet to discuss issues ranging from local concerns – such as nonavailability of drinking water and a lack of sanitation facilities – to broader issues such as housing rights, education, India-Pakistan relations, the Gujarat carnage – and even global concerns like Afghanistan or the U.S. Iraq war. During these meetings, peer groups of facilitators engage in constant self-monitoring, evaluation, and planning at the local and intracenter levels.

"Over the years, our facilitators have emerged as perceptive and powerful workers with a keen social and political understanding and an awareness of rights," Shrivastava said. "They have learned how to convert taleem (training) into taqaat (strength)." Their mission is to encourage those participating in Ankur programs to use them as an opportunity for self-development and self-empowerment that gives them the strength and conviction to fight for their rights.

Based on its experience of the past two decades, Ankur has developed guidelines during the past couple of years that define an alternative method of education that encourages a vision of a more humane society while taking into account contemporary realities. The guidelines have two components – one for children ages 4 to 7 and another for children ages 7 to 12 – and they are available to all schools.

Ankur also provides training for school teachers and facilitators. "Their interpretation of the guidelines is very important to the success of the program," Shrivastava said. "After all, it is they who will be formulating the questions for which the children will search for answers."

Appreciating Complexity and Ambivalence

The Ankur programs focus on developing attributes such as respect for differences, responsiveness, cooperation, sharing, self-confidence, critical thinking, and peaceful conflict resolution. They introduce children to religion and caste as sources of identity, but also address prejudices and stereotypes and introduce the historical origins of conflict and the dynamic social realities that shape conflicts.

A 2002 Ankur workshop on "Diversity in Religion," held for a group of 40 girls from different religions, began with games and exercises to break the ice, followed by meditation, drawing, role-play, and dialogue. There were a few ground rules: the girls should listen to each other, respect each other, and voice their thoughts and opinions with sincerity. Then some questions were raised to generate discussion: To whom do I turn in moments of crisis? Do I worship a particular god? What are the rituals I like? What are my innermost feelings when I am praying? What is important for me in my religion? What is the difference between faith, religion and ritual for me? The discussion that followed generated these conclusions: Even within one religion, people worship different gods; Ways of worship and rituals, symbols and icons vary within a religion; The most important part of religion is faith in the god I worship; The most beautiful feeling occurs when the heart fills up with Allah or Ram and peace overflows; Rituals and chants performed from the heart create a divine atmosphere; temples, gurudwaras and mosques are symbolic places where this atmosphere is created by people; There may be different deities, different gods, different rituals, different places of worship, but faith and gratitude towards the maker who is full of love and compassion is common to all.

"The idea is to gently introduce young minds to complexity and ambivalence, to provide inputs for concept-building – as opposed to the current education culture of 'received knowledge'," Shrivastava said.

"It is through constant self-questioning, interaction with others, and exposure to diversity that one can build bridges of empathy like the compassion we saw generated in our children by the violence in Gujarat," Shrivastava said. "It is the only way one can hope that future generations will learn to love and respect each other."

Ankur, Society for Alternatives in education
7/10 Sarvapriya Vihar
New Delhi 110 016
India
Phone: 0091-11-26523395 / 26523417
E-mail: ankureducation@vsnl.net