One walk through the lanes and by-lanes of Narkeldanga and Rajabazar area in northern part of Kolkata- we will find most of the children working in shops and tanneries. They mainly belong to the Muslim community and live in extreme poverty. Majority of the children in the area are outside the purview of formal education. Against such a backdrop, we along with a local NGO called Banga Education Society, local community people and State and District Project office of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) jointly held the drives on 30th April and 2nd May during the EFA (Education for All) Week observed from 24th-30th April, 2005.

Since the theme of the EFA week was “Send My Friend To School”, both the drives were spearheaded by the children studying in our Narkeldanga Nabadisha centre. On either day, the rally started at 4pm from Narkeldanga Police Station. Around 160 children of Narkeldanga centre gathered in front of the Police Station. It was a festive atmosphere everywhere. Children had placards and posters in their hands. By the time the rally crossed the narrow lanes of Narkeldanga and Rajabazar and assembled in front of a local high school, it had created quite a stir in the area. People were curious to know – what is the rally all about, what are the children trying to say. We interacted with many passersby and explained the purpose of the rally. Nabadisha children performed juggling, drama, recitation, which attracted a huge number of audience. In between the performances, they announced the purpose of the programme and invited their local counterparts to join school. In the mean time, there were scores of parents waiting to get their

children’s names registered. We were simply overwhelmed by such response. We somehow managed the crowd and noted down around 1600 names over the two days (mainly on 2nd May).

As a part of the enrollment drive, we formed three small groups and did a sample survey in Narkeldanga to identify out-of-school and drop out children of the area. What came out from the survey was that there is high demand for education in the area but the local schools have no more capacity to enroll all children. What we have realized is that much needs to be done to fulfill the demands and expectations of the poor parents of these areas regarding their children’s education.