Cricket is one of the most popular sports in India. In the cities in India, most open grounds, parks, lanes and by-lanes become playing field. On any given day a visitor would be sure to come across an open field with hoards of children playing cricket. As a rule however, you would find this only during the early evening of a regular weekday. During the day, it is generally the children with no school to go to who would be playing cricket in these fields or parks.
Delhi, the capital of India, is teeming with people from all parts of the nation. The latter part of this decade has brought rapid economic development to the city. It is one of the leading destinations for people to live in. Delhi has witnessed an enormous growth in population: according to the 2001 national census the population of the city was approximately 13.5 million, which now has exploded to around 22 million.
According to conservative estimates Delhi’s population is expected to grow 40% by the year 2020. About 750 square miles of Delhi’s urban area has a population density of 11,500, which – to put into perspective – is about 11,500 people in a one square mile area.
All over this vast teeming city, live people who migrated to this city to find a job and earn a livelihood having come from situations of dire poverty. Most of these people live in the numerous slum settlements spread across the city. Unmapped and uncharted, these slum communities are home to the poorest of the poor.
Children living in these slums have taken to the open fields, the parks, and the city back-lanes as their playgrounds. While a large number of the children from the slums often have to help with the household income by working; there are the fortunate percentage of these children from the slums who are left to themselves the whole day while their parents are away at work.
With no financial ability to afford and education, these children spend their days playing in the parks. While there are a few schools sponsored by the government that provide free education, these schools are unable to meet the needs of the rapidly growing population of the city. In a nation where literacy has grown to 74% in the last decade, there is a great need for educational facilities for all children.
Unfortunately, it is the least advantaged who get left behind. However, these are the most needy and for them to be left outside the pathway of education severely handicaps them from becoming self-sufficient and deeply bonded to a vicious cycle of poverty.
There is a need for primary educational facilities that can provide these children from the slums with free education, which brings them on par with others. With low infrastructure costs these primary education facilities can focus on the children left behind. It is time to draw these children from their playgrounds to the classrooms. It is time to help give them a future and a hope.