The young performers of Jamghat
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COMMENTS 
Streetchildren and former child labourers have come together at Jamghat to use theatre for social awareness
A sunlit basement in Delhi's Lado Sarai is brimming with energetic young boys between the ages of nine and 18. Raju, the group leader, is briefing his peers -- Motu, Azeem, Pyaada, Prem and Sushil -- about Jadoo Ki Jhappi, a play about the importance of education that the street theatre group will soon be performing across Delhi. "Ab batao mujhe, kaun kya kya role play karega," ("Now tell me, who would like to play which role?") he asks. Soon the room is reverberating with animated discussions on the play's script, characters and dialogue, after which the boys break for a boisterous game of gully cricket.
The 'boys' are part of Jamghat (Gathering), a Delhi-based NGO that has been working for the welfare of street children in and around the capital city since 2003. Co-founded by theatre artistes Lokesh Jain and Amit Sinha during Prince Charles' visit to Delhi in 2003, Jamghat's mission is to provide an enabling environment for street children to evolve as healthy and productive individuals.
Interestingly, when the British prince visited India, ActionAid contacted Sinha and Jain to stage a play for him showcasing the "real India". The duo selected 14 street children with a theatrical flair to stage Patri Mein Bachpan, a play about India's street kids. The play went on to become such a huge hit that Sinha's ragtag bunch was soon doing sell-out shows across Delhi and Mumbai, with live TV coverage!
"Initially," explains Sinha, "our idea was to support the boys for about six months, take the play around the country and generate awareness about social issues. But since the boys didn't want to leave even after that period, we thought of ways to support them. The idea was to make them self-reliant and provide them with vocational training. So we thought of using theatre as a medium to build self-confidence in the children and also build awareness in society on key social issues related to the lives and stories of children, especially street children."
Fortunately, a few of Delhi's NGOs working with street children rallied around Sinha and Jain to donate money, clothes, food and old books for the boys. Thus was born Jamghat. The group soon hired a tiny apartment at Vijay Ghat, and there the fledgling street theatre group learnt to fly...
It's a unique team all right. Shaukat Ali, 16, was a child labourer working in a masala factory in Faridabad. Now he studies in Class X at a senior secondary school in Delhi. He is also an 'informer' for NGOs and goes on regular raids to homes where child labour is employed. "I want to become a CBI officer when I grow up," Ali says confidently.
Mohan, 19, works as a munsif at the Tis Hazari Courts and earns Rs 4,000 a month. When he was eight he was sold by his parents for Rs 400 and forced to work in a carpet factory for two years before Jamghat took him under its wing. Harim, Rajan, Aajam and Rahul -- all in their teens -- come from similarly underprivileged backgrounds and have now been with Jamghat for a year. They are all studying in local schools and doing street theatre to earn a living.
In 2006, Jamghat registered itself as an NGO to become a home where street children could live and learn life skills. Many of the boys who initially joined the outfit have moved on. Some are employed in factories and others in city shops; some are even running their own shops.
As a group, Jamghat has managed to become self-sustainable. Sinha explains: "We don't have to worry about basic sustenance as we generate enough funds through our performances. But we need the services of professionals like teachers, doctors and sportsmen who can educate the boys, inspire them and talk to them about health and hygiene." Jamghat has also been receiving help from Sarthak, a pan-India NGO that helps children with drug and sexual abuse problems.
Jamghat's unique strength lies in its ability to connect and synergise the efforts of resilient street children who are determined to improve their lives, dedicated youth volunteers who provide emotional and moral support to the children, and well-wishers who assist in resource-mobilisation.
Life at the Jamghat home in Lado Sarai (acquired at a monthly rental of Rs 4,500) is streamlined. The boys follow a timetable and everyone has their weekly jobs mapped out. Working in pairs, the boys cook, clean, make paper bags, go to school, do street theatre. The work order changes every week. They cannot do drugs, and no one leaves the home after 8.30 pm.
The children are currently working on plays for the World Health Organisation (WHO) on HIV/AIDS awareness. They also performed a stage production, Eidgah Xpress, at the Little Theatre Group in Delhi, sponsored by the Caledonian Society of India. Then, there's the filmBullets and Butterflies, which was screened at the Eighth Osian Cinefan Film Festival last year.
"We use theatre not only as a tool for our sustenance," elaborates Prateek, a volunteer with Jamghat, "but also to bring about social awareness. Sometimes we may do street theatre, at other times onstage productions or even 'invisible' theatre (where the audience is also involved). However, for our foreign guests we prefer mime performances so that language isn't a problem, as many of our boys can't speak English."
In 2004, some of Jamghat's boys were selected under a Pakistani exchange programme to play street cricket, visit historical sites, and interact with children in Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad and Mohen-jo-daro. The young cricketers were trained under erstwhile cricketers Maninder Singh and Chetan Sharma.
"The going's been good so far," sums up Sinha. "But we try to take each day as it comes!"
-- Neeta Lal
(Neeta Lal is an independent journalist based in Delhi)
InfoChange News & Features, March 2007