An Indian Joint Family with 33 Family Members - Our School Children

Today I want to introduce you to three sisters: Anushka, Divyanshi and Ujjawal. When we came to their home, we entered their courtyard, asked for the family and first of all had to sort out the people whom we were suddenly surrounded by: the three girls live in a joint family. A huge Indian joint family of 33 people!

We finally managed to get only their closest family members together and found out that they have another sister who is born just three days after Apra. So she will turn two years in January. Anushka is thirteen, Divyanshi is ten and Ujjawal six years old.

The girl’s father is a learnt electrician but he does not actually work as one. The work was too unstable and he often did not get much in one month. That’s how he started working in a sari factory in Mathura, standing at the conveyor belt for hours, doing the same small movement again and again. But it brings an income of 4000 Rupees a month – approximately 65 US-Dollar. Not much for a family of six but at least steady and reliable.

What about the other 27 people of the family, you ask? They are six brothers, four of them married and with children and their mother. The six brothers all work, everybody earning about the same, small amount and the old mother gets a monthly pension as her late husband had been a government employee. The plot belongs to the mother as well and she is also the one who saves her pension in order to build the rooms and extend the living space in this way because, as Anushka’s mother puts it, how would you build a house in 4000 Rupees a month?

That is how the family is happy their three girls are in our school and they don’t need to spend any rupee on school fees, books and uniforms. Plus, they come home from school with a full belly.

Anushka is a very shy girl. In school, this often gives her problems because she is too shy to ask the teacher for further explanation. Nevertheless, she has reached the 6th grade of our school and is thus one of our most advanced students. Divyanshi has a slightly different nature, as she is more outspoken and open. The teachers praise her for doing much effort to master the tasks they give her. Ujjawal, currently in the LKG, the lower of the two pre-school classes, is a bit too small to seriously tell about her progress in school but what we know already is that she is a jolly and a bit naughty girl who has lots of fun in school!

We want to give these children a bright future and if you would like to help us in doing so, you can sponsor a child, sponsor the food for a day or make a free donation of any amount.