ANECDOTES – MukkaMaar

MukkaMaar COVID Warriors

This here is Saubhagya, one of our MukkaMaar trainers. He's best known for being his easygoing, good natured self. Even in quarantine, when moods have been low, he’s been actively participating in our team meetings and has brought some fun…

Kitne bacche hain? How many kids?

Our founder, Ishita, recently struck up a conversaton with the driver of a rickshaw she was in. Somehow, the conversation came around to children. "Aapke bacchein hain? (Do you have any children?)" she asked him. Happily, he responded, "Haan, do…

He never thought of one scenario..

She walked home from school that sunny Saturday afternoon. Nothing out of the ordinary, really; she thought about what she learned today and the homework her teachers had assigned her. Lost in her little world, she turned into the desolate…

Meet Saba

This is Saba, one of our trainers. Today, she was late for our team meeting for the most interesting reason: "I was travelling in the local train today, when a man who looked to be in his 40s came a…

Parents

For the Women’s Day event, we really wished the parents would be more involved, and did multiple parent teacher meets. Less than 5% of the parents would turn up, but with constant persuasion, 200+ parents showed up on the event day, along with 500+ girls.

Meet Akshara*

Post our child sexual abuse seminar in a school, a girl (12) was able to report the rape and abuse she had been facing for more than 6 months to the correct authorities, and the parent informed us and said she would like her daughter to learn self-defence as long as we teach. *Name changed

MEET NAZMA

Nazma (32) and her daughter used to come to class in burkhas, without telling her family who were dead against girls going out of the house. Nazma herself had to quit her job after marriage. When her daughter won a District Gold medal, Nazma’s family changed their stance and Nazma even did school tie-ups for MukkaMaar as a project co-ordinator.

PERIODS

Periods are always a tricky matter to tackle. We cover the topic even in our teacher’s trainings to equip our faculty to deal with it, since ours is a physical class. We are proud to say that girls in Municipal schools have walked up to our male instructors, and told them they had periods at the time of class.

COMMUNITY

The dress-code for the competitions, is shorts and t-shirt, which resulted in a huge backlash. We overcame that hurdle through talks and have never looked back. The girls in Versova have been going for competitions for 2 years now, and last time, even came back to the slum in shorts.

MEET SONI

Soni (14), after 1 year of training informed us that she has 3 of her own students, who she trains in a park. We now have recruited her as a teacher assistant with a stipend, during the vacations.