I got them books and uniforms and they would come home to eat and then go to school. Of course, within a week, two had run off.
Though uneducated themselves, the mothers were sure about what they wanted for their children. And that was simply - if they study more, they will earn more.

As a child, her parents could not afford to send her to school. Today, Mumbai-based Jyoti Tanna, founder, the Each One Teach One Charitable Foundation, is a fairy godmother to the thousands of children she has helped empower with knowledge and education. Jayashree Menon spends time with the committed lady who has battled bureaucratic skirmishes and abusive fathers to fulfil her dream of spreading literacy

It was the impoverished aftermath of the Partition and, much later, a chance encounter with five urchins at a street signal that were the catalysts for Jyoti Tanna starting the Each One Teach One Charitable Foundation.

First, let's take the Partition. Her parents fled from Hyderabad, Sind, with their nine children to begin a new life in Mumbai. "Riches to rags - that's what it was," Tanna remembers. For the eight-year-old girl, it was traumatic, to say the least. "We led a hand to mouth existence and even one meal a day was hard to come by."

The older siblings somehow managed to complete their education, but schooling for the youngest child was the last thing on anybody's mind.

"How I hated my parents for not sending me to school," she recollects. "I was too little to realise that they couldn't afford to. And I held this grudge against them for a long time."

Luckily, times changed. Her older siblings started earning and Tanna could finally go to school. "My sister had become a teacher at Kamla High School in Khar, and I too started going to the same institution." She loved studying and scored 60 per cent in her Matriculation examination. "I was so excited at the thought of going to college that I made a new dress, but then I was told I couldn't go because there was no money. How I cried!"

Burying her bitterness and her dreams, she got down to the business of earning a living. At work, she met a young man, Narottam Tanna, fell in love and got married. Life slowly started looking up. Even as she became the mother of two sons, Ashok and Ajay, she continued working in the administration section, Mazgaon Docks. By now her husband was a successful businessman, dealing in boiler spare parts, and there was nothing lacking in Jyoti Tanna's life, but the throbbing regret remained of not completing her education.

Then, one day, while driving home, she saw five urchins playing cards near a traffic signal. "On a sudden impulse, I parked the car and started talking to them," she says. She asked them why they were not in school. One of them replied insolently, 'Kya pharak padta hai?' (What difference does it make?) Saddened by this response, Tanna started probing and discovered that their fathers would beat them if they saw them at home and the teachers would beat them in school because they did not have books or uniforms. But suppose, she asked them, they were given books, uniforms and something to eat, would they then stop playing cards and go to school? All five nodded eagerly.

Tanna came home and told her astonished, but extremely supportive, mother-in-law, Shantaben, that from now on there would be five children coming home for meals! "That's how it all began. I got them books and uniforms and they would come home to eat and then go to school. Of course, within a week, two had run off," she laughs.

Being already committed to EST and the Hunger Project, Tanna instinctively knew that what she was doing - giving children food for their growth and knowledge for their development - was a step in the right direction.

"Each One Teach One (EOTO) was inspired by a simple idea - I teach you, you teach someone else - and was registered as a trust in 1984," she says.

She approached the nearby New Sion Municipal School and offered help. "Initially, we chose 20-25 kids and provided them food, books and uniforms." But getting the parents of these students to agree was an obstacle Tanna had not foreseen. "You'll be surprised at the amount of resistance we encountered from the fathers," Tanna exclaims. "In fact, we discovered that there are maximum dropouts in Std VII, because that's the age fathers feel that their sons can go out and earn and daughters look after the housework. We had to face a lot of abusive fathers, whereas the mothers were very supportive. Though uneducated themselves, the mothers were sure about what they wanted for their children. And that was simply - if they study more, they will earn more."

Within one year, 187 children from two more municipal schools were the beneficiaries of EOTO. As of now, EOTO is active in six municipal schools in Mumbai, two in Bangalore and one in Bhopal. It reaches out to mentally challenged children as well as students in government-aided schools.

Her focus seems to have shifted from municipal school students but she has her reasons for this change of perspective. "There is nothing more frustrating or difficult than dealing with bureaucratic apathy and harassment," declares Tanna, spiritedly. "We have a donor ready and eager to adopt a school or start a scheme, but are the authorities bothered? They will take their own sweet time, bury you under mountains of paperwork and create so many hassles, that by the time all the permissions come through, the donor/sponsor has gone elsewhere or lost interest," says Tanna, the battle-scarred but undaunted fighter of many a bureaucratic skirmish.

Yet, in spite of all these hurdles, EOTO has helped more than 5,000 students. Do they still come and eat in Tanna's house? "Well, at the moment there are more than a thousand of them in Mumbai alone, so I'm afraid they don't," she laughs. "Now we have a scheme where we form groups of mothers and they are entrusted with cooking the food and taking it to the schools. The food is simple, like vada pav, poha, sheera, masala rice and EOTO pays for everything - rations, gas, labour…"

Besides providing food and books, EOTO employs three teachers per school to teach subjects like Science, Mathematics and English. In keeping with the times, EOTO has shifted its focus from providing learning opportunities to offering working opportunities. "We introduced vocational training and guidance for our Std 1X students," Tanna explains. "And ever since we started this, their academic marks improved dramatically. In fact, today our dropout rate is just one per cent, while our Vile Parle school posted a 100 per cent result in the Board exams."

In 1998, Tanna started the Shantaben Ramji Charitable Foundation in memory of her mother-in-law. This is essentially for younger children from Std 1 to VII and works closely with the Nanhi Kali programme of the KC Mahindra Trust. EOTO recently adopted the primary section of the Sion Municipal School. "Since we are focussing on health and hygiene in a big way, we repaired 12 bathrooms in the school and installed a water filter. We have also engaged two people to maintain the garden," she explains.

EOTO got a shot in the arm when the Kaivalya Mandiram Trust, USA, chose to pitch in with 4,000 school uniforms and birthday party celebrations for its children in schools all over India. Thanks to its continuing support, EOTO could reach out to more underprivileged children and this year has successfully adopted four village schools in Badlapur, Vapi, Palghar and Damote.

"Without donors and sponsors we'd be nowhere," Tanna says. "It's because of the backing of the many corporates, charitable foundations and NGOs that we have come so far. For instance, Tata Infotech started computer literacy and personality development classes for us at the Andheri Municipal School, while the Spastics Society of India has promised to take on our mentally challenged children for its one-year orientation programme."

Although EOTO began with the idea that each child would go on to teach another, that has not quite worked out as Tanna herself admits. "That ideal dwindled," she regrets. "Something like that needs constant monitoring and motivation. It worked in the beginning. But somewhere down the line, our focus changed, as did the children's. But with the Ex-Students Association we are reviving the original dream."

Ex-students are encouraged to contribute by becoming sponsors, donors or by giving their time as volunteers. The Annual Prize Distribution Day, as well as all events, like film shows, picnics and educational trips, are already being handled by the Ex-Students Association.

"Anil Wagmare, one of our ex-students is now a SAP System Administrator in the USA and sends us 25,000 dollars every year, while another ex-student, Deepak Nagwanshi, is working full time with us as a computer teacher," she says proudly. "So many of our students have done well; in fact, of the original five, one is a lawyer and one an accountant."

EOTO does not relinquish its responsibilities once the child has passed out of school, but helps the deserving ones with financial assistance in pursuit of higher studies. "We work closely with many charitable institutions like the Narottam Sekhsaria Foundation to help a student with the funding." She continues, "I'm afraid there is no hope for self-sufficiency as we have no income generating schemes of our own. But," she continues with a twinkle, "I have my regular tapping sources. Whenever I run short of money, I run to them and they have never let me down!"

At 65, Jyoti Tanna is the doting grandmother of Sakhi and Shikha and fairy godmother to the thousands of children she has helped empower with knowledge and education. For her, there remains but one dream - that EOTO which is for the students and of the students will, one day, be run by the students themselves.