Education
Stories
Yasmin Gat – A Change agent in the making
Yasmin Gat is a 13 year old native of the Vandi village in the Kutch area of Gujarat. Her family is from the fishing community that migrates each year to the coastal area for fishing. She is from a Muslim community where female education is not a priority and child marriage is a common phenomenon.
Though she has seen abject poverty around her and her family has never received adequate support from any of the government systems, Yasmin has dared to dream. In fact, she has been able to nurse that dream of getting admitted to school and continuing her education. When asked about her schooling, Yasmin said “The fight for me and my friends is not to complete the whole schooling cycle, the fight is just to go to school everyday and learn. We don’t know whether we will be here next season”. That was before the Yusuf Meherally Centre (YMC) started seasonal hostels for the children of the fishing community.
Today Yasmin Gat is studying in 6th grade at the Vagher Vas government primary school in Bhadreshwar. For the one-time drop out, going from Randh Bandar to the school in Bhadreshwar village has not been easy. Yasmin had to migrate for more than eight months of the year to Randh Bandar with her parents for fishing. Since, there is no educational facility on Randh Bandar, she had to leave her education and aspirations behind. As a result, Yasmin and her friends dropped out of their schools.
After the 2001 earthquake, YMC started its Balghar in Randh Bandar. As a migrant receiving area, Randh Bandar is a settlement occupied by the fishing community, including Yasmin’s parents for about eight months. Yasmin initially enrolled in Balghar, as it was the only available educational venue. However, given her enthusiasm and desperation to learn, the YMC enrolled her in the Bhadreshwar village government school for the 2003-2004 academic year. Yasmin walked more than 6K on a daily basis to pursue her education, but unlike many of her friends, her burdensome commute did not deter her from her goals. “Our parents used to fear for our security, we had to cover so long distances, sometimes if we are late in school even by half an hour, our parents would get very anxious. We could never think of play and fun with our friends after school as we had to walk back for great distances”, said Yasmin. In order to avoid the hardships that Yasmin and her friends suffered, and to further prevent migrant children from discontinuing their education, YMC started a residential hostel for children of the Bhadreshwar fishing community. Today, she resides in the hostel with her younger sister and studies in the village school. Perhaps more importantly, she is one of thirty-one girls and sixty-six boys who live in the YMC residential hostels and have time to both play and study. Education has not only brought literacy to her but awareness about her rights and social issues as well. In her community, child marriages are very common, and Yasmin herself was engaged at 13. However, she has not been deterred. Yasmin very confidently said, “I will become a teacher and will try to eradicate child marriage by making people aware about its disadvantages.”