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Education | Bengal's lady Tom Sawyer teaches criminals a lesson by Anahita Mukherji

Bengal's lady Tom Sawyer teaches criminals a lesson by Anahita Mukherji

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published Published on Dec 12, 2010   modified Modified on Dec 12, 2010

Tom Sawyer, the mischievous young protagonist of Mark Twain's 19th century classic, is an unlikely hero for a social activist from rural West Bengal. But Shabnam Ramaswamy, a feisty 55-year-old from Murshidabad, likens herself to Tom Sawyer in more ways than one. 

Like Sawyer, who, when given the onerous task of painting a wall, convinced his friends of the importance of his job and had them queuing up to help him, Ramaswamy has visitors from around the world, knocking at her door in Katna — a remote crime-ridden village in Murshidabad district — eager to pitch in and help her run an extraordinary school she began five years ago. 

Jagriti Public School has changed the face of Katna. The English-medium school has helped bring down crime rates in the area. "Most crimes are committed because of grinding poverty and unemployment in the area," says Shabnam, who has no qualms employing former criminals, including those who have attacked her in the past. 

Take for instance her driver, a jolly, strapping man in his forties who ferries kids from surrounding villages to school. It is near-impossible to tell he was part of a group of contract killers who threw handmade bombs at Shabnam and her husband 11 years ago at the behest of her uncle, a man she sacked for swindling money meant for the school. 

The very spot where the school now stands was once the scene of a crime. 

One night, eight years ago, when she and her husband, senior journalist Jugnu Ramaswamy, first moved to Katna, they were shaken by a piercing scream along the lonely road near their home. They traced the sound to a peasant who had been robbed and tied to a tree. That's when the duo decided to build their dream school beside that very tree. It's little wonder Shabnam's NGO, Street Survivors, won the Sanskriti Award for social achievement this year. 

The school building, an ornate brick structure with a rustic feel, was designed by a Delhi architect and built by local masons. The geometrical floor patterns in the school courtyard — inspired by the ones at Murshidabad's Katra Masjid — have been featured in the NCERT math textbook for Class IV. 

"I like it here because the teachers love us and they don't beat us," said Class VI student Mustafizur Rahman in English. His classmate, Samirul Shaikh, thoroughly enjoys the extracurricular activities that the school offers.

The Times of India, 13 December, 2010, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Bengals-lady-Tom-Sawyer-teaches-criminals-a-lesson/articleshow/7090130.cms


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