Not Guilty | Making A Difference

EDUCATION is the source of freedom. An educated person has the means and the options to make the most out of life. But what happens when you are deprived of both for faults of your own? Locked up behind bars along with their parents who committed crimes, it was those innocent eyes of young children that touched Indira Ranamagar.

Armed with nothing more than determination and a rented flat to help the children of inmates, Indira now is aama to 132 children born in the prisons of Nepal within a span of seven years. Though she was involved in helping the prisoners since early 1990s, it was only in 2000 that she established Prisoners Assistance Nepal (PAN). Through it she advocates for prisoners' welfare needs, income generating projects and prisoners' rights. But her main focus is on providing proper education to the children. "Without education," she says, "the children won't be able to change their lives."

Earlier it was hard to reach out to the children in the jails due to a complex bureaucracy but now, the prisoners and officials themselves ask her to take care of the children. Suman Nepali, whose parents transferred him to PAN from another NGO reveals that he wouldn't trade living in PAN with anything else. "I used to live in another shelter home but its better here," he says. "I get to go to the school and I also get to meet my parents once in a while."

Most of the children from PAN receive primary education at Indira's recently opened Junkiri School. After their preparatory classes children are transferred into government schools, which isn't always the best choice because of the style of teaching and the stigmas attached to the children of inmates. Recalling an incident when one of her children was very disturbed for being called a daughter of a prostitute at school, she said, "A good education would never teach children to ostracize another one."

Instead of being confrontational with school authorities over similar matters, Indira believes in peacefully reintegrating children into the community. Asmita Lama, an eight-year-old living with PAN says, "Aama (Indira) has told us that it's important not to fight with other kids but to live in harmony with one another."

Though she gives them the deserved love and care as she would her biological child, she does feel that it's important that the children stay in contact with their parents to keep their parental identity. That is the reason why children at PAN often go to visit their parents serving their sentence in jail.

But all this isn't an easy task. "If only the government shared some responsibility and paid some attention to these children, I could provide them with a better learning environment," explains Indira. As per the law, children born in jail can only live with their incarcerated parents till the age of two. After that they are either the responsibility of the nearest kin or, in cases where no relatives turn up, they are meant to be taken care of by the government. However, it is clear that the government is hardly taking care of any children.

Indira values the smiles of her children more than the Ashoka Award she received in 2005. She sees the independence of her children as her real reward. And with the education she provides them, she must be proud everyday.