- Tell us something about your earlier days and your family
I come from a large family of 9 children! Our upbringing was very religious – daily mass, rosary etc. My two elder sisters are religious, the eldest was a Carmelite at Kolkatta. My uncle was a Jesuit priest, Fr. Hilary Miranda, cousin a Jesuit, Fr. Noel Sheth another cousin a diocesan priest, my own godmother a nun, a cousin a religious…!! So, you see, I was surrounded by religious!! My father was a businessman, but he was a gentle businessman deeply rooted in the faith. These values our parents instilled in us – the value of honesty, integrity, caring and sharing. Even though we are so many of us, we are very united and even now that we’re spread out all over, we meet at least once a month on WhatsApp!!
- How did you experience your first call to be a Jesuit?
For sure, my vocation was nurtured and molded in and through my family. I owe it to them. You see, I grew up with a spiritual upbringing. We were a eucharistic and prayer-centred family. Vacation time was devoted to reading lives of saints. So naturally I was inspired and right from my school days I felt the Lord calling me, but I brushed it aside thinking it’s a passing phase. However, it kept lingering at the back of my mind. While studying management, the call came again strongly. I prayed a lot over it, consulted my spiritual director. After a great deal of discernment, I made the decision to say yes to the Lord. I have not looked back since then.
- You studied law but worked on non-formal education for the marginalized for many years. How do you explain the shift?
During my regency I was in Ambatha, a very remote village, 100 kms from Nashik. I witnessed first- hand, the difficulties people faced in obtaining their rights. It was there that I felt the urge to study law so that I could take up issues concerning the poor and the marginalized. At the same time, I was also appalled by the number of children out of school and roaming the jungles. I made a quick resolution that as a Jesuit I would devote my energies to educate the poorest of the poor.
- You are founder director of an NGO, Reach Education Action Programme (REAP). What was your motivation in starting it?
As I said, the number of children out of school made a deep impact on me. I decided to do something about it. The idea of REAP slowly began to take shape. At first, I called it ‘Rural Education Assistance Programme’ with the idea of assisting tribal children in their education. I was still in theology and continued this till ordination. After ordination I was appointed treasurer of the province. I realized now that I would be in the city for sometime and decided to expand the education network to cover children in the streets and slums. To my amazement, the idea began to be accepted. After my term as treasurer, I launched full time into non-formal education work. Thus, REAP was born of a need to combat illiteracy and ensure every child would be in school and not working.
- Describe how you went about growing and nurturing it.
With the growing outreach in Mumbai slums, I changed the nomenclature to ‘Reach Education Action Programme’ which is like a mission statement – reaching education to bring about action for social change. REAP was meant to be a literacy movement (not a project) reaching to the poorest in their situations where formal education couldn’t reach. Our motto was, where the poor are, there we must be. The poor are everywhere and we got dragged to cover the length and breadth of Mumbai city and surrounding rural areas up to Khardi. We soon began to be called ‘a footpath university’ and I was the vice-chancellor!!
- Describe the successes of the programme and its present reach.
The major reason for REAP’s success was its breadth of vision, deep thrust, commitment and passion. It was a movement for change. We left no stone unturned to cover every marginalized child, whether rag-picker or tribal child. Soon we were covering about 10,000 children through a network of about 450 non formal literacy centres. With the growth of literacy centres, we realized we needed teachers. We decided to start our own teacher training centres where we trained our grassroot teachers through a six-month training programme. Within two years we opened 3 teacher training centres to cater to the large number of trainees. It was a tremendous joy to see simple girls from the village transformed into confident teachers. We did not give them readymade teaching aids; they made their own out of waste materials thus boosting their creativity. Our teachers were imbued not only with skills to ‘teach’ but also with the passion to mould lives. This is the real reason for the success of our non-formal literacy programme.
- In 2005, REAP was awarded a 1-million-dollar award from the Opus Foundation, USA. in recognition of the work your NGO did over the years. How did this international award give a boost to your organization?
The one-million-dollar Opus Award came as a shot in the arm. It was the most beautiful day of my life, an emotional one too. Initially many pooh-poohed my work and thought it would collapse. I must confess, many times I too struggled to keep it afloat. In a formal school, children will come to school irrespective of the weather. In a non-formal, the weather, demolitions, poverty affect the functioning of the school. In the daily struggle for survival, schooling is the last thing on the parent’s mind. Where the next meal will come from is more important than going to school. So, the Opus award was a tremendous recognition of the struggle, hard work, perseverance and commitment of our work. This had a great impact on our work. It got wider recognition and mileage. Funding was never an issue.
- You were also conferred an Honorary Doctorate from Marquette University, USA for your immense contribution in reaching education to the most marginalized and neglected children. Would you share some thoughts on what this meant to you and your efforts in the field.
The honorary doctorate was like a double whammy!! Yes, I must admit, it was like a personal recognition of my hard work. I will never forget that day. I never in my wildest dreams imagined that this kind of NFE work would be so recognized and awarded. It gave me an added boost to carry on this work with greater thrust. More than me, for my staff who shared my vision and passion and who saw both the award and the doctorate as a stamp of approval of what we set out to do, to educate every marginalized child. They were very proud of it and it gave them also a tremendous sense of mission and purpose. They proudly addressed me as ‘Dr. Miranda’ in formal programmes!!
- Tell us something about the creative and innovative methods you used for your programme and who benefited from it.
The beneficiaries were always the marginalized out-of-school children on the street, in slums and rural areas. We never compromised on this group. We had their faces before us while drawing up our programmes. We tried to be always innovative and creative. In fact in non-formal education one has to be creative or else the children would drop out of school. In the initial years, the focus was NFE (non-formal education) and leap-frogging them to formal schools through the NIOS (Open School system). After the advent of the RTE Act, which mandated every child should be in school, we changed our strategies to ensure the children stayed in school through quality education support. The NFE classes became Supportive classes to ensure that the children learn well and do not drop out. The teacher training programmes now focused on formal syllabus. To prevent tribal girls from dropping out of school and next thing resulting in early marriages, we decided to start a boarding for them. This was an instant hit as it opened new vistas for them to dream of life beyond early marriages. Many of these girls went on to become nurses and teachers. Dreams began to become a reality. It is a well-known adage, ‘you educate a woman; you educate a family’. To ensure this, we began a series of adult literacy programmes for women along with self-help groups (SHG’s), to empower women to become decision makers and change agents in their family and community.
- Is there anything you would like to add?
Non formal education caters to the poorest of the poor and must be supported as much as the formal schools. We all must make an option for the poor and I appeal to all those involved in non-formal work, do not give up, think big, do big.
Interviewed by Ms Janina Gomes
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