Anand’s footpath school strikes a chord in UN

Vadodara/Anand: “I am so overwhelmed to have come to Gujarat and in Anand district to see this,” said Sir Vartan Melkonian, British Armenian composer-conductor and humanitarian ambassador to the UN street children programme seeing 70-odd street kids pursue education in a footpath school in the milk city.
London-based Melkonian, the patron of the consortium for street children of the United Kingdom, had visited the footpath school that was started by gold medallist college teacher Uma Sharma in June 2018 and runs every evening at Sardar Patel Raj Marg.
“It is most extraordinary to see this happening in the 21st century. It is my duty and my passion to report this to the international community on how this beautiful initiative has taken place here, on the streets, on a footpath, in front of a shopping centre,” the UN ambassador said, adding that he felt both responsible and embarrassed at the same time in the 21st century.
“We started this footpath school without a concrete plan or a roadmap on how to take it forward. But as we went ahead, we grew to a school of 70 children studying here every evening. Half of these children do not even have a roof above their heads,” said Sharma, whose school is in its fifth year now.
It is run under ‘Sinchan’ Dayashakun Foundation, an NGO that Sharma, the eldest of four siblings, registered last year in memory of her father Dayashankar, and mother Shakuntala Devi.
“Earlier, I used to conduct only classes. But during the pandemic, we started providing food, dresses, and ration to these shelter-less street children and their families too,” said Sharma, who got inspired to provide proper guidance and help street children build their careers five years ago.
The turning point in her own life had come when she had overheard a conversation outside her father’s garage as a child. “They meant that wards of uneducated people too remain uneducated. It was then that I decided to pursue higher studies,” said Sharma, who completed her BA from H K Arts College, MA from GU’s Department of Philosophy, and PhD from Saurashtra University.