: Domestic Help’s Son Once Struggled To Study; Today Hes Teaching 200 Kids For Free #IndiaNEWS #Education Kanpur-based Nitin Kumar’s childhood recalls watching his mother, who worked as a domestic

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Domestic Help’s Son Once Struggled To Study; Today Hes Teaching 200 Kids For Free #IndiaNEWS #Education
Kanpur-based Nitin Kumar’s childhood recalls watching his mother, who worked as a domestic help in various households, toil hard to put together meals for her family. She earned a measly Rs 25 a day, and the school fees for her children cost Rs 300 a month. “My father never had a steady job, and my parents’ earnings were insufficient to feed our family of six and bear the expense of our education,� Nitin says.
The 28-year-old tells The Better India, “Very often, my siblings and I would eat the stale, leftover food given to my mother by the households where she worked. Meanwhile, she’d mix sugar with water to fill her own stomach. �
“Even as I managed to attend school, we did not have enough money for notebooks, pencils, pens, uniforms, and other expenses such as class projects or contributions for school events. My classmates attended private tuitions, but I had to rely on myself for studies,� he says.
Regardless, Nitin found his way and pursued a degree in law, which he is set to complete this year. But to ensure that young students like him do not struggle the way he did, he teaches 200 students from nursery to Class 12, giving them lessons in their respective subjects, as well as others like Sanskrit, French, and music.
‘Ghat waala school’
Children attending classes at Kamleshwar ghat in Kanpur.
Nitin says that living through such tough times helped him realise that academics could improve his financial conditions and lifestyle.
“My elder brother quit studying in Class 8 and took a job to financially support the family. Meanwhile, after completing Class 10 in 2007, I started offering free tuition to children in the slums. In these areas, parents are often not educated themselves, and children fail to understand the importance of education at a young age. Moreover, there is no person to guide them, unlike in the case of students from privileged backgrounds,� he says.
He adds that educated and working parents have a good understanding of how important it is to make kids study. “They use their knowledge to guide their children, recognise their talents, and channel efforts in a way that helps fulfil their child’s career ambitions. But such initiatives rarely happen with slum kids,� he says.
So Nitin started offering free education by putting only one condition for his students. Everyone studying with him had to promise that they would teach younger children for free.
The number of students increased as he reached Class 12, and he had to start looking for a bigger space. By 2009, he started conducting evening coaching for children at Kamleshwar Ghat along the Ganga River.

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