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The Pratham Agra Project is working in Agra since December 2003. Within this short period of time, it has benefited about 3000 children living in ten slums of the city. The main object of the project is to bring the out-of-school children into the education net, and to enable them to read. Many children have started to read storybooks. To reinforce the newfound skills and to inculcate regular reading habits amongst them, Pratham Agra launched a Library Programme, recently.
The Programme was launched on the 2nd of October - the birth anniversary of the father of the nation - Mahatma Gandhi. A rally was organized and a Nukkad Natak (street show) was staged in the 'Basti' to attract the slum dwellers. Pratham Agra Balsakhis organized the show in Sir Ki Mandi, a slum where Pratham Agra has been working since inception.
The morning of 2nd October was pleasant. When sun was rising in the east with new hopes, it was time to start the proceedings. About 200 children and their teachers gathered in the community hall of 'Rajeev Gandhi Nagar', a slum next to 'Sir Ki Mandi'. Teachers and children were full of hope to make the rally a success. At 12 noon the rally started from 'Rajeev Gandhi Nagar' to 'Sir Ki mandi', raising slogans espousing the cause of the library programme. The children with placards marched through the slums. Curious onlookers upon learning the purpose of the rally joined the group. The rally entered 'Sir ki mandi' kachhi Basti, amidst chants of "Padhenge ham likhenge ham, library men chalenge ham", The whole atmosphere of the basti was charged.
 At Sir Ki Mandi a fresh group of children joined the rally. When the rally reached the centre of the slum the children formed a circle. Some chairs were laid around the circle where the local residents of the slum had started to gather. Now it was the time to start the play. There were two children who were standing behind the chairs. One child had the card of 'Swarg-Lok' (heaven), while another child had the card of 'Narak-Lok' (hell), "two strange looking persons" sat on chairs of 'Swarg-Lok', and two sat on 'Narak-Lok' chairs. The occupants of the "Narak Lok" chairs were 'Yam Raj' and 'Chitra Gupta' (Master of hell), and the "Swarag Lok" chairs were occupied by 'Indra' and his wife (The lord of heaven).
The theme of the play was based on corruption among people on the earth and how being literate eventually helped them. Hell was overcrowded because of misdeeds of men. There was no more space to keep them in 'Hell'. To solve this problem 'Narad' gave the suggestion to 'Yam Raj', that souls of dead people should be given a chance to remove the black shadow of their past. 'Yam Raj' gave the authority to Narad to do what he suggested. Then, Narad asked the soul of a corrupt engineer, who was responsible for claiming the lives of innocent people who died due to the collapse of buildings made by him. The engineer said that he could build a new and spacious building in 'Hell', to solve the problem of insufficient space. Then, Narad met the soul of a teacher, who was found guilty of not teaching the children in schools. She told Narad that she would teach the children of 'Yam-Doots' and teach them all good manners. By doing this she will remove illiteracy from hell. Finally, Narad met the soul of a corrupt lawyer, who was responsible for keeping the criminals away from the law, and encouraged them to engage in crimes. The lawyer told to Narad that now he would help to maintain the law and order situation in hell.
 Narad allowed them to do whatever they could do to change the situation in hell. After some time hell was no longer hell, but felt more like living in heaven. There were tall buildings to accommodate the souls of people. All 'Yam-Doots' became 'Dev-Doots', because now they were more literate. There was peace everywhere, because the lawyer devised a governance system to maintain the law and order situation.
At this juncture 'Indra' entered the changed hell, and was surprised to see the great change. He asked the reason for this revolution; Narad introduced him to the team of people who changed hell. They all informed 'Indra' that, they could change hell, because of their previous knowledge, which they learned from books they had read. Hell had changed into a 'Readers Heaven', only because of books. In the end the entire group sung a song 'KITABEN KARTI HAIN BATEN
."
The message of the play was that, when books can change hell into heaven, then why cannot we change the hell we live in (Slums) into a literate and developed place like heaven simply by gaining knowledge through books.
Our team performed this play in two different locations of the 'Basti'. On the whole it was a successful launch, the people not only actively participated at the rally but also have agreed to get their wards enrolled in our libraries and to encourage them to read.
We have started with 10 libraries in 10 slums of Agra and hope that it will benefit more than 4000 children. Our efforts are relentless to make Agra a literate and heavenly city.
AJAY SHARMA
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