Dipika Minz, a class 7 student from a private school in Chandapara village in Khunti, Jharkhand, took it upon herself to educate the other younger tribal children in the area.
The idea first came to her when she started forgetting everything that was taught in class ever since the lockdown began. She then saw these children playing in the area and wondered if they too had forgotten everything that they learned in class. To tackle this issue, she decided to help them out and started teaching them on her own.
Dipika started by English and Math to these students. Word quickly spread around, and more and more parents started sending their children to her. Dipika now teaches 20 children, and then attends classes of her own that are taught by other volunteers.
She even encouraged her gram panchayat to conduct classes like these for the other older children in the area, which has more than 100 students learning in separate batches according to age groups.
As Dipika's initiative grew, her friends pitched in to help too. “As the number of children increased further, one of my friends Tannu Sneha Lakra also joined me for support. I also shifted my class to a platform built around the tree built by the Gram Sabha,” said Dipika to The New Indian Express.
Dipika aspires to become an IAS Officer one day, and hopes to give back to society in a better way. Her father, Alok Minz, is also very proud of her and the work she is doing.
"I am really proud of my daughter that she has brought a ray of hope among the parents during the time of crisis when everyone has become hopeless. Being a backward area, online classes is not feasible here but through the initiative taken by Dipika, children have started getting back to the learning process," he said.
(With inputs from The New Indian Express).
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