Translator: Marília Correia Reviewer: Lalla Khadija Tigha
(Hindi): Ka, kha, ga, gha, cha, Cha, ja, jha,
(Hindi): Ta, Tha, Da, Dha, ta, tha, da, dha, na
How many of you believe
that education should be an equal opportunity,
that every child deserves to go to school?
Me, too.
I'm an educator.
At one point though, I was forced to drop out of college.
I was studying abroad and working four jobs simultaneously,
but when my parents ran out of money,
I had to come back home.
When someone made fun of me for being a college dropout,
I was so fueled in my declaration, "I have to complete my education,"
that while working full time,
I completed my Bachelor's degree,
a Master's degree,
an MBA, an Executive MBA, a Law degree and a PhD.
(Laughter) (Applause)
At some point, I was overcompensating, right?
I think it was that feeling of inadequacy
but let's call it incompletion.
It was that ridicule -
it sparked a fire in me
and I wanted to make sure that this never happens to another kid.
I teach children about life skills, time management.
I help them explore their career options.
I want kids to discover their strengths,
find their power
and give them hope for a brighter future.
But then, I noticed that there are so many children living in the slums,
who will never get the chance to finish even elementary school.
Heck, they don't even go to school for the education.
When you ask, "Why do you go to school?"
It's not to get a better job or a better education;
It's to get lunch.
I thought that by donating money,
I would be able to solve this problem
and I would keep these kids in school.
But seeing the limited progress
and hearing their experiences,
I realized that donating money is not the only solution.
These kids were dropping out,
and the reasons are far beyond what you can imagine.
I had to go into the slums myself.
If not me, who would? Because that's what I do.
I'm an educator.
I still remember walking into the slums,
and I'm wearing my jacket, my shirt, my tie,
because that's how I dress when I'm addressing my students.
And everyone is staring at me.
So, I remove my jacket.
I take out my phone,
and I search for the school on Google Maps,
the classic tourist move.
And my friend, he's nudging me, he's like, "What are you doing?"
So, I put my phone in, because, these are the slums.
If you're going to flass your phone around,
it'll be gone in a flash.
And so,
I enter the school.
Now, when I entered the school,
there was garbage all over the place,
there was urine and feces in the hallway.
And the stench,
oh, my God,
the smell.
It was so vile I vomited,
not realizing that I'm now contributing to that smell.
(Laughter)
And it was hot.
Just the sheer humidity
due to the closest of space with no fresh air.
In the seminar of 200 kids there was only one fan,
and I was sweating profusely.
So the principal took pity on me,
turns the fan and gives it to me.
I thought it was all altruistic,
and I'd say no, let the kids have the fan,
turns out I'm not, I accepted the fan.
And I'm thinking, there goes my Mother Theresa prize.
(Laughter)
But I did make sure that the next time I was there,
I donated a fan so the kids could have one too.
But here's the thing though,
despite the dirt, the smells, the humidity, the filth,
these kids are happy.
These kids are playing, running around, jumping, shouting,
just as you'd expect children to do.
These kids are immune to their surroundings.
I'm here to teach what I teach all my kids.
Because every child deserves an equal opportunity for education.
I keep these kids in school by telling them the value of an education.
Education is the only way they would get out of poverty.
Education is the only way they would be happy.
And these kids are ferociously hungry,
not just for food,
they're ferociously curious.
Let me tell you about Priya's hunger.
Priya is six years old
and lives in the same slums where I teach.
She lives with her mama now.
Because when she used to live with mama and papa,
papa used to beat her everyday.
Papa used to beat Priya
even when Priya was being a good girl.
So, when they went to live on the streets, there was no food.
Mama and Priya were living alone.
Priya begged mama,
"Let's go home and get some food,"
but mama left Priya on the streets all alone with no food,
and Priya had to do whatever it takes to get food.
When I started working with Priya,
I had to help her understand
how an education can change the future for her and her mama.
What an education would do for her,
she was only six years old though.
And I had to help her dream
and understand how and what career options
she really had if she studies.
Whenever I sit with Priya and I ask her,
"What's your favorite subject? What do you want to do?"
She tells me the same thing
what she says at the end of all our conversations,
"I love chicken biryani."
(Laughter)
I'm asking her what she aspires to be,
she tells me what she aspires to eat.
She's so sweet and innocent, and she's in school now.
She walks kilometers in the slums to her school.
And Priya made me realize
that there's something else that these children need to be taught.
It's happening everyday.
It's on the news.
These children are being picked up.
These children are being raped.
How many of them are exactly being raped?
We'll never know,
because the children don't have the voices to come out with that.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau,
four children are raped and sexually abused every hour.
Every hour four children are raped and sexually abused.
When did we start paying attention?
Was it after the ten-year-old girl,
who was raped by her uncles and forced to give birth
by the very same uncles who raped her?
Or was it after eight-year-old Asifa, who was raped and brutally murdered?
106 rapes per day;
four out of ten are children.
Something had to be done.
I decided I'm going to start a program
on sexual abuse awareness and protection.
I knew I'd be teaching life skills.
I didn't know I'd be teaching survival skills.
Instead of telling you more about the program, which I think I will,
we're also going to experience it together.
So, let me tell you the five-point program that I teach my kids.
The first one: Look.
I tell my kids, "Be aware of your surroundings."
"Be aware of what's appropriate to be touched and what's not."
Two: Ask.
I tell my children, "When there's danger, ask for help."
Here's a problem, though.
So many of us
have turn down little children coming and asking us for help.
Begging is a reality we all deal with.
So, how are we going to hear these little children's voices?
I tell my children,
if you're in danger, point to the man and say,
"Look, there's a bad man, help me."
I'm sure that will get more of us to pay attention.
And when you and I start responding to these cries for help,
the attackers are not going to view these children as victims anymore.
Three: Run.
I tell my kids, "Run."
According to karate expert sensei Yuji Kitano,
the best way for chidren to fight danger, or even adults for that matter,
is not to fight, but to run.
Four: Scream.
Scream as loudly as you can.
Scream words like, "Fire",
that's even more effective than words like "Help".
And five: Defend.
Defend. Hit with the heel of your palm,
fight, poke, punch.
Do whatever it takes to defend yourselves.
OK, we're going to do this together.
Everyone, please, stand up.
Thank you. Thank you.
Repeat after me the five-step program.
One: Look.
- Karan Gupta: Everyone, look. - Audience: Look.
- K.G: Two, ask. - Audience: Ask.
- K.G: Three, run. - Audience: Run.
- K.G: Four, scream. - Audience: Scream.
- K.G: Five, defend. - Audience: Defend.
That's what my kids do.
Thank you, everyone. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
(Applause)
I want to show you a quick video now,
because I want you to experience what my children experience.
Video: Music.
Karan Gupta: This is Asia's largest slum.
Children here have little or no access to education.
Besides education, children need to be taught something else.
These children are being picked up on the streets.
These children are being raped.
According to the National Crime Records,
four children are raped and sexually abused every hour.
We can't stop rapists and child molesters,
but we can empower our children
by making them aware and teaching them to fight.
We can give them the power.
(Music)
(Applause)
(Music)
[Every child deserves an equal opportunity.
[Education empowers you for a better future.]
(Applause)
Karan Gupta: And finally, I tell my children,
"Find a safe person to talk to in case you have a problem."
But this is not as easy as it sounds, though.
Because then you have children like Sara.
Sara tells me about her happy family.
We have so many conversations about her happy family.
She's 12 years old.
And she tells me about the time when she comes back from school
and her and her mom do the homework together
and mum makes her favorite food.
She tells me about the time when she forgot to do the homework
and mum was scolding her
but dad picks her up in his arms and they giggle together.
She tells me about the time
when mum and dad took her to the local fair
and she rode the merry-go-round for the very first time.
But Sara doesn't remember
when she came home from school
and saw her parents hanging from a ceiling fan.
Sara doesn't remember
when the neighbors were screaming, pulling her parents down,
and she's wondering why are mama and papa not moving.
Sara doesn't remember
the ambulance taking her dead parents away.
She just doesn't remember.
When I started working with Sara, it was very difficult.
It was very difficult to get her to talk.
She was quiet all the time.
And I was relentless.
I had to get her back to school.
I had to help Sara.
I had to help her dream.
I had to help her believe.
There is this one song that Sara and I really like.
And it really helped her get through some very difficult times.
It's a song that motivates her and that's what I keep trying to do,
I keep trying to motivate her so she stays in school.
I'm going to sing that song now.
If you all sing with me,
because you know the song and you know the words.
If you sing with me,
I'll share this recording with Sarah
and I'm sure she'll be very happy to hear everyone sing the song.
♪ We shall overcome ♪
♪ We shall overcome some day ♪
(Hindi): Oh, deep in my heart ♪
♪ I do believe ♪
♪ We shall overcome some day ♪
(Applause)
Sara's in school.
It's not easy.
Each day is a different challenge, but she's in school.
But there's something that still worries me.
What if something bad was happening with Sarah?
Who would she talk to?
Well, she talks to me because I give her my time.
But, Sarah is currently being raised by her paralized grandfather
and her grandmother who is a daily wage earner.
None of them have the capacity to talk to Sara
about her life and her problems.
There are so many children like that.
Whom should they talk to?
[Who can kids talk to?]
It's a cultural taboo
to speak of menstruation,
let alone about rape and sexual abuse,
especially in a culture that values virginity.
People talk about rape outside the home,
but they don't want to talk about rape inside the home,
especially if it involves family members and friends.
Why does rape and sexual abuse happen?
I believe it's generally one of two things or two things.
A show of power or the abuser's sexual oppression.
But I also believe that if we teach children
to talk about sex and body parts with parents and teachers,
it would empower them.
Keep kids in school.
School creates a place of safety.
It's a way we can break the socio-economic barriers
and the cast system in India.
Education is power.
And power is strength and hope.
[Education gives you power.
When you have power, you have strength and hope]
The end of abuse starts with the kids themselves.
When kids understand
what is appropriate and inappropriate sexual behavior,
they then grow into adults,
who instead of continuing the same cycle they see on the streets,
now become the protectors, letting them retain their innocence.
When you feel empowered,
you are not compelled to show your power.
After my workshops,
my kids walk away with a sense of new confidence.
A group of 7th graders came up to me and said,
"Brother, when are you coming to our class? That looks like so much fun!"
Well, it is fun.
These kids now want what those kids have:
power, strength and hope.
Mother Teresa said,
"I alone cannot change the world,
but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.”
I'm only one man,
there are only so many schools that I can go to.
But what if more of us were looking out for these dangers?
What if more of us put our hands out when a little child comes and says,
"Help me, I'm scared, there's a bad man"?
What if more of us start going into these schools
to teach these simple, yet lifesaving techniques
of power, strength and hope?
(Hindi): Pa, pha, ba bha, ma,
(Hindi): Ya, ra, la, va, sha
(Hindi): Sha, sa, ha, ksha, tra, gya,
and that's the Indian alphabet, where our learning starts.
Thank you, thank you.
(Applause)