Bhagwan Himmatrao Sadavarte is a security guard at a multistorey apartment complex in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar (formerly known as Aurangabad), in Maharashtra. The 29-year-old not only guards the families who live in this complex located about 250 kilometres from the state capital Mumbai, but is also securing the future of children of daily wage labourers and construction workers.
For the past four years, Sadavarte has been running a ‘Roofless School’ for the children of daily wage labourers and construction workers. The ‘school’ is held under a neem tree and needs only a blackboard that is hung from the tree trunk.
Today, 74 children, both boys and girls aged between five and ten years, come there to learn. Sadavarte teaches them free of cost and also with his own meagre earnings, buys them textbooks. He takes these classes daily between 6 pm to 8 pm, and such is his popularity that even those children who go to regular schools have started joining in.
“My daughter-in-law works as a housemaid, and my son works as a labourer. Our house doesn’t even have doors, so it was beyond our means to educate the children. But Sir [Bhagwan Himmatrao Sadavarte] teaches all the students in our area for free. They know how to read and write,” Kamlabai Shinde, a grandparent whose child studies at the Roofless School, told Gaon Connection.
The Roofless School, a beginning
The 29-year-old moved to Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar from Chincholi Sangle village in the neighbouring Buldana district in 2012, after completing his higher secondary, in order to study further and do his Bachelors. His parents being labourers, they could not finance Sadavarte’s further studies. But that did not come in the way of this youth who worked part time in hotels and private offices to support himself while he studied.
It was four years back, in 2019, as Sadavarte sat in his room in Shakti Nagar, studying, he noticed some young children outside, playing and quarreling amongst themselves. They ought to have been in school, but were obviously not. Some of them were smoking. These were children who stayed in slums where daily wagers mostly lived.
This disturbed Sadavarte deeply. He figured out that these were the children of daily wage labourers who were out at work to earn a daily living.
“That was the time I began to wonder why I could not get these children to study. I approached their parents and talked to them and emphasised the importance of educating their children,” Sadavarte told Gaon Connection.
The teacher also insists the children go back home and share what they learnt with their parents.
He did not meet with much enthusiasm from the parents. They worked all day and they had no time or the energy to devote to anything other than putting food on the table. Many of them were also alcoholics. But Sadavarte persevered, and gradually many of the labourers came around to his way of thinking.
Since Sadavarte did not have much money to put the children into schools himself, he did the next best thing. He hung a black board around the neem tree and thus began his Roofless School in January 2019.
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Spreading education and cheer
“Sir came to our home and expressed his willingness to teach us. He explained it to our family. Now we come to this school every day. We feel good,” Ajay Kangare, one of the students, told Gaon Connection.
Many of the children who had never held a pen or pencil in their hands, are now speaking, reading and writing English and doing Maths sums.
“I go to a regular school, but I also come here. Many times Sadavarte Sir explains things that I did not understand in my regular school,” Priti Shinde, a class five student who comes to Roofless School, told Gaon Connection. “Earlier, I couldn’t even write my name in Marathi, but now I can write it in both Marathi and English,” she added.
The teacher also insists the children go back home and share what they learnt with their parents. This has made more parents open up to the idea of sending their wards to the Roofless School.
“My parents didn’t have money for my education. But, three years ago, I started learning under this tree. I didn’t know English before, but now I can read and write in English,” Sonal Kailas Ugle, a student of class seven, told Gaon Connection.
“My students do not need money, they need education. Education has become an expensive business. The labourers barely make enough to survive, how will they get their children admitted to school,” he asked. “These children are creative, have so much talent, they only do not have the right platform to express those qualities,” he rued.
Help pours in
It isn’t easy teaching and supporting the kids with his meagre earning of about Rs 3,000 a month as a security guard. Since he has a place to stay provided by the apartments where he is a security guard and he does not have to pay for his meals, he manages with this, Sadavarte said, and is not about to give up. And, there are those, who seeing the work he puts in, are extending their help.
The Mahatma Phule Samata Parishad, a social service organisation, stepped up with five bicycles for those children who have to travel some distance to come here.
Lata Jadhav, a hostel superintendent, has undertaken to provide Sadavarte two meals a day. He wanted to register an organisation for the welfare of his students called Bal Ankur Sanstha, but did not have enough money to open a bank account for the purpose. Another benefactor, Venkat Mailapure, an officer from an organisation called Ipca Laboratories, gave him a cheque for Rs. 35,000 from the CSR fund to help address the issue.
Surendra Biyani, the Joint Charity Commissioner of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar, was so impressed about the Roofless School that he provided all the students with free health cards.
Since Sadavarte did not have much money to put the children into schools himself, he did the next best thing. He hung a black board around the neem tree and thus began his Roofless School in January 2019.
Meanwhile, Sadavarte has also begun to cycle to Waluj about 12 kms away, where he teaches 20-25 children, again under a tree, an Acacia. Waluj has a sizable population of migrant labourers as it is an industrial area. There he has been trying to teach their children.
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“It is a very hard life the migrant labourers live. It is a struggle for survival. But I told them that if they did not educate their children they would lead the same lives of want and penury as they are. This convinced some of them to send their children to study,” Sadvarte said.
This is not all. Sadavarte is hoping to crack the UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) and some other exams and he is preparing hard for it. In between doing his security job at the apartments and any other sundry work he can find, he is hard at work studying. In 2015, he graduated from the Bachelor’s programme at the Deogiri College, Aurangabad where he studied English.
“By setting up the school, I have done nothing very special. I am only trying to give at least the basics of education to children who otherwise will be left behind. So come rain or sunshine, the Roofless School remains open, and the children keep coming,” Sadavarte smiled.
