|
|
METRO TODAY | DAILY NEWS | ASTROLOGY | ARCHIVES | INDIA TODAY | HOME |
|
|
WORKING CHILDREN Small and Smart Earn while you learn is the mantra for this growing breed of bright and business-savvy schoolchildren. By Robin Abreu
Indranil Khade, 14, is a picture of intense concentration. Eyebrows knit, he rapidly jots down some figures in a notebook, stares into space, frowns again and is back at his calculator. You might think this student of St Mary's School in Mazagaon, Mumbai, is preparing for his maths exam. He is actually doing what a chartered accountant normally does -- managing the accounts of his father's various business concerns. For a boy who till two years ago loved to splurge at the bowling alley and weekend parties, a brief lesson in business management -- running his father's dry fruit store -- taught him the value of money and the ropes of marketing. Indranil now spends the better part of his after school hours helping his father out with his business -- and gets paid for it too. At a jumble sale he helped his mother organise recently, he pocketed about Rs 7,000 -- his share of the profits. Indranil belongs to a burgeoning brigade of resourceful, business-savvy young entrepreneurs who divide time between school and work. Quick thinking and street-smart, this bunch of youngsters believes it makes sense to "earn while you learn". At an age when children associate the word "future" with doomsday movies and worry about pimples or not getting tickets for that Ricky Martin show, these teenagers are well in charge of their lives. Life is fun for them, but it has a purpose too, and earning money is only a means for achieving that. Like 12-year-old Miral Durlabhji, who is saving his hard-earned money to open a dance school after graduation. A professional dancer, Miral has performed at the closing ceremony of the 1994 National Games and many other shows -- and takes home a packet of Rs 10,000 per show. He devotes an hour every day to learning dance movements from jazz and ballet to rap. "I definitely know my future lies in dancing so I will concentrate all my energy in that area," says Miral. Mother Dina stands by her son's decision: "He is enjoying himself and as long as he maintains his high grades there is nothing to worry about." Like Miral, Priyanka Dhairyawan, 14, is also devoted to dance. The Class IX students of St Joseph's High School is a dance instructor at the Terence Louis Dance Academy, Bandra. Every Saturday and Sunday she takes 30 students through their paces, and gets Rs 500 per class. Earning money, however, does not come at the cost of academics. Rather, it's an investment for further studies. And that's precisely what Anand Sharma, a 14-year-old student of St Joseph's School, Goa, has in mind. It's a busy life for Anand. Every morning he delivers milk and newspapers to over 125 households in his village. In the evenings he runs a small handicrafts shop next to his father's restaurant. Business is brisk as foreign tourists come shopping. His monthly savings? Roughly around Rs 7,000. Anand invests this in mutual funds and fixed deposits. All this in pursuit of his dream of becoming an architect. Says his father and business guide Ashok Sharma: "This way he is learning much more than just academics." Charmaine D'Souza, student counsellor, shares the same sentiment. "The new, young generation is financially more mature. And surprisingly, they are already aware of ways to multiply money," she says. Fourteen-year-old Amitabh Saxena, a Class VIII student in a suburban school in Mumbai, saves half of his daily allowance of Rs 40. In two years, he's saved about Rs 12,000 but he knows that's not enough if he wants to pursue an MBA course abroad. So Amitabh washes cars and run errands for his neighbours -- all for a fee, of course. Is the western concept of self-reliance at an early age catching up in India? Usha Nair, director of the Unit for Child and Youth Research at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, feels so. "Children have become money-concious due to the prevailing consumerist culture in our society and also through the media and availability of technology," she says. Eight-year-old child model Gargi Vegiraju charges Rs 8,000 for an ad shoot and speaks with all the business sense of an adult: "I'll work for some time, then concentrate on my studies. When I grow up I want to start my own advertising agency." For many of these children, working wasn't something they had planned on. For instance, when Deepali Aggarwal, a 16-year-old Mumbai schoolgirl, started giving tuitions two years ago, it was more a friendly gesture. Later it turned into a profitable venture. So while other children her age take tuitions, Deepali gives tuitions to six children in all subjects at Rs 450 per student. While her ambition is to become a fashion designer and she's saving money for that, "it's also to help my parents occasionally by buying them household items". Hamid Kadene, 15, a student of Mumbai's Anjuman Islam High School, started out as a babysitter. He has also graduated to giving tuitions. And it's not as if these youngsters feel burdened with the work, at school or outside. For most children, home is an extended school with those extra tuitions, homework and other projects. However, the "working children" seem to know where exactly to draw the line. And they seem to thoroughly enjoy both worlds. Amitabh, for instance, feels there's nothing derogatory about washing cars. As he cheekily admits, "After all, I get to sit in expensive cars and have learnt driving too." For Clifton Gonsalves, 15, working is an outlet for his creativity. A gifted artist, his posters have earned him recognition -- and money too. Yuva, a youth organisation, regularly employs him to draw posters for them. Channel V even picked his poster from over 5,000 entries all over India as its official logo. Equally skilled in calligraphy, the city's Wilson College has roped him to conduct classes on the subject on the campus. For a generation constantly censured for aping the West too much too often, this new-found fad of earning while learning has gone down well with the older generation. Says Arvind Saxena, Amitabh's father, "What is astonishing is this generation of schoolchildren is very focused. Forget Barbie dolls and Star Wars apparel. Their aim is a good future which is secure, both financially and academically." And for these young masters of their own destinies, the future is not something out there in the sky. It's in the palm of their hands already. |
||||||
| Top |
 BUSINESS TODAY | INDIA TODAY PLUS | COMPUTERS TODAY Write to us | Subscriptions | Advertise with
us |
