Students Creating Hopes among Slum Children by Mentoring

There are 6.5 crore slums in India [1] and about 7.6 million children that live in the slums of India constitute about 13.1% of the total child population [2]. Most of these slums are centered in the big cities of India. These slum children are stripped of even the most basic resources and experience a very rough and lost childhood, as most of the slum kids grow up independently and become their own guardians as their parents are busy with making a living for themselves. 

Despite all this struggle and unfortunate situations, a slum child also has similar dreams to achieve in life as others do, they also have desired goals and want to make something worth living for, out of the life they have. When on other hand, there are children with all such resources available to them but unfortunately take them for granted and do not make the best use of them. They don’t want to work towards anything and do not understand or appreciate how blessed they are which leads to all such resources going to waste. If such

resources are given to someone else, they would’ve made the best use of them and progressed phenomenally in their lives. Such students have to be sensitized to such aspects of life.

Both such situations can be solved with a few amazing steps that can be taken up by colleges and institutes. A college student is very skilled and capable and can use this in the right direction and help out the slum children. Colleges can partner with several NGOs that are there and get on board with such initiatives. Students can act as mentors to slum children and guide them towards how to achieve a better living for themselves and support them throughout their path. Students can share the knowledge and understanding they have through the experiences they have received in their life with the slum children and make them believe that they can reach their desired dreams and goals and by supporting them with it and creating a sense of hope in their minds.

Slum children might be more reluctant to elders, but they trust and connect with students as they seem to be more friendly, and relatable and at times consider them as role models. This way it becomes easier for the students to become their mentors and help them out with whatever difficulties their mentees are facing and guide them with the decisions that are to be made in their lives such as not skipping school. They can help by providing information and making use of the facilities that are provided by the government for the sole purpose of their development. 

They can also discourage them from involving in wrong unproductive activities that slum children are often engaged in and focus on encouraging them in learning skills, self-reliance, and independence.

Students can inspire more and more kids to learn which would benefit society to the fullest. Institutions and colleges should start encouraging their students to indulge in such activities and make sure it is not a one-time thing but more on a regular basis as mentoring is a process and it will only bring about a change in the slum children if they are met regularly and are kept in check.

Mentors make sure that they are opting the right track and the children are aware of the fact that if caught up in the middle, they can always reach out to these students and together they can come up with a solution. Such constant support prevents slum children from losing hope and helps them see the light at the end of the tunnel. Most of these slum children are not given the proper guidance about many important things in life as their parents themselves don’t have enough time to spend on their children which is expected. 

When such students would be provided with mentors, they can clear a lot of doubts and questions they might have and would finally have someone to talk to about it, who understands them and is willing to help them out with such confusions.

By coming up with such initiatives it won't just help the slum kids but will also create a huge impact on the college student’s mindset as a mentor. They will start looking at their life from a different perspective and will feel fortunate to be able to go to college and receive an education and be blessed about the resources available to them and will end up using them wisely. 

This would build a sense of gratefulness and would stop them from misbehaving and start taking their life and studies seriously and also feel happy about the opportunity they received in making changes and creating a positive impact in someone’s life. Students interact and try to understand them better, and also understand their lifestyle and the limitations. Students as mentors focus on building their mentee's knowledge and skillset and make them understand even the most basic topics such as hygiene, health, and education while also focusing on building good values in them and teaching them the importance of being a good person, and caring about others. 

This engagement benefits the mentors as well as the mentees as it brings out the good in both of them. This will further have a huge positive impact on our society as millions of slum children would have a purpose and knowledge about living a healthy and positive life and also make sure that the resources available to the privileged students do not go to waste as once they understand the value of the things available to them, they tend to be more passionate towards it. Therefore, such small steps towards a better society are a must.