Inspiring Stories - Avalahalli

About a kilometer off the Anjanapura main road and yet reminiscent of an island in a dried-up stream, such is the isolation of this little colony of people in Avalahalli. Labeled Avalahalli Quarters, this is a group of families, from a predominantly Muslim background, who have been relocated from Bangalore South Ward (J.P.Nagar) area in a slum resettlement deal to a place with no access to basic amenities such as water and electricity. There are around 500 similar looking houses and little lanes teeming with children, many drop-outs of school and many who have never been enrolled to school. The women, who are not out working as domestic help, sit around chatting and making beedis or leisurely going about their chores. The small children, ever visible, are mostly unattended.

A lone Government Urdu LPS in recent years and another private organisation for the past seven years strive to keep the children off the streets and in the school but to very little avail. One of the main reasons being that the children are their little brothers' and sisters' keepers as there is no anganwadi or childcare facility and their mothers are otherwise occupied. The fathers are employed as coolies or as auto drivers; and incomes are adequate though not high. Nevertheless, parental concern about issues of nurturing and educating young children is abysmal. This lack of active concern has been compounded and strengthened by years of looking upon the community as beneficiaries to either government or private donor support.

Given this scenario, the facilitator discussed the situation with the local headmaster, and enlisted his support in initiating a community process to evoke and articulate the community's concern for early childcare. The headmaster identified a volunteer, Waheeda from within the community who conducted a survey of the colony, which threw up the shocking fact that over 100 children in the preschool age had no organised care. Taking this to the leaders of the community, the facilitator organised a meeting with the local representative, the Madrasa committee heads and a few parents to initiate a discussion on the issue of early childcare and education. The initial reaction from the community was to find out what this particular “scheme” offered them. On elaborating on the experiences of other such community owned child care facilities there was a lot of skepticism among some and total cynicism among others especially on the subject of parents taking responsibility for the facility and paying a fee. Nevertheless, since Waheeda and the facilitator pressed for a discussion with the general parent body, they offered the use of a bus driver's rest room as a place for the preschool. Taking it up as a challenge, Waheeda backed by the facilitator went ahead and invited the parent community to a discussion of the issue.

ontrary to the leaders' expectations, the parents responded eagerly to the discussion of early childcare as they felt acutely, the lack of any such facility. The process of the discussion, the unspoken respect that underlies the act of being asked their opinion, the value attached to the decisions of a group of people who hitherto had not thought about such matters, goes a long way in reinstating a sense of dignity and responsibility amongst people who until now alienated from the very care of their children. The community of Avalahalli quarters responded to the process of the Makkala Sabha with the decision to initiate a facility for their children that would be their responsibility to sustain.