This Cabbie Begged As a Child. Now He Runs His Own Schools
When Gazi Jalaluddin was 7 years old, he ranked first in his Standard 2 class, and was understandably thrilled by his achievements. A bookworm, he jumped around in joy and couldn’t wait to tell his dad what he had accomplished. The father was caught in a dilemma. He was obviously ecstatic that Gazi took such pride in his studies, but he didn’t know how his meager income could provide his son with the education he deserved. And so he had no choice but to pull Gazi out of school.
Gazi’s father was a farmer in the Thakurchak village of Sundarbans, West Bengal. He owned just a quarter acre of land, which did not give enough yield enough produce, leaving his family starving for days. The family had at this time moved to Kolkata, where the father hoped he would make a better living. But he soon fell victim to illness — and no one would hire a sick man. Gazi was subsequently forced to beg on the mean streets of a new city.
Gazi learned from the school of hard knocks. By the time he was 12, he started working as a rickshaw-puller in the Kolkata markets and by 18, he became a taxi driver.
As years passed, he saw young boys with similar situations in his village striving hard to earn a living. In 1979, with the hope of giving them a helping hand, he formed the Sundarban Driving Samiti and started teaching driving to young boys. Initially he taught ten boys for free and asked them to donate Rs 5 every month as they start earning.
“When I quit school, the one thing I realised was that there were many children like me who resort to begging when their families cannot afford their schooling. This is what drove me to do something,” he says.
And so he decided to do his bit for his village. Gazi dreamed of starting a school to teach children in his village as he already understood the importance of education. He constantly hustled to promote it and eventually started a small school in one of the rooms of his modest two-room house. He would request parents in the village to send their children to school saying the kids would receive instruction for free. In the meantime, he continued his taxi business and would request his passengers to help in whatever way possible so that he could get closer to realizing his vision.
By 2009, with far more support than he anticipated, he was able to launch another school called Sunder Shikshayatan Mission. Starting with just two teachers and 22 children, today it houses almost 500 children and 26 teachers.
The schools are completely dependent on the income he receives from taxi rides, and donations from good Samaritans and passengers who are generous enough to offer money when they learn of Gazi’s unique and selfless venture.
Gazi’s success in these endeavours also eventually gave him the inspiration and resources build an orphanage in 2016, known as the Sundarban Orphanage Mission. The housing and food requirements of the orphans are taken care of by Gazi through the savings from his taxi business and the donations he has received.
At 65, with two schools and an orphanage, he is also now running a crowdfunding platform on Ketto to collect funds to impact more lives. He believes that nobody should be denied the right to education even if they are poor. The root cause of any crime and underdevelopment is illiteracy. In his schools, he also added the mid-day meal scheme, all self-funded to support more poor children.
“I want to expand the schools and target secondary and higher secondary education. I have faith in people and hope they come to our aid as poverty is still the root cause of unemployment and lack of education in the Sundarbans. Life is difficult for the people in the remote areas due to natural disasters. Education will go a long way in helping them achieve self-sufficiency,” says Gazi as he drives away to pick up another traveller.
Watch Ketto’s video showcasing Gazi’s amazing accomplishments below
Ketto Blog remains committed to inspiring and compelling social change to India’s most pressing problems through the power of great stories and engaging our audiences to take meaningful action.
