A video of children crying for a police officer who was being transferred from their area recently went viral on social media. With teary eyes, the heartbroken children bid farewell to the police officer who had been teaching them for four years. However, the GRP officer is leaving Unnao to join the Civil Police in Jhansi. This was devastating news for the 125 students of Unnao who lived near GRP City Thana and whom he was teaching.
This sad episode, however, has a beautiful and inspiring story behind it. How a hero emerges from among us? One such hero is Head Constable Rohit Kumar of the 2005 batch. He founded ‘Har Hath Mein Kalam Pathshala’ almost four years ago on his own. A journey that began with teaching five children and has now reached 125 students.
HOW IT STARTED
After witnessing children from low-income families begging in trains and engaging in child labour, 38-year-old Rohit Kumar founded the ‘Har Hath Mein Kalam Pathshala’ open-air school. It was a voluntary effort, and he teaches classes after work. He not only started this initiative, but he also invested money from his salary in it, and he is still doing so.
Rohit told that this beautiful story started in the year 2018, when his posting was at Unnao City GRP Police Station. “In those days, when I used to travel from Unnao to Rae Bareli, the first station on the way was Korari Halt, 10 Km from Unnao. There I used to see a large number of small children begging, working, or just roaming around. That’s when I thought of doing something for these children and this initiative was born.”
After duty, Rohit would go to the homes of those children, meet their guardians, and explain the value of education to them. It was difficult, but with perseverance, he was able to gain their permission to teach their children. In September 2018, he began teaching children under a tree in the station’s neighbourhood, naming it ‘Har Hath Mein Kalam Pathshala.’
SPENDS HIS SALARY ON IT
Rohit further said that he started with five kids and gradually the number started going up as more kids joined his open air classes. Gradually people started noticing the classes and came forward to support him. “We then got the children admitted in a primary school nearby. Books were also arranged for them. They would go to school and after it get over, they would come to study with us.”
As the children grew, Rohit felt that it was necessary to involve more people in the initiative. “Sometimes I had duty during the day and sometimes at night. Therefore, I hired two teachers so that there should not be any hindrance in the education of the children. I started paying them salary from my own salary money. Even today I give them 2 thousand rupees every month.” In this way, Rohit spends 8 thousand every month on this initiative.
HELP CAME
It is said that if you are doing something good, then God sends many people to help you. Same happened with Rohit. “It used to rain many times, so we could not hold classes under the tree. So we rented a place nearby. The then District Panchayat Raj Officer (DPRO) of Unnao, Rajendra Prasad, came to know about this initiative and offered a panchayat office for classes, about 7 to 8 hundred meters away. So, we shifted there and till now classes are being conducted there.”
When more people saw Rohit’s hard work and dedication, they volunteered to join him and came forward to help him, including many GRP police officers who used to come and teach classes to the kids. And now there are six teachers in total, four of whom teach for free and two of whom are paid by Rohit.
