Juggling work and school is often too much for the poorest women and girls in India. Mumbai’s night schools offer a lifeline for those hopin
Night schools have a long history in Maharashtra. The first night school for labourers and agricultural workers was opened in Pune city in 1855, in the face of opposition from people who believed so-called lower castes should receive only vocational training. Later in Mumbai, night schools thrived as learning centres for its mill workers.
Today, in Bombay and across India, especially in its industrial centres, night schools are a vital resource that allow the poor and working class a chance of literacy and a new future.
Pinky found out about the night school from her husband, who had studied there himself before they were married seven years ago. He is now a gardener on contract with Mumbai’s municipal corporation.
Her days are packed. Every weekday morning, she takes her daughter to kindergarten and cleans her tiny one-room house in a warren of makeshift homes that abut a freight railway track. In the afternoon, she looks after her daughter and then takes the bus – if she has the money for it – or walks to the night school. She does her homework after her husband and child are asleep.
Pinky tries not to miss any lessons, but computer classes are a priority. Every Friday, a bus converted into an ad hoc classroom parks outside the night school. With laptops, chargers, and benches to seat two students at each of the ten devices, computer nights always see the highest attendance rates.
On days Pinky does not attend class, she may get a nudging call from Santosh Yadav, the school’s headteacher. He has taught there for 32 years and knows the circumstances of every student – who has lost a parent and who had to drop out of day school for work or a sudden crisis.
The Covid pandemic was a major setback, he said: around 50 students did not return to class after schools reopened. The school now has 140 students, but only around 15 to 20 attend daily; the rest come in depending on when they can get free from their work. It is Yadav who coaxes them to attend and helps them to catch up on the parts of the syllabus they miss. “If even we give up on our students, who will believe in them?” he asks.
