EVERYTHING IS (IM)POSSIBLE IN INDIA

Everything is (im)possible in India

A documentary film “Everything is (im)possible in India” is a six story omnibus, mostly based on experiences with a street children in India, and a few altruistic individuals who are fighting every day in order to ensure existence for them. The film was made in January 2014 during the authors’ travels in the north of India. At first, the idea wasn’t to make a full documentary film, but to capture some footage about the life of the street children in India. But, as usually happens when you face the unknown and intensive experience, the path and original plans has changed, and some raw footage eventually turned into a full documentary film, which was finished at the end of 2014.

The first of six stories “Proud and on the edge” talks about young girl Anita and her gipsy world on the edge of Pushkar. Not that long ago, the streets of Pushkar were full of gypsies playing music, singing, dancing and decorating tourists with henna and jewelry. However, after an intervention of the local police and a ban of the gipsy performances, it is getting harder and harder for them to find a way to earn money and feed their families. How to survive, educate children and provide food and solid roof over their heads is everyday struggle for this Pushkar gipsy community.

Staying in the same city, the story goes to “Pushkar’s Temple of Education”, school for slum kids in old Hindu temple, founded by two British students. Today their organization takes care of 30 children every day, giving them a new perspective and replacing begging on the streets with education and a kind of life every child deserves.

After Pushkar, story moves further to a small village called Sabka Ghar “home for everyone”, not far away from Rishikesh, a world renowned yoga center and the holy river Ganga. This story shows how BAALM community takes care of children who have lost one or both parents in terrible tragedies caused by natural disasters in India. The whole project is based on the premise that education is not just a privilege for those who are lucky, but also the right of each and every individual.

What it looks like to grow up on the roof of the world, in powerful and beautiful Himalayas, is the next story. This one talks about children who survived the big flood in Kedarnath in June 2013., in which more than a 1000 children lost one or both parents. The school in Guptakashi takes care about 500 of those children at the moment, as well as for the slum children, and especially the girls who were saved from being sold to “some rich people that will take care of them”. The other story in Himalayas is placed in the village Triyugi Narayan. The village school was destroyed in the same flood, so the 20 children attending school there use the meadow during warm days, and when it gets colder, they use an unfinished house without any doors or windows. They all have one thing in common, without a chance for a good education they have no chance for a prosperous future.

After powerful Himalayas, the film follows the street children stories in Ghaziabad. There is an estimate that there are around 30 000 “street children” in this largest New Dehli "dormitory. Param Pranyog organization is taking care of “the lost ones” in Ghaziabad. They are providing education and necessary emotional and medical assistance for more than 500 street children.

The last of the stories takes us to “Japur, a pink city that isn’t so pink” and to I-India organization, which takes care for more than 3000 street children each day. The teachers in Ladli teach the children arts and crafts, hindi, english and dance, so they could survive on their own once they reach the age of 18. Everything the children produce in their education is sold and the money goes to the children and to the project. This money helps children living in slums or on the street to continue their education, because it encourages their poor families to let them attend Ladli, rather then beg on the streets.

At the end, despite the concern and efforts of altruistic individuals and volunteers, many children are not able to overcome the traumas they have suffered, many of them left without a chance to continue with their education due to the lack of the funds which every shelter, home or organization has problems with, mostly depending only on donations. Still, the faces and hearts of these children are always smiling and are open to us. Very often they will explain that in India everything is possible.