Global giving and Dalit Solidarity: Bringing hope to St. Joseph’s School in Bihar

An appeal to support non-profit organizations that concentrate their efforts on grassroots, life-changing work in India

By Shaunya Kumar

As the December festive season approached, families worldwide embraced holiday traditions across cultures and geographies. Here in Minnesota, for example, we were waiting for the late chill of winter with neighborhood light-decorating events, while our school teachers were pushing all finals and summative projects before winter break.

Amidst our yearly end-of-the-year routine, it’s easy to understand and connect with the universal desire for a heartwarming Christmas and New Year experience. Likewise, the students of St. Joseph’s School, a neglected private school in a small town in Bihar, hoped this Christmas would be filled with the warmth of lights, laughter, and the simple joys that many of us often take for granted. This year, their wish was not for grand gifts but for the essentials — electricity, benches, stationeries, windows and doors, and a nourishing meal.

St. Joseph’s School, in Basuni, Bihar, stands as a modest institution within a marginalized community. Situated 101 miles east of Patna, the school has become more than just a center of learning — like all schools, it’s a refuge for its students, a place of safety where one can discover the world beyond. That’s what school is for me. Unlike some of my peers and friends, I love school — It is my most favorite place to be. I look forward to walking down our school halls, discussing current events with my teachers, catching up with my friends in the cafeteria, geeking out in clubs with like-minded people, and even doing homework. For me, school is where I can close my eyes and feel a transformative sense of belonging and purpose.

When I open my eyes, though, I don’t expect to see barren cement walls with large, window-less openings through which the traffic hubbub and sharp wind barge in. I don’t expect to sit barefoot on an untiled floor, taking notes on a small chalkboard in my hand, which I’ll carefully pack into a bag later with my siblings. Neither do I expect to scratch my pencil in the dark along with a roomful of girls, many of whom are six whole years younger than me.

However, this is what Mary Jansi, FSAG, St. Joseph’s School’s newly appointed principal, witnessed her new students face in the last several months. She reached out to the non-profit Dalit Solidarity recently, expressing the grim reality of the students she serves and requesting assistance- “No school bags and no textbooks because both the students and their teachers and school staff lack money… their parents are unemployed and uneducated, but they’re all good people… I want their children to get a good education in a good school atmosphere.”

READ: Shaunya Kumar, Aarshi Chaudhary win 2023 Youth Essay Competition (August 31, 2023)

Jansi is a former student of Benjamin Chinnappan, the executive director of the US-based tax-exempt charity and organization Dalit Solidarity. For more than a decade, she has devoted herself to empowering Dalits and tribals in North India through education and philanthropy. Her commitment to uplifting marginalized communities aligns seamlessly with Dalit Solidarity’s mission, and their connection has the potential to change lives.

I’ve been volunteering with Dalit Solidarity for a while now, and their incredible work and passion have beyond inspired me. Their current projects include working with similar impoverished communities and educational centers, including the Savitribai Phule Village Library, and fostering schooling opportunities with marginalized tribals.

Ben Chinnappan and his dedicated team swiftly analyzed the situation at St. Joseph’s School, optimizing an assistance plan. In her letter to Dalit Solidarity, Sr. Jansi explained, “We don’t have good electricity, with the students sitting in dark rooms… no good blackboards, even we don’t have door and windows… There is no inverter connection to classrooms, no sound system. Because of the lack of space, any activities have to be conducted outside, where students must sit on the sand. And if there is rain, everything will get canceled. Every time, I pray to God for good weather during the activities. Really, it’s a very sad condition.”

Unfortunately, St. Joseph’s School is not the only school facility facing these extremities. Bihar, historically having some of most the economically disadvantaged communities in India, has faced persistent challenges in the realm of education. A 2023 Times of India article reports how the state is grappling with reported dropout rates as high as 20.5%. The Indian Ministry of Education further informs that Bihar has the lowest literacy rate in India at 61.8% as of March 2023, which is lower than rural areas’ national average literacy rates.

Clearly, the shortage of quality educational institutions and inadequate infrastructure, along with socioeconomic factors such as poverty and limited access to resources, have hindered educational opportunities for these individuals.

For me, the heart of the issue is the lack of awareness, both globally, nationally, and locally: awareness about the importance of education and being able to read. As I see it, there needs to be a sentiment among the affluent people in these communities, and beyond, to give back — to fill in the cracks and gaping holes that government negligence and community prejudice have left behind. And yes, I use the term “prejudice,” because the issue of the cycle of poverty among marginalized communities in India is always, always, traced back to the caste system, which has instilled stereotypes of colorism, karma, and economic status between different social classes to the present day.

Thus, on a larger scale, we all need to raise awareness about what people like you and me, sitting perhaps hundreds of miles from the students of St. Joseph’s School, can do. For example, it always strikes me how the power of reading alone can change whether a teenager like me understands her local newspapers, whether she gets hired into decent jobs from which she scales up, whether she goes to university, whether she’ll meet the people and seek the ideas she craves, and especially, whether she’ll be able to recognize the grit within her to explore the whole world beyond her town.

To give back to these communities, the obvious first step is to recognize the efforts taken in the past to address these challenges. This includes government initiatives to improve school infrastructure and increase enrollment rates, like the Samagra Shiksha Scheme, which aims to provide universal access and retention in education.

However, we need to go a step further than just acknowledging government efforts to make a difference, because, as an international community, it is often unlikely that we alone can influence India’s national government to do more. Instead, we all must look into non-profit organizations, like Dalit Solidarity, that concentrate their efforts on grassroots, life-changing work. For St. Joseph’s School, Ben Chinnappan and his team are outlining sustainable steps to allocate specific money to different parts of the school, and they hope to implement their policies in the upcoming weeks. What we can do in turn is support the non-profits — even simple and consistent donations of $5 per month, or two hours per week of volunteering, can make a difference.

Over the past few months, the world of philanthropy has opened my eyes to the world around me. My family and I are from Bihar, and in these months, I’ve connected back to India in a way I’ve never done before. I’ve learned that there is so much more to giving and meaningful volunteering than most think. Mary Jansi and her students are hardworking, resilient, and inspiring, and I hope they can all realize their dreams soon.

I also hope that I can continue to work with Dalit Solidarity and be a part of the change they’re making every day. The staff of Dalit Solidarity worked hard to ensure St. Joseph’s students celebrate a joyous Christmas, and, knowing that The American Bazaar is a platform that reaches thousands of people every day, I believe we can all work together to help support them.