Gaina Devi (27), with her two little children in tow, religiously visits to the Red Cross Centre in Colony Number 5, the city’s biggest slum, every weekday from 3 pm to 5 pm.

With one-year-old Shiva in her lap and three-year-old Riya sitting quietly by her side, Gaina carefully writes in her copy, ‘Raman khana kha, kaam kar.’

Her neighbours scoff at her, but Gaina makes it a point to be here every afternoon.

So does Gayatri Devi, who is in her early 40s. “Women in my neighbourhood make fun of me. They say that at this age, I have got fancy ideas of getting education, when my children are going to school. But that is exactly what I am going to do. All my life I have been an ‘angootha chhap’, now I finally know how to read and write,” she beams.

Around 50 women at the centre started learning the Hindi alphabet and numbers here from September 1 as part of ‘Roshni’, a campaign of Rotary Club, Chandigarh.

Surinder Kaur, a Rotary Community Corps (RCC) member and a social worker, is their teacher.

As the women sit here, a senior member of the club comes to monitor the classes every day. G S Lakhmana, president of the club, visited the class this Saturday.

Neena Singh, director, Rotary Community Service, brings her laptop each time she visits the class and plays CDs on alphabets and numbers for the women learners.

“They are as excited as children to see the CDs. On October 2, I asked them about Gandhiji and found they knew nothing about him. So I told them about him, his teachings and played some songs for them. I keep talking to them about other important issues like a balanced diet, hygiene and even the proper way to brush one’s teeth,” Neena said.

... contd.