Babar Ali began ‘Anand Siksha Niketan’ in 2002, with a strength of eight students. Very soon, many others in the district like Babar’* own teachers, monks at the local Ramakrishna Mission, sympathetic IAS officers and the local police came to help in many ways. Initially, his father used to provide rice for the mid-day meal scheme of the school. Later, with the help of his friends in the administration, the school started getting rice from the government.
Later, the West Bengal State Government gave government recognition to the school. This enabled students from Babar’* primary school to join local high schools after grade VIII. There were nine student volunteers who worked as teachers in his school. Among them was a student named Debarita Bhattacharya who studied in a college in Behrampur.
Besides the above people, there was an illiterate lady named Tulu Rani Hazra who worked as a fishmonger in the morning and as a school attender in Babar Ali’ school in the afternoon. During her fish-selling rounds, she used to meet erring parents who had stopped sending their ** to the school and persuade them to send their *** to school.
