Deepalaya - Enabling Self-Reliance

The sun shone bright as Deepalaya School, Kalkaji Extension celebrated its Annual Day on September 29th. Year 2007 is special as Independent India celebrates her 60th anniversary this year and Deepalaya commemorated the 60th year of independence on this day.

The India that shines has made notable progress in the field of Science, and Information Technology. However this is a miniscule part of India. Much of India is plagued by illiteracy, poverty and ill health. The primary one to be dealt with is probably illiteracy. An educated person has the wherewithal to earn money and hence can step out of poverty. An educated person would be aware of the importance of health and be amenable to new and scientific ideas.

Deepalaya has identified the pivotal role of education and has been imparting quality education to the under privileged children, especially the girls. Deepalaya will continue to light the candle of knowledge and dispel the darkness of poverty and ignorance from the lives of the unfortunates.

The program started with the lighting of the lamp by Mr. Subhash Khuntia, Jt. Secretary, Ministry of Human Resource Development, GOI, Mr. K.V. Thomas, board member, Mrs. Mary Mathew, Usha Pramodan, [a parent] and Rajni, a Deepalaya student. Rtn. T.K. Mathew, Secretary & Chief Executive welcomed everyone and talked about Deepalaya’s journey, its achievements.

A presentation of all the activities and special moments during the year 2006-2007 had been made by the Principal, Ms. Shikha Pal.It was really moving to see that the children are really grateful to Deepalaya and the teachers and they seize any opportunity to succeed. For example, Neetu, a student of Deepalaya who had just returned from a conference on ‘Sports for Development’ at Namibia related her experiences and expressed her feelings eloquently.

The little ones expressed their love for Mother India through a dance performance. The entire day’s program was suffused with patriotic themes – there were skits, dances and songs on secularism, culture, past glory and the like.

The Chief Guest, Mr. Khuntia spoke about Deepalaya as a unique school. He said that even after 60 years of independence there are millions of children who have not seen the insides of a school. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan was started with the aim of bringing all children to school. In the primary class the enrolment rate is 94-95% but when the children reach Class VIII about 50% drop out. It is high time we understood the transformative and equalizing role of education.

Deepalaya’s performance in NIOS has been praiseworthy and he found both the children and staff highly motivated. He was impressed with Neetu’s speech. He congratulated those who have won awards and encouraged all children to perform well as each one of them has the potential to win in life.

An important item of the day was the award distribution ceremony. To encourage students to excel in studies several sponsors, donors and friends of Deepalaya have instituted one-time awards and these are given to the students on the annual day. As many as twenty four students received the awards for excellence in Maths, Science and English. Finally, there was a journey through Rabindra Nath Tagore’s life which was enacted by the children.

What was most impressive about the entire event was that it hardly ever looked like one done by children who came from difficult backgrounds. Rotarian, Mr. Sawhney, expressed the sentiment beautifully when he said that the experience of coming to Deepalaya School was as elevating as going to a Gurudwara (a place of worship by the Sikhs). There has been a highly appreciative letter from Mrs. Indira Narain, a donor.