A study at Yamuna Pushta, one of the largest slums of Delhi situated on the banks of the river Yamuna showed negative trends towards education, essential for the children for their overall development. The statistics reveal that out of a total population of over 125,000 at Yamuna Pushta, there are more than 43,000 children who are of school going age. Of them, an alarming 96% do not attend to any form of schooling, whether formal or non-formal. These children are pre-occupied as beggers, rag pickers, gamblers and drug peddlers in order to supplement their family income and therefore tend to get away from value based education. These children are even involved in petty crimes and drug peddling and are generally victims of sexual abuse. WHY NON-FORMAL EDUCATION For every one child that goes to school in a slum ten others only roam the galies i.e. streets. There is dearth and deprivation, in providing anything for them. Contributing to the above were the non-existence of schools by the Government. Even if a few showed interest in sending their children to school, the distance involved was a hinderance and the idea was dropped. A few organizations do have educational centres, but are unable to cater to the mammoth population and in any case they generally provide primary education. The girl child is still dissuaded from going to school. The fear of the teachers stick is another deterrent. Furthermore, it is observed that the attitude of the teachers is discouraging towards the children of the slums. The slum dwelling kids are prone to diseases and epidemics which further stops them to be regular at schools and hence often find their names stuck off the rolls. In general, lack of concern amongst the parents and non-availability of proper community guidance and support is responsible for the alarming rate of non-school going children. Since most of these children hesitate to go for a regular formal school, the concept of a non-formal education has to be provided for their benefit right near their streets i.e. the galies, hence the "Gali School". GALI SCHOOL - THE CONCEPT It was considered imperative to initiate Gali schools in the streets of Yamuna Pushta slums where in one such school, about 25 children receive education. Each school which runs for just two hours a day, is held at timings convenient to the students so that it does not hamper their "earning" (sic) activities. Therefore, some schools start at 8.00 A.M. in the morning while some begin at 5.00 P.M. These schools provide the child an introduction to an interesting learning process; they are taught reading and writing and most important of all moral and social values, so as to make them socially responsible and acceptable. They are given lessons on health and hygiene, environment and ways to stay away from social evils like crime, drugs-consumption as well as peddling. The effort is on to give back the child a small part of his childhood by providing access to learning activities, sports and games meant for their age. In these centres, the child has daily access to supportive and understanding adults who they can trust. The teacher in such schools is essentially from the same community and is expected to have passed class eighth or above. The teacher so identified and appointed is responsible for the smooth functioning of the school and hold classes regularly for two hours in the streets. For their efforts they earn an honorarium. GROWTH Gali School is not a very expensive project to run or support. These do not have the mandatory four walls and a roof. For that reason, they do not wait for the even floor also. A corner of the muddy street, with some part of neighbor's wall to hang the foldable black-board and the determination to initiate a movement along with a little fund is all that is required to run a school. The teachers are expected to bring the children initially from their household till such time they become regulars. The community is involved in two ways in such a project. Outside community funds the schools and the resident community forms the Managing Committee of such schools for effective management. The aim is to reach out to the community in general through their own children. TARGET An adolescent who has become a literate would not like to continue begging and instead of taking up a career in crime, which most of them do, try to identify an alternate future. A child who has developed the habit of washing his hands before and after eating, will never allow anyone at home to consume food without proper washing of hands. Similarly a child who is now aware of the hardships his parents will have to face if he is caught peddling drugs as he is just a child, would never knowingly allow even his parents to fall in this trap. The movement called "Gali School" aims to achieve the above. AN UPDATE With a modest beginning last year, the Gali Schools have passed the stage of experimentation, and are now proving to be a revolution. A revolution to bring a change in the slums. There are at present 55 such schools reaching out to around 1400 children. These schools are identified by their individual numbers and are named after the donors. Though efforts were made to put all the successful students in nearby formal schools, some of them opted for continuing with the Gali Schools. The successful completion of one term of some students compelled us to upgrade four of our schools to class I and one to class II. The next session would see some of the schools being upgraded to class III. In fact, the project has now earned the distinction of being only one of its kind of project where children would be made to appear for the class III examinations to be conducted by National Open School, a govt. body.