Here is the story of Zaid, a young boy from Asha’s Zakhira slum colony, West Delhi, striving to change his life from a child labourer facing many adverse challenges. Zaid is an unfortunate child who was forced to become a child labourer due to his father’s addiction to alcohol and drugs. Zaid’s family consists of four members: his parents, him, and a younger brother. The family was surviving on the income from his father working as a truck driver. Their life went upside down as his father started taking alcohol and drugs. Slowly he became a daily user of alcohol and drugs. He had to leave his job as he was not regular. As no money was left with him, he started stealing things and money from the locality to find money to buy alcohol and drugs. The people often taunted Zaid, his brother, and his mother. The family went into a deep financial crisis, struggling to survive. Zaid’s mother, who had never gone for outside work, started working as a labour in the nearby shoe-making factory. Zaid and his brother had to stop schooling and join their mother in the factory as her income was insufficient to meet the family’s expenses. Asha team, as they came to know about the family’s condition, immediately reached them with food rations and other essential items for their daily survival. The Asha team ensured that Zaid and his brother re-joined school, leaving their work at the factory. The Asha team encouraged Zaid and his brother to come to the Asha centre at Zakhira and join the Asha Bal Mandal Programme. The safe and happy environment at Asha helped Zaid and his brother overcome the family’s negative influences. Both brothers are doing good in their studies. Zaid is now in 10th grade, preparing for the school-end examination under the guidance of the Asha team. He comes to the Asha Centre every day after school, where the Asha student ambassadors help him learn his lessons. Zaid wishes to become a doctor in future. Zaid is grateful for the Asha team’s support in facing life’s challenges and changing his life from a child labourer to a student dreaming of a bright future.
