In 1979, Deepalaya took its first step towards pre-school education with just 5 children. Today, it has established 332 educational centres. About 22,000 children are being provided education and other facilities.

Says a modest T K Mathew, chief executive of Deepalaya, while talking about their achievements over the year: ``It is a drop in the ocean.'' It might be so. Nevertheless, such an initiative is significantconsidering the fact that there are about 70 million children in this country who do not go to school.

Analysing the problem, Mathew states ``perhaps it is to do with the culture of civil society wherein education is not a priority.'' Further commenting on the role of the state and its policies, he laments: ``Stress has been on higher education and technical education at the cost of primary education, which is the basis for any education.'' He adds, ``Primary education should be made compulsory for every child in this country.''

Since primary education reaps no immediate benefits, the slum dwellers were indifferent to Deepalaya's initiatives in the early years but their refusal to give up despite obstacles paid off. Says Mathew, ``And today we have created a demand for education in slums particularly among children.''

In fact, many of their educational centres are located near slum clusters. The social workers working in the slums motivated many parents to send their wards to school. This acted as aself-motivator for many children, like Asha. She herself expressed the desire to go to school. Says Shakuntala, her mother, ``My other three children in spite of constant persuasion showed no willingness to go to school, but she was very keen.'' Today Asha goes to Ramditti J R Narang School.

As a rule all Deepalaya schools impart education in English medium. This is to make sure that the children do not lag behind in any aspect, especially higher education. But not all children are comfortable with this medium, admits Anjali Ghate, principal of Ramditti J R Narang School. She adds, ``That is the reason why these children do not fare well at board and other higher level examinations.''

One major problem faced by Deepalaya is the refusal by the government to recognise Deepalaya schools. The reason stated by the government: ``The pay scales of the teachers are not in keeping with the government norms.''Due to non-recognition of the schools, integrating these children into other regular schools, especially ingovernment schools, is a problem. Hence, many students have to pursue their studies through the National Open School.

Deepalaya's perception of education doesn't end with black-boards and textbooks. Keeping pace with global changes, Deeplaya in recent years has collaborated with corporates, like the Tata group. The computer centre started in 1997 with the help of Tata Unysis opened the flood gate of IT world for its students. Thus, giving them the right launching pad for the future.

Education is the main thrust of Deeplaya but it has not forgotten other important aspects needed for holistic development. Income generation schemes, health-related intervention, and community-based programmes are some of the schemes implemented in several slums of Delhi. To ensure that all the initiatives taken by the organisation continue even when it is not present in the scene, Deepalaya has introduced the concept of `social entrepreneurs.' Says Mathew, ``These social entrepreneurs are picked up from the community, trainedand facilitated by us.''