Igniting Hope, Inspiring the Community in Favour of Education: Members of Deepalaya Youth Club Perform a Street Play in Sanjay Colony
New Delhi, June 29th 2018:
Theatre has been always regarded as a
powerful instrument of social change.
With a cross-sectional approach between performing arts and relevant
socio-cultural aspects, street theatre or plays have the potential to effectively
sensitize communities.
In view of the above, a group of 12
enthusiastic boys and girls from Deepalaya Youth Club in Sanjay Colony recently
performed a street play (nukkad natak)
inside the community, underscoring the “importance of education in the lives of
children and adults”. The 8-minute-long skit was performed today in three
nearby locations of Sanjay Colony—Harkesh Nagar Crossing (near metro station),
Z Block Park, and S-Block.
The Youth Club at Deepalaya Learning
Centre, Sanjay Colony is merely one and half months old; it consists of
ex-students of the learning centre or Deepalaya VTC at Sanjay Colony.
Mr. Mayank, a student of Hamdard
University, who has been recently doing internship at Deepalaya Sanjay Colony, single-handedly
mentored the members of the club to produce the street play; he also wrote and
directed the play. The tireless efforts of Mayank and Youth Club members (ignoring
the scorching heat of summers) bore fruit, as the play was successfully
showcased and garnered a lot of appreciation from community residents.
The theme of the play revolved around “the
importance of education”; it showed the reasons why students (especially girls)
drop out of schools or education systems, and how even grown-ups can complete
their education, given they have the wish and will to do so. The larger idea
was to visually portray how education can empower and change lives. After the
play was over, the students also interacted with the audience; some people from
the community up with their problems and/or understanding about the subject.
Established as a formal school in 1992,
and converted into a learning centre after the enforcement of The Right to
Education Act, Deepalaya Learning Centre Sanjay Colony provides non-formal
education and remedial education to underprivileged children from surrounding
slum areas in the industrial hub of Sanjay Colony in Delhi. The centre is an
adobe of hope for humanity, which also runs a community health clinic, and has
in the past taken various initiatives for the upliftment and welfare of the
community.
About Deepalaya
Deepalaya is an
ISO 9001:2008 certified non-government organization that believes in enabling
self reliance and is committed to working on issues affecting the urban and
rural poor, with a special focus on women and children.
The NGO was started
on July 16th 1979 by seven founding members, and for more than three decades,
has been contributing to the crusade against illiteracy. Over the years,
Deepalaya has established several projects in the areas of Education
(Formal/Non-Formal/Remedial), Women Empowerment (reproductive health, SHG,
Micro-finance), Institutional care, Community health, Vocational training, etc.
These projects are operational in Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and
Uttarakhand.
