The Magsaysay award winner sparks hope in these young lives

While in the States, Sandeep began working on his "dream project" with two university friends. During those days most of their time was spent in spreading the word about Asha and its aims. They received a tremendous response, and Sandeep remembers they were flooded with notes, with people eager to get involved with Asha. Cut to the present and Asha now has 36 centres spread all over the US, including places like Silicon Valley, Boston and Seattle. "The centres help us generate funds for our projects," says Sandeep. He also funds organisations that come to him for aid, "provided I feel they are working hard towards their mission".

Asha’s team now runs four primary education centres—at Ballia, Varanasi, Kanpur and Lucknow. The students are from the adjoining villages, children of daily-wage labourers. Sandeep’s system believes in imparting knowledge in natural surroundings sans any exams with "ideas taken from Aurobindo Ashram or Gandhiji’s Sevagram or Tagore’s Shantiniketan". And his efforts have finally been recognised, with the Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership for 2002.

But besides the honour, what’s really made him happy is that the award will help him reach out to more people—with more innovative ideas. And Sandeep has no dearth of ideas. These days he allots a lot of his time to working on communal peace and disarmament. From organising peace marches to visiting atomic centres, Sandeep has to sometimes flow against the tide, taking heat from politicians and government officials. "I fail to understand why we need to stockpile arms. Why can’t we take inspiration from countries like South Africa and Brazil?" he asks.

He’s been a research student in Berkeley and an assistant professor in IIT Kanpur, but Sandeep finally feels at home now, among the hundreds of poor Dalit children he meets every week. In an interesting aside, he admits that when he first tried out his teaching methods at the IIT, it shocked most of his senior professors. He also organised the contract labourers working on a construction site there. "I fought for them and even staged dharnas demanding they be paid directly and not through their contractor," he says. His seniors started feeling that having him around was running a risk and since anyway he wanted to concentrate on Asha, he quit IIT Kanpur. He finally landed in Ballia since "there was no other option...my family was disgusted with my decision". His maternal grandfather’s school became his lab and he began trying out his innovative ideas. "The children loved it and my grandfather also had no problems." From then on, there’s been no looking back.

As Sandeep walks into the village school in Lalpur, district Hardoi, there are adoring looks from everywhere. Paintings of Vivekananda, Gandhiji and Rabindranath Tagore decorate the pillars along with their favourite quotes. There are children playing in the mud, dancing around in between classes. "They have to release their energy," explains teacher Laxmi Narayan. But study time is serious business; children gather together as class starts. "There are no grades and no failures here"—and that’s because the Asha team believes every child is gifted with a unique talent. Sandeep believes a student can never be a failure, it’s just that the teacher may be incompetent. At Lalpur, youngsters are also trained in bee harvesting, printing and card-making. "This will ensure a vocation for them in the future," says Sandeep.

The award means it’s time to celebrate and Sandeep drives down through the kuchcha roads to his centre at Lalpur. The kids don’t know what the award is about but they are all there with their parents, all wanting to shake his hands. There is jaggery and cool water from the well to treat bhaiyya with and in no time it’s difficult to spot him. Bhaiyya’s become one with the crowd he loves.

To find out more, contact: Sandeep Pandey, A-893, Indira Nagar, Lucknow 226016. Ph: 0522-347365