Natasha Khanna, She's the First guest blogger in India
Hello, She’s The First followers! I report to you from Shanti Bhavan, home and school for some of Tamil Nadu’s most socially and economically disadvantaged children.
This past week has been particularly emotional for me, as I have spent a fair amount of my time reading and editing the seniors students’ personal statements, or required exit essays. This assignment, which the school’s first batch of graduates had tackled last year, is a means to highlight the backgrounds of the Shanti Bhavan children — the ways in which their education at the school will help lift their families from poverty, and their future hopes and dreams.
Thirteen years ago, these students were accepted into the Shanti Bhavan school as kindergartners. Now, they all attend top colleges in India!
While all simultaneously powerful and heartbreaking, my female students’ statements were particularly challenging to read. Coming from the lowest caste in their communities, many children at Shanti Bhavan have alcoholic or abusive parents and, when home, are subject to physical violence and, often times, sexual abuse. What I have learned over the past week is this: as a child from the ‘dalit’ – or Untouchable – caste, the odds are stacked against you. And, as a female, there are additional obstacles and traumas you must overcome to become successful and remove yourself from the burden of poverty, particularly in a culture as male-dominated and stratified as India’s. With Shanti Bhavan as their catapult out of the shackles of discrimination, I see every girl at this school having a successful future.
Our next post will be from a senior at Shanti Bhavan, Shilpa, who hopes to be a journalist. She will be writing a piece on some of the other female students at Shanti Bhavan who don’t have the support of their families — or communities — as they aspire to enter professions that go “against the grain” in India.
