EDUCATION PROVIDES A GLIMMER OF HOPE

For thousands of pilgrims and monks from all over the world, it is the holiest place on the planet ¬– Buddhism’s Mecca. For tourists, it is a crazy Indian town filled with pristine temples, market stalls and street food. For the locals it’s life. For the poorest of those, it’s an opportunity to beg for food and money.

The Mahabodhi Temple towers over Bodhgaya, in Bihar, north-east India, and is the area’s main attraction. Tourists also flock to the 25-metre Great Buddha Statue, the Mahakala Cave ¬- where Buddha is said to have meditated for six years without food and water - and Sujata Temple, where Buddhists say Gautama Siddhartha (Buddha) was given milk rice upon leaving the cave.

Outside the gates of the historic monuments, lines of men and women push their children, often disabled and deformed, into the paths of tourists and pilgrims to beg for money and food. These children sit for hours in temperatures exceeding 40C in the summer - no education and little hope. But, for all of India’s faults, most children, especially in Bodhgaya, have access to free education.

One free school is the Lord Buddha Charitable School, situated in Chora, 6km from Bodhgaya on the opposite side of a river that runs dry outside the rainy season.

Chora’s locals are known as ‘untouchables’ ¬–members of Indian society who rank so low they do not fall into its controversial class system known as caste. So-called untouchables perform the lowest paid jobs. Despite being known as the lowest in society, more than half of the families living in Chora send their children to school. About 80 children attend the Lord Buddha Charitable School for two hours a day.

‘We believe that if we can give time and education to some people then there is hope that their future will be bright,’ says Kapil (29), one of the founders of the charity school.

‘Most of the people in Chora are of the untouchable caste. They don’t own any land. Families in Chora might live off as little as 200 rupees a day (£2) – which will need to support a family of five.’

On a cold February morning, as the sun peaks above the mistcovered rice fields, children, many wearing no shoes, dirty t-shirts and ripped trousers, run from their clay homes as the school cowbell chimes. The boys and girls, clutching at their tired pencils and notepads, greet European volunteers with warm smiles and lots of hand-shaking.

Mahendra (38), co-founder of the school, explained that before the facility was opened children from Chora would have to walk for over an hour into neighbouring village Sujata to go to school.

‘A volunteer came to help in the school in Sujata and they knew there was no school in Chora,’ Mahendra recalls. ‘They went and knocked on doors in Chora and asked people whether they wanted a medical centre or a school – they said school.’

The volunteer donated 600,000 rupees (£600) that paid for the build of the two-room school. Most of its students live in clay/straw houses and after finishing class go to work in the surrounding fields.

There is currently enough funding, 4,000 rupees per month (£40), for two teachers, two-hours a day. The school is made up of two basic classrooms, the youngest children are taught outside on a rug. Each classroom has a small whiteboard but, at least in March 2019, only one pen was shared between the classes. The shoestring budget extends to buying each child a pencil or piece of chalk and some paper every couple of months.

Mahendra and Kapil, fathers to young families, say they felt compelled to help those in Chora because they were given hope through education as children. Neither of the men are paid for supporting the school.

Mahendra is an English teacher in a government-run school and Kapil farms land and drives a taxi.

‘I did not have a job when I started the school,’ says Mahendra.

‘I saw many children who did not go to school. When I wasn’t working, I would go to Bodhgaya and tell tourists about the school we were setting up in Chora and try to raise money.

‘My parents are not educated but I was able to get a good education in a government school – for me that was really important because not many people get that opportunity. Lots of people who have parents who are not educated will end up not going to school.’

But despite tight budgets and limited facilities, two hours of education a day gives hope. Students at the Lord Buddha Charitable School are passing the tests required to attend highschool – the first rung on the ladder to a brighter future.

Mahendra now hopes to get enough funding to employ two teachers full-time. He needs just 20,000 rupees a month or £200.

Life for Lord Buddha Charitable School’s 80 pupils is a world away from that of children growing up in Jersey. School is not only a source of education in Chora it is a lifeline. It’s a chance to smile, play and learn. It’s not a ticket out of poverty but a licence to hope for more than just being an ‘untouchable’. 

To find out more about donating to the Lord Buddha Charitable School email emzjsmith@live.com