CEC to NGO, the India that cares stands up for Noida boy

NOIDA: From Delhi to Pune, help has come pouring in for the 13-year-old boy who had to stop attending classes and help run his family by selling fruits after the lockdown began.
After reading the TOI report on Kanhaiya, the India that cares came to the fore. Chief election commissioner Sunil Arora stepped forward to ensure the boy stays in school, a Delhi-based jewellery designer offered to cover rent for his family and a Pune-based NGO offered to give the boy a tablet to make his online classes easier.
“I have spoken to the boy.I wanted to help and didn’t want to see him drop out. I will also get in touch with a private hospital so his mother’s treatment can be done free of cost,” Arora told TOI. He is handing Rs 20,000 as immediate financial assistance to the family and will provide Rs 3,000 every month until the boy graduates, he said.
TOI had reported that the family was struggling with rent — the boy’s father had died of a heart attack two years ago, his mother had been sick and could not take on work as a masseuse, and his brother had not been getting commuters to ferry in his auto. To help run the family, Kanhaiya had stopped attending his classes and started pushing a fruit cart through Noida between 6am and 1pm every day. The money was not much, but just enough to help the family of five survive.
Jewellery designer Annu Lulla also reached out to Kanhaiya’s family and offered to cover their rent. “I would like to donate Rs 10,000 so that the boy’s family can pay off the rent that has piled up over three months,” she told TOI. The family lives in a single-room tenement at Nithari and had been thinking of going back to Begusarai in Bihar, where they were originally from.
The Pune-based NGO, Aga Khan Development Network, said it wanted to give a tablet to the boy. “This is to ensure it’s easier for him to attend online classes,” said Jenice Somji, a member of the organisation. Because classes have moved online, a small mobile had been his only window to the classroom. Since April, Kanhaiya had only been able to catch up with his studies on Tuesdays, when the mandi is shut.
Kanhaiya was overwhelmed by all the calls his family received through the day. “I will work very hard,” he said. “I’ll put in all my effort into meeting their expectations. I won’t let them down.”