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Weapons And Enchantment In India

By Benjamin Freeman

Enchanting isn’t a word I reach for too often, but I feel it is fair to say that the last few weeks in India were an enchanting experience. The energy of the country (in particular Delhi) and its vibrancy is like nothing I’ve ever experienced. Everything seems heightened and this was definitely true of the stories I heard.

When there’s a particularly dramatic story of transformation, I always find myself somewhat stuck emotionally. There’s horror at what’s happened but there’s also a sense of thankfulness about the progress that has been made. It feels both good and exciting and bad and depressing.

It seemed every story was like this. In some areas, almost every mother we spoke to had not been able to attend school at all. This means that they’re completely illiterate. I found that a pretty tough thing to get my head around, that someone could be completely illiterate and run a business.

From parents passing away to extended periods of starvation to being (literally) burned by a competitor’s business, the pasts we heard about had some deeply disturbing events. But apart from this there was one more piece of common ground – the commitment to getting children educated.

One lady described education as a weapon for her children for the future. I think that’s a pretty nice image, an education being something that you carry around to keep yourself safe and secure (not promoting this as something you should do, just enjoying the idea). Another said it was the ultimate legacy that she could leave her children with. No matter the analogy, it was clear that education means everything.

This was particularly true of one woman we spoke to called Usha Devi. Usha has three young children who are all studying. She said that at 35, she still dreams of going to school herself, but knows it is too late.

From her tailoring business, she has enough money to move out of the slum they are in. But she won’t, because this would compromise her savings for her children’s education. So she stays in the slum in an impossibly small house where electricity is at best fickle and water is hard to come by, so that her children can go to school. Her dream is they become accountants – perhaps unsurprisingly they didn’t share this dream…

Usha knows what it’s like to not be able to provide her children with an education. Before she received a loan to start her business as a tailor, she wasn’t even able to afford notebooks. She said that back then she was angry – she thought life was pointless.

Her family’s life has come a long way since then. With education as their weapon, I’m sure it will go a lot further.

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