Jai Hind! (Long Live India)

I spent many hours trying to figure out how to express what I felt and thought last week when I visited the Learning Centers that Pratham runs in urban slums of New Delhi. After several attempts, I decided to let someone else do it: the children I met and a famous Irish poet.

 “Jai Hind! Good morning, Madame”, the boys and girls said as I entered to their classrooms. An Indian intern explained me that “Jai Hindi” translates to “Victory to India” or “Long Live India” and it is a battle cry of the Indian Army.  At first I thought that the kids were just repeating a quote without understanding the meaning. However, in one of the classes one of the teachers asked them to draw “something they like”. Several of them drew the Indian flag:

I realized that these children love their country.  And it is not fair for them that their country doesn't give them the opportunities to develop. But "who" is their country? "Who" can make something for them? Of course, anyone with the intentions and commitment to do it. 

However, working as a public servant in my country, I became a strong believer that from the public service it is possible to significantly change these children's lives,  to scale-up effective initiatives that positively affect their well-being. For example, to multiply by a hundred the number of Learning Centers that Pratham created.

(Trying to understand the hindi lessons.)

For this, we  need public servants that love their country and their future. These children are the future of India; we need public servants that love these kids. Public servants that are aware of the the huge responsibility they have with these children. Because, as in the poem of Butler Yeats,  these children spread their dreams under the country -under their feet-.

  

“…

But I, being poor, have only my dreams;

I have spread my dreams under your feet;

Tread softly because you tread on my dream.”

“Cloths of Heaven”, William Butler Yeats.