Indian students have modern dreams

Mahaima Sangh and her classmates don't want to stop school after Mamta. | Photo by Elias Youngquist

Story by Elias Youngquist

Future doctors, police inspectors and farmers jostle in their seats as their teacher leads the class in the lessons of the day.

The students come from poor backgrounds but all strive for something more than their upbringing.

Primary school in India is a crossroads; some children drop out early to work on the farm, some stay the course and graduate and a few lucky ones go on to secondary school and even college.

Nearly all children at Mamta School have a dream of what they want to be when they grow up. Eight-year-old Mahaima Sangh wants to be a doctor. Sangh’s mother is a stay-at-home mother, like most mothers in the village of Khanipur. But Sangh, like most students at Mamta School, isn’t satisfied with following in her parents footsteps.

“I want to treat others,” Sangh said.

Despite the dreams of the students, there are still reminders of long-held traditions.

“One of our kids will be married off. She’s thirteen years only,” said Ashok Agarwal,  treasurer and business administrator for Mamta School.

The student, once she passes the 8^th grade, will be married in an arranged marriage of her parents’ making.

“I feel very bad about it,” Agarwal said.

The old world is fading away, and Agarwal said arranged marriages are diminishing. But perhaps Sangh’s dreams will persist.