Chandni has come out of abject poverty and adversity and is working towards helping slum children establish themselves in the mainstream of society.

Chandni, popularly known as ‘Chandni di’ among slum children, has an amazing story to tell which will move you to tears. She is the founder of an organisation ‘Voice of Slum’ which is working towards educating the slum children.

Chandni has been doing this from when she was herself just 10 years old. Her father was a street artist who did shows on the streets and somehow made two ends meet for his family. They used to roam around villages and cities for their performance and to earn money. Once when they were in Delhi, her father died. This left her along with two of her siblings with nothing. She simply did not know how they would survive. She started rag-picking to somehow survive and her siblings sold flowers at red lights on street crossings.

Chandni always had a desire to study and to wear good clothes. Some volunteers from an NGO used to come to teach the  street children. She always attended those teaching sessions diligently. She also learnt about child rights from them. She started fighting for the children of her area whenever the police harassed them illegally. She used to call the childline and rescue the children from the police.

Seeing her keenness to learn, the volunteers took her into their organization and she started working with them. Gradually, she started working for slum children from four states-Delhi, UP, MP and Haryana. She has been the District President to the National Secretary in that organization. She also reported for their magazine ‘Baalaknama’ and later became its editor. She also worked with the ‘Rashtriya Bal Suraksha Aayog’ and became associated with more than 10,000 slum children.

When she reached the age of 18, she founded an organization called ‘Voice of Slum’ to support slum children. She says most of the organizations help slum children initially but leave them before they are settled in life thus driving them back to the slum world. Her dream is to support the children’s education up to graduation and to help them settle down in mainstream life.

Chandni says it was very challenging in the beginning as neither was she herself well educated nor did she have money. But, with her determination, she got people’s support, collected some funds and started teaching the slum children. Gradually, she built a special school for them which is three storeys now and 370 children are studying in it.

She runs three types of programs in her school. The bridge program prepares children who have never gone to school in primary education in just one and a half years. Half of the children supported by her organization go to English medium school and half of them go to Hindi medium. Her organization sponsors 75 % of their fees and also arranges books, uniforms etc. She had started this organization four years ago and the children have reached class ten now.

Chandni remembers how terrible her childhood was. She says life on the footpath is really horrible. It was a really bad time for her. However, the slum children help each other and share whatever they have among each other.

She laments that many times, the parents themselves force the small slum children to beg. With the money collected by the children their fathers get drunk and treat their own children badly. She takes children to malls and fun rides which inspires them to study in order to get into such a life.

Covid lockdown was an extremely difficult period for her. She somehow sustained the children in her school with her own means. Through her organization they distributed lakhs of meals, dry rations to thousands of people and even helped more than 70 patients by arranging oxygen for them during the second wave. Even now, they are feeding about 500 children daily.

Whenever her spirits get dampened she goes and spends a day with the slum children which recharges her to do more. She organises regular meetings with the parents and counsels them. She is happy that many young people are also joining social work nowadays.

She spends her free time, which she has on Sundays only, with four children who live in her house by watching movies with them by connecting her phone to TV and bringing popcorn and cold drinks for them.

Her message for the general people is that they shall never abuse the slum or street children. She urges everyone to talk to the children for a while if possible.