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Power is the strength of a seed to flourish where the sun seldom shines. For nearly one decade, 24-year-old NYU graduate Anish Patel been the source of light for underprivileged children through his non-profit organization Uplift Humanity. Conceptualized in 2010, Uplift Humanity has stemmed out from Patel’s home state of Gujarat to Maharastra, Hyderabad, Delhi and beyond. As part of this growth, Uplift Humanity along with Zee TV and Saavn have put together Shakti, a soiree which celebrates the development of youth in rural parts of India. In a heart to heart with Urban Asian, Patel speaks about the event, his journey and moments which have touched his heart the most.
We all know about how Uplift Humanity came into existence but tell us a bit about your journey. What were your initial reactions?
The first year of Uplift (Humanity) about fifteen of us went to India. The first day when we reached the site I was very nervous as to how things would work out. It was just me and a fifteen other teenagers I had just brought from half way across the world. Our first day on site, the kids were actually laughing at us, mocking us. In my head I thought this isn’t going to work. The initial reaction we received from the kids was challenging for us however, as time passed the kids began to realize that we truly cared and that we were there to help them. Gradually they warmed up to us and the transformation was just amazing.
Being a sixteen year old in an adult dominated and close minded culture how difficult was it for you to convince adults or authorities of your plan of action?
That struggle still occurs today. It has gotten better because we are able to show that our work makes a difference but the first few years it was very challenging to get approval. Back when Uplift first began the first question anyone would ask me was how will you, a sixteen year old, make this happen? Every time we looked for sponsors I was turned down because of my age. Usually when people think of non-profits they envision adults with friends in high places who spend their leisure time becoming philanthropists. With me all they had was a sixteen year old with a vision and nothing more.
How does the lack of reform for “lower class” families play into the inability for juvenile delinquents to reform?
It has a major affect on their reform. We have actually incorporated that into our mission statement now. At first our mission was to only bring education to these children, now we look to increase their career prospects. A lot of times juvenile delinquents do not have the resources to transform themselves because we have people on the other end who say that these kids are bad kids, they do not deserve reform or that they are unable to reform. If we are able to change our mindset about these children, it will become that much easier for them to change their lives. With that being said, Uplift strives to educate the privileged class on the willingness of juveniles in such conditions to reform.
In India the poverty scale is so high that parents often tend to resort to child labor to sustain families. How do you go about dealing with parents of children who are forced into this lifestyle by the adults in their lives?
Uplift has come up with a unique way to tackle the situation. This year we launched a special at-risk category to our project which enables children who have parents who force them to work be able to go to school instead. Rather than ask for school fees from the children, for those who are eligible, Uplift will pay for the child to go to school and earn good grades. It is a form of encouragement for the child and a source of income to the parent who cannot afford to send their child to school because they have to send them out to the fields for labor instead.
How is the standard curriculum for each class of children decided?
There is no set standard curriculum. Much of it is input based. Our team sits with the officials of the schools that the children being educated through and decides what is working for the children and what is not.
Many believe that social reform among the “criminal class” is not possible. What would tell the skeptics of the world?
What we realize is that the end goal of educating these children is to earn them stability and income. One has to allow reform in order for it to actually happen. You have to be the ones to allow them to grow and once they grow let them flourish in the same society as you. People aren’t born bad. These children are in the place that they are due to their circumstances. Some of the children have no parents or abusive parents, they know the pain of hunger, they know the pain of the fruit vendor shoo-ing them away and in that moment when the fruit vendor turns away and a fresh bunch of bananas is an arm length away the first thing you do is grab and run. All of the sudden you went from being a helpless hungry child to being a thief and that is just one of many gateway crimes the children have committed.
Now that you are nearly a decade into this project, do you see the growth of the children who have been a part of Uplift? Has anyone come back to share their story or be a part of the project?
The growth has been phenomenal. One particular story which has touched my heart is that of a boy who was once part of the program and now owns an incense shop in Gujarat. A statement he made which stuck with me is this, “Granted I have a small shop and do not make as much as I would if was a thief but I am content with my life and realize how much more respect I have earned running my small business.” We have some people who are “graduates” of the program and now have come back to be resourceful manpower for us. That is truly amazing to see.
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