Nandita Bir, a teacher at Loreto Sealdah, comments:

"The school functions in a way to make social and economic differences irrelevant. If you interact with a group of students you truly will

Nandita Bir

find it very difficult to distinguish them on the basis of their social backgrounds.

"Let me give you a very personal example. My six-year-old daughter's best friend is Neha. The two are practically inseparable and nothing in Neha's behavior ever indicated that she came from a home that was, socially speaking, very different from ours. It was only very recently, and quite by chance, that I found out that Neha's father is a colleague's driver.

"Obviously, in economic and social terms, Neha comes from a far less privileged context than my daughter. Yet, to see her behavior – and not just with my daughter but also with other children like my nieces – it would be impossible to tell. Neha holds her own, she's confident and there's no diffidence.

"I see this with ex-students too. So many of our scholarship students now have successful careers and they are so at ease with themselves and their peers at work. They know they have nothing to be apologetic about, nothing to be ashamed of. Their entire schooling has given them this message.

"In my opinion, the crucial key to successfully integrating socially disparate students and nurturing real empathy between them is that the poorer students are always allowed to retain their dignity. The ethos of the school is not charity but sharing. Everyone gives and gains; everyone is an equal participant.

"So, the better-off kids never feel themselves as donors or benefactors; the poorer students do not view themselves as charity cases. They interact as equals, as friends."