Majaru

Majaru was first organized as a summer camp in May, 2009, by Foundation for Women’s Empowerment and Children’s Awareness, Rights and Enlightment (WECARE)– a Kolkata based NGO, near Ruby Hospital. After summer holidays, however, most of the children volunteered to continue and Majaru started officially as a children’s club, with about 20 children, from diverse socio-economic backgrounds.

The Saturday sessions were rather informal, conducted by a group of teenage faculty, who initiated and lead the children to singing, dancing, cooking, craft-making and story-telling often slipping a word or two about hygiene sense or manners, taking care, not to bore the kids. The point was to provide a space where the kids could just be themselves and enjoy, which they did!

By December, we had a regular group of about 25 children, 10 more, dropping in now-and-then. These kids were mostly from very poor families, dwelling in slums. An apparent explanation of the high drop-out ratio of the more affluent ones is their parental pressure about studies and school.

In January, 2010, Fourth Bell Theatres was appointed for a sustained theatre workshop. The ‘classes’ were more formal now, with a regular faculty, introducing the children to theatre games and improvisations.

In March-April, the kids proposed to celebrate Rabindra Jayanti, and after reading out a number of Tagore’s comedies, the short story, Indurer Bhoj was democratically selected. It was scripted with colloquial dialogues and popular music and the process of our first production began. Simultaneously, the structuring of Chuti, a collage of Tagore’s works, also started. The children were involved in prop-making and organization too.

On 29th May, 2010, Indurer Bhoj and Chuti were staged at Sujata Sadan. Each child performed her best and the audience reaction was excellent.

Presently, Majaru assembles twice a week. On Fridays to enjoy the stories and chatter on with their Baroma (which might be formally called a counseling session) and on Saturdays, for theatre workshops with the dada-didis. The next production is to be staged this September.

The NGO is also initiating a regular session for parents of these children, to exchange views and answer the general queries and worries about the children from a scientific perspective, where doctors, psychologists, teachers and social-workers are to be invited.

Fourth Bell, in association with WECARE, plans their next workshop at Panga, Jalpaiguri, where the NGO runs a free school, Sreerampore and Kharda being the next target zones.