Deepalaya - Enabling Self-Reliance

Chandni, Shivani and Indira, whom Deepalaya had been nurturing have shown how with hard work and determination, anyone can overcome the initial disadvantage of a deprived past and come up in life. Deepalaya had assisted these girls by offering them an opportunity to study a one and a half year course on Ancillary Nursing Midwife (ANM). In addition to securing them the Dewan Foundation Scholarship, Deepalaya ensured that they got admission at the SOS Nursing School, Faridabad. Chandni got distinction with 82.5% marks in the first year’s exam and topped her institute. Shivani got 78% and Indira 76%. The girls made us proud by getting selected in a campus interview in May 2008 to work at Arogyadham, a Multi- Speciality Hospital. The hospital is run by Dr. Shailesh Jain, a heart and lung specialist and surgeon, and his wife Dr. Ritu Agarwal, a gynecologist. While Indira has already joined the hospital, Chandni and Shivani will join after completing their XII exam in October 2008. Indira is attending classes on Intensive Care Unit and Critical Care Unit course in the afternoons and has already been given shift duties. She will be earning Rs. 3500/- per month. Her parents visited the hospital and having satisfied themselves about the safety of the place, consented to her joining duty.

It is a major jumpstart in life for these girls when one considers their background. Shivani’s father is an auto rickshaw driver and the mother a homemaker. Shivani feels grateful to Deepalaya and says that this is a major break in her life. The job presents an important opportunity to her to get out of the poverty trap. She wishes more girls from her community are able to step into a meaningful career hers.
Indira’s father is a peon and her mother is a domestic maid. Indira feels it was Deepalaya that enabled her gain confidence. She has picked up quite a number of medical skills and is happy that she is able to interact with so many people in a single day. She feels greatly satisfied that she is able to help people in miserable conditions. She feels that but for Deepalaya’s emphasis on the positive discrimination of the girl child, her life could not have changed for the better.

Chandni’s father is self employed and sells export surplus clothes and earns a meager income of Rs.25, 000/- per annum. The mother is a housewife and the family has nine children to support. Chandni was always a top ranker in class and continued with this performance in the Nursing course too. She considers meeting and interviewing the Chief Minister of Delhi, Mrs. Sheila Dikshit and receiving a prize from the hands of the President of India for winning the drawing competition as high points in her life. She was able to meet these personalities because Deepalaya afforded her an opportunity to first get quality education. She says she would like to make a mark in whatever she does.

There a number of commonalities between these three girls. All of them come from deprived backgrounds, but all three struggled without giving up hope. They were too young to appreciate the role of Deepalaya when they got into its school. Having grown up now, and understanding the world they want to return the help they received back to society manifold. The first step, they feel, is to encourage the girls in their communities to come out and join school like them. Deepalaya on its part feels that more than its efforts it is the support, contributions and encouragement given by numerous individuals and corporates that enabled it to expand its activities. It looks forward to the day when no child would have to struggle in life for want of education and health.