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Ajay in Agra
"I got to see the Taj Mahal 6 months after I arrived in Agra, that too after my friends from Jaipur insisted that I go with them. Visited Sikandra, Emperor Akbar's mausoleum, located less than a km behind my house, well into my seventh month of stay."
That's Ajay Sharma for you. The Programme Coordinator of Pratham Agra. Ajay is so involved with his work and so thoroughly identifies with the Pratham ethos: "Every Child in School and Learning Well" that he scarcely gets a chance to do anything mundane like going sight seeing, shopping and eating out. When not supervising Pratham operations in Agra, Ajay looks out for slums with substantial population of out of school children for Pratham to step in.
A decade ago Ajay was a budding scientist in school who would occasionally cause explosions in the house trying to make different varieties of gases, much to his family members dismay. His uncle, a retired Principal of P.G. Sanskrit College, who dragged him to join a degree course in Sanskrit and English, nipped his plans. He was disillusioned with this forced choice of subjects because the 2 languages, Sanskrit and English, were poles apart. He found it difficult to switch off from one subject to focus on the other and vice versa. To his credit he not only finished his degree course but also acquired a Master' degree in Astrology from the Jaipur University.
As it happens with most youngsters in our country, he didn't know what to do next. Again a family member, a cousin this time, who was a Zonal Project Coordinator (ZPC) of Janshala, put him in touch with Pratham. This was in the year 2002.
Ajay Sharma joined Pratham as supervisor of NOVIB funded infrastructure development project of Government schools in Jaipur. The job entailed selection of suitable sites i.e. identification of schools which needed additional classes, liaison with the Head Masters of the schools and supervision of construction. Seven schools were covered under this project.
Upon successful completion of the project he was inducted on the management team of Pratham Jaipur. This time he was asked to work on a guideline for teacher's honorarium and arrears. Also around this time he was instrumental in getting a godown in Jhalanakunda, in Jaipur, reconstructed into a school, funded by NOVIB. One of the things he had to do was to form a committee of local residents. There was a squabble amongst the residents, finally he suggested holding an election and the committee was formed. This school has been handed over to the Government, and it also functions as a Pratham centre.
In March 2003, Ajay was moved to Pratham direct programmes in Jaipur. He headed 2 zones. By the end of the year Pratham was in the process of starting programmes in Agra. A hunt was on to find someone to be the Programme Coordinator in Agra, Ajay was offered the job and he readily agreed.
On 4th of December he arrived in Agra, a city he had never ever visited. He was joined by Preeti Nishat of Pratham Allahabad and Shabnam of Pratham Delhi to start the programme. When he visited the local municipality office to get a map of slums in Agra, he got strange looks from the officials, some even quipped about his fancy for the slums in a city where people from the world over came to view the Taj Mahal!!
Pratham started 25 L2R classes with 625 children in the slums of Karwan and Telipara, after the usual survey and pretest, in January 2004. In the summer 118-summer camp reading classes were held. Ajay managed to bridge 800 out of school children to formal school.
Today the operations in Agra have spread to Nalha Burhan Sayeed, Sir Ki Mandi, Jagjivan Nagar, Jagdishpura and Kishorepura. 44 Pratham classes in these areas, 40 L2R and 4 R2L classes, with about 1100 children run, together with 10 Pratham Community Libraries. Ajay hopes to bridge much of these out of school children in this academic year and move to newer areas.
Ranajit Bhattacharyya
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