Boys' hostel

This is the boys' hostel. 77 boys live here with their housemother. 

From 6:30 to 8 pm is study time. The younger children sit outside. The housemother is very strict, and everyone sits in neat rows. She is writing Hindi letters on the board for them to recite.

The older boys study in the dining room. It smells damp and moldy. I was making a report, like in the girls' hostel, and I noted the smell.

Here it is the custom to copy, and copy, and copy. And handwriting is very, very important. They are mostly copying from their books into their notebooks. And then they have to memorize some of the sentences verbatim. That is 90% of what they generally do in school here. It's a challenge, because many can't read, and no one really understands the English they are copying.

But it's great that they have such an organized study time. I will make suggestions about making it more effective. Like doing math problems instead of copying pages of math instructions from the book into the notebook.

There are two large bedrooms. They are always very tidy. The younger boys sleep two to a bed in the downstairs bedroom.

This boy is demonstrating where he sleeps.

Their housemother called some boys to clean up, and everyone came running.

Making beds.

And this is their hand pump, with three latrines in the background. They are all working.

There are also a few faucets in the corner, which boys use to bathe themselves and to do their own laundry, by hand.

Even kids who look like they're about five do their own laundry.

This is the big boys' upstairs bedroom. They each get their own bed.

I asked two boys to show me where each sleeps.

The environment in the boys' hostel is different than in the girls'. It's very calm and orderly, like everyone knows exactly what is expected and does it. In some ways it is easier to have only one housemother, and this one has been doing it for 14 years.

One concern is that children are dropping out of the hostel and out of school.

The housemother told me she had 90 boys last month, and now she's down to 77. The kids run away to the train station and go home (the train is free for children). Or they get sick and the parents take them to the doctor and never bring them back.