Name the streets in the slums after slum kids who are fighting the odds and doing exceedingly well in school

The slums of Mumbai are a maze of hundreds of narrow, crisscrossing streets. And none of them have names!!!!

What if the streets in the slums were named after the very kids who are toppers in school? Imagine having a street named after you when you are only 12 years old! Especially when you know that in India only famous, learned people like Mahatma Gandhi, Swami Vivekanand, Doctor Radhakrishnan, Sardar Vallabhai Patel etc. have streets named after them.

By doing so you not only motivate the kids to do even better, you also incentivize other kids to study hard and build a future for themselves. What’s more, they could also become famous overnight by having a street named after them!

This idea was executed over 2 days in 3 different slums across Mumbai. But the ground work started much earlier. The teachers of Door Step School sat together and identified the best academic performers in school. Another team identified the streets that would be named. Metal road signs were commissioned. Permissions were sought from community leaders. The date was fixed and the entire slum community was given advance invitations.

Then on one smoggy Mumbai morning the road naming ceremony took place. The streets were decorated. Elevated stages were built for the chief guests to address the audience. And influential people like a famous TV star, a member of the legislative assembly and a senior member of the women and children ministry arrived to congratulate the kids and inaugurate the streets. To loud cheers the roads were ‘named’, refreshments were served, and kids were inspired to stay in school.

The impact of an activity like this will be felt only over time. For example, new school enrollments can happen only in the new academic year which starts in June.

But the immediate impacts were many.

•Overnight, education became a top-of-mind subject in these slums

•Kids being kids, almost 100% of the kids at Doorstep school told their teachers that they too wanted a road named after them. Their attention has been shifted back to education.

•The slum community leaders have put together a team of men to protect the signages from being defaced or stolen because they believe that they will bring about a positive change in the slum.

•Parents are coming forward to ‘nominate’ their children for future road signs!!

•The idea is going viral. A slum rehabilitation project nearby has borrowed the idea and is executing it completely on their own.