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(This story was first published on 15 October and is being republished from The Quint's archives for Diwali.)
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Chandni was five when she came to Delhi with her family. She used to perform street stunts with her father. After the untimely death of her father, she was forced into rag picking to feed her family and started living in a slum with her mother and two sisters.
15 years later Chandni founded an NGO called 'Voice of Slums' to feed the children in the slums and support their education.
This is her story.
Imagine a little kid, coming back home after toiling all night collecting trash and watching other kids going to school. This was Chandni's daily routine. She also desired to go to school and wear a uniform. That's when she met with an NGO that was teaching slum kids at a bus stop.
Chandni started studying at this NGO. She would study during the day, sell flowers after school and rag pick at night.
It was at the NGO that Chandni learnt about child rights.
Determined to help kids like her, she joined the NGO where she studied. For 8 years Chandni worked with the NGO and helped educate kids in her slum and in the areas around.
Since the NGO only worked for kids under the age of 18, Chandni was told that she can't work for them anymore. In those eight years Chandni worked with over 10,000 slum kids and the NGO even made her their national secretary. She also got a lot of recognition and media attention for the same. She wanted to do more but she was back on the streets, selling flowers and corns with her mother.
That was when Chandni met the co-founder of her NGO, Voice of Slums and her husband, Dev Pratap Singh.
Dev also had a similar life. He ran away from home when he was 11 and lived at railway platforms for 3 years. From doing odd jobs, working at roadside restaurants to becoming an area manager for a company, Dev came a long way.
At an event, when he heard Chandni's speech, he felt inspired.
In 2016 when Chandni and Dev founded Voice of Slums together.
The idea was not just to feed malnourished children in the slums, it was to bring kids out of the slums and educate them. Slowly and steadily they progressed with their work and rented a building to get all kids under one roof.
Chandni and Dev educate a kid who has never gone to school and prepare them for a year so that they can be admitted in a mainstream school. They call this a 'bridge class'. According to the kid's age, they are prepared and later admitted to mainstream schools.
Voice of Slums' aim is to support the education of one kid from a family, so that they stand on their two feet, take their family out of slums and in turn also educate one kid from the slums, and that kid in future does the same for another.
Just like any other NGO, Voice of Slums also relies on public funding.
It is Chandni and Dev's indomitable spirit that they sail through tough times, keep making an impact and changing lives of the kids in the slums.
Video Editor: Prashant Chauhan Camera: Athar Rather
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