“Babar Ali, is the role model of Indian youth”-T.Stalin Gunasegaram.

Babar Ali

“Babar Ali, is the role model of Indian youth and he is an Indian student and teacher from Murshidabad, West Bengal is called the youngest headmaster in the world by BBC, at the age of 16” said by T.Stalin Gunasegaram,President,Erode Makkal Sindanai Peravai while introducing Babar Ali to a massive gathering of Erode Book Festival-2012 at Erode, recently. T.Stalin Gunasegaram further said,” As he is now only who is in charge of teaching hundreds of students in his family’s backyard, where he runs classes for poor children from his village, this young man from Murshidabad in West Bengal is a remarkable youth living with  the direst poverty still serves as an extraordinary change maker. Babar happens to be one of the fortunate souls in his village. In the Bhapta neighborhood of Gangapur Village in West Bengal’s Murshidabad, Babar lives with his three siblings and his parents in a thatched house which is the size of an average city kitchen.         He is still among the privileged ones in his village, because unlike most children there, he went to school and got formal education. He was better off also in being the son of Nasiruddin Sheikh. Nasiruddin is a jute seller and a dropout who believes that education is man’s true religion, and who initially supported his son’s venture with his own income. Coming from a privileged family Babar realized he must do something for the other children in this village. In the evening school that he runs is an outdoor school and counts a total of 10 teachers - all of them students at nearby school or college - who volunteer to teach. There are no tuition fees, thus making it affordable for the poor in this economically deprived area and thereby helping increase literacy rate there. .Babar Ali won a prize from the program Real Heroes of the Indian English news channel CNN IBN for his work and was awarded the NDTV Indian of the year award”. In school Babar is an ideal student but it is what he does after his school hours that intrigue the entire world. Babar Ali actually started his school at the mere age of nine. In fact, his school “Anand Siksha Niketan” grew out of a game. Behind the Babar’s home, there is where rows of poor, underprivileged kids sit under the open, blue sky and learn what most children in the modern world pay hundreds of dollars for, for free. This is where around 1000 kids who are deprived from their basic right for education, walk miles to learn, free of cost, the basics and fundamentals of life. Babar Ali teaches his students under the open sky. T.Stalin Gunasegaram concluded by introducing Babar Ali, “It is this hope, and the faith that he has upon himself that has helped him come all this way.” Noted Administrator and Scholar Iraianbu IAS congratulated Babar Ali for his humanity service initiative undertaken by Babar Ali. Babar Ali thanked the Makkal Sindanai Peravai for honouring him Tamilnadu and further said “In the beginning I was just play-acting, teaching my friends but then I realised these children in his village will never learn to read and write if they don’t have proper lessons. It’s my duty to educate them, to help our country build a better future. Then he in teamwork of my friends, I promoted the innovative school for those under privileged children of my village”.-Govin