Sumi Mondol, (Kolkata)

Sumi Mondol is a 4 year old child staying in the Chinamandir community of Kolkata in a joint family. Her father, Sri. Bablu Mondol is a daily labour and has a monthly income of Rs.2500/-. Her mother, Smt. Tapashi Mondol takes care of the children at home and makes ‘Thandai’ and earns almost Rs. 300/month. The family has been staying in the Chinamandir community for past 5 years after being evicted from the Naskarhatt slum. They have still not been allotted any quarter from the government and so the family is staying in the camp area in a kutcha house.

Sumi is the youngest daughter in the family amongst the 2 sisters. Her sister is almost a year elder to her.

The child was enrolled in the ECD Programme of Aurobindo Chaudhuri Memorial Great Indian Dream Foundation on 9th June’2010. Her elder sister was also attending the ECD Programme in the Chinamandir centre. Both the children were enrolled by their mother so that they could learn something meaningful and thereafter could be enrolled in the formal school. The child’s mother had expressed that the child kept on roaming in the locality throughout the day and so it was important to regularize her with the discipline.

Sumi started attending the ECD Programme regularly. She was observed as a very energetic child in the centre. She enthusiastically participated in the various activities in the centre and had the eagerness to learn. The educator gradually observed that she lacked the knowledge of numerical and alphabets. With the help of various TLMs, she was taught counting numbers and identifying them. She learnt the alphabets also and started showing marked improvements in the centre. She was engaged into different colouring and drawing activities as well as other creative activities. The spontaneity in her speech also improved. Her mother was also happy and was satisfied seeing the child and shared her plans of enrolling the child in the formal school. The educator was also sure that Sumi would get admission in the formal school very easily.

The parents are very happy of the effort given by the educator in preparing her for the mainstreaming. Sumi has been successfully enrolled in the VIP Nagar Junior High School in Std. I in the month of January’2012. This was possible because of the interest shown by her parents. Her parents have gratefully acknowledged GIDF for the child.

We wish her all the best for her future and hope to continue our support for the child. We are sure that Sumi would turn up as a very intelligent student and make her parents proud in future.