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By Sherry Bailey
 | | Sherry Bailey with several Dalit students in Hyderabad, India. |
ON a warm Indian night, 1,000 people gathered in
Hyderabad to celebrate the first Dalit graduating class of grade 10
students from the Good Shepherd Schools.
I was privileged to be a witness, as our team of seven
from Dalit Freedom Network Canada joined the graduates in this historic
evening February 28.
As the graduates walked across the platform to receive
their certificates, I reflected on this extraordinary story of God
producing a great outcome from a seed of faith.
As degraded members of India’s lowest caste,
education never figured in Dalits’ priority list of life’s
necessities. Older people never saw it as rewarding, or as something which
could change anyone’s future.
Many regarded it as an interruption, rather than an
elevation in their relentless hand-to-mouth struggle for existence. It used
up the precious time of children who otherwise might help gather a few
morsels of food, or work in the fields.
The big change started under the shade of a tree in
1996. Some 120 naked and semi-clad children sat along the road amidst
the swirling dust – learning to read. The group was later divided
into four classes, and a few more trees were used.
The school has changed the face of the village of
Agasand, giving a promising future to hundreds of students, and bringing
the Christian message to a dark and backward area.
Today, the student body includes 428 students, from
lower kindergarten to grade 10.
Students come from five villages, which are located in
a three- to five-kilometre radius around the school.
The Agasand school is the first among all the Dalit
schools to have students graduate from grade 10.
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The school has irreversibly altered not only the future
of the new generation, but also put the community on the course of progress
and knowledge.
Today, the first graduating class of grade 10 students
from Agasand are walking with their heads held high. They know they now
have the potential to contend for a place in society. They have a new
freedom, with opportunities that previous generations never experienced.
The story of this school would be incomplete without a
word on brother Jayan George, the school manager. For 11 long years, he
slogged daily through the 55 kilometres of unpaved roads on his gasping
50cc moped – weathering the elements, fighting the odds, moving ahead
with steely determination and resilience of heart.
Building this school for these children was his
passion. He has witnessed the growth of the school from its beginnings
under the tree to a beautiful two-storey structure with 10 rooms and an
attendance of 428 students.
This story is a triumph of the human spirit – and
of God.
Sherry Bailey is director of Dalit Freedom Network
Canada, based in Surrey. Joseph D’souza, international president of
the Network, addressed members of the International Human Rights Commission
in Ottawa March 26 about the plight of India’s Dalits.
April 2009
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