Durgesh: Making School a Choice Again

Most of the children Durgesh works with were never meant to stay in school for long. Some had dropped out early. Some were never enrolled at all. Many worked in fruit markets or alongside their families, earning small amounts of money that felt more urgent than education. What stopped them was rarely a lack of interest - it was paperwork, poverty, distance from school and the quiet assumption that school was not meant for them.

Durgesh enters their lives at exactly this point.

“Shiksha sahi direction sikhati hai, sahi aur galat dikhati hai” , “Education teaches the right direction. It shows what is right and what is wrong” he says. That belief pushed him to pursue families, offices, and institutions relentlessly. He followed people for documents, arranged receipts, argued with councillors and MLAs, and returned again and again to government offices until Aadhaar cards were made and admissions secured. When children could not write and were rejected for not meeting basic admission requirements, he did not begin with alphabets. He asked them to draw. Drawing became holding a pencil. Holding a pencil became writing. Writing became admission.

Today, forty to fifty children continue their education because he did not step away.

Durgesh’s  persistence is not just patience. It is insistence which is shaped by his own lived experiences.

He was only ten years old when he started working in the city of Indore, Madhya Pradesh. Money came daily and visibly, ensuring food and survival, while education felt distant. Through an organisation, he continued his own studies, but the children around him kept working. Now, he wants to stand with children who remind him of himself - tempted by money, unsure of school, standing at the edge of choice. 

But Durgesh did not arrive at this work through inspiration. He arrived through discomfort -  discomfort he felt during his journey with Constitution.  

Through different exposures and trainings that Durgesh took, he was forced to confront the consequences of his earlier choices. He had once been deeply influenced by rigid belief systems and prevailing social norms of his neighbourhood, including caste hierarchies. Engaging deeply with the Constitution, he began to recognise how deeply he had internalised ideas of superiority - how hierarchy had once felt normal, even correct. 

“At that time, mujhe lagta tha main sahi kar raha hoon,” he says. “Par baad mein samajh aaya ki mere haathon se kisi aur ke moolyon aur adhikaron ka hanan ho raha hai”

“At the time, I believed I was doing the right thing,” he says. “Later, I realised that my actions were harming someone else’s values and rights.”

This awareness marked a decisive shift.

Today, he works closely with communities he once believed were inferior - communities that face violence and exclusion every day. In evening tuition classes, he teaches children not only school subjects but also conversations about caste, reservation, and rights, using games, street plays, and dialogue rather than instruction. To strengthen his capacity, he attends various trainings. In one such training organised  by We The People Abhiyan (WTPA), he learned practical skills like letter writing and drafting applications. That support helped him articulate demands clearly - using constitutional and fundamental rights meant for the children and their communities.

For Durgesh, constitutional values are not theoretical. He quietly but firmly breaks inherited traditions. Despite facing exclusion, threats, mockery, and financial instability, he stays. 

He sees his work as part of a longer arc - one where living these values makes them visible, and visibility slowly inspires change. He imagines himself as part of a generation that steps away from rigid hierarchies, leaving future generations freer to choose their lives, their relationships, and their values - with dignity.

The above story has been written and published with the explicit consent of the individual involved. All facts presented are based on WTPA's direct interaction with the individual, ensuring accuracy and integrity in our reporting.