Little Stars Pavement School: platform

On most thoroughfares of Calcutta, street children are a very common sight. They are born on the pavements and spend most of their childhood there etching out a living by begging, or working in teashops or hawking everything from magazines to tobacco products. Ultimately most of them end up either as petty criminals or drug addicts, with no hope and surely no future. It was seeing their plight that Mrs. Joba Talukdar, a housewife, started a school right on the pavement outside Deshpriya Park. She knew that education is the only hope for these street kids and slowly over the years she has managed to convince the street children to join this unique school of hers. Every year more and more children are getting admission in government approved schools from Little Stars Pavement School and their numbers seem to be growing. However the problem of less remains, and most expenses are borne by Mrs. Talukdar herself and a few likeminded individuals. Most of her expenses went in acquiring books for children and it was then she approached Bates 141 Calcutta with the request for a campaign for a book donation drive. Appearing as posters, newspaper inserts, leaflets and a press campaign the ‘Donate Books’ campaign drove in the message. After some time cars and total strangers stopping at Little Stars School to drop off their books became a common sight. Books are no longer a scarce item for the children of Little Stars School but a whole lot still remains to be done.