Rajesh Kumar Sharma, 40, offers a free education to New Delhi's slum children under a metro bridge. He started a makeshift school, where he teaches children from the city’s slums, too poor to attend regular schools. Founder of a free school for slum children Rajesh Kumar Sharma, second from right, and Laxmi Chandra, right, write on black boards, painted on a building wall, at a free school run under a metro bridge in New Delhi, India. At least 30 children living in the nearby slums have been receiving free education from this school for the last three years. Mr.Sharma is not a teacher by profession. He runs a general store in the city, but for two hours a day he rushes to his improvised outdoor school. If it wasn’t for Rajesh and the dozens of children who go here daily, you would never guess this is a place for education. There are no walls or desks, just the bridge acting as a protecting roof in case of rain, and three squares painted black and used as blackboards.The teacher doesn’t only provide his knowledge for free but also all the reading and writing materials.Sharma, who came to Delhi from Aligarh 20 years ago, has been teaching underprivileged children in other parts of the city too. Sharma starts at the basics and goes on to prepare the children for admission to government schools. He started with approximately 140 students, and 70 of them are in government schools now. Sharma even allows students too young for school to sit in the class as he believes this would inspire them. He is assisted by a tuition teacher, Laxmi Chandra, a postgraduate who teaches science. he says. Most of his students only have notebooks which he gets with the help of social workers who visit him occasionally. Those who get books from their schools pass them on to younger students. Sharma says his achievement is the change in attitude of the parents who now encourage their children to study. "They understand that if children in the villages in the interiors of the country can go to schools, why not in the national capital." source
