Lucknow, India---Every day, Aditya Kumar cycles around 40 miles with a heavy load of books and his few possessions on the back of his battered old bike to bring education to India's slum children.
The science graduate has dedicated his life to teaching in the slums of Lucknow, a sprawling city in northern India that is home to some of the country's most deprived communities.
He takes no money for his lessons, which he gives all over the city, parking his bike up wherever he is needed and staging an impromptu outdoor lesson.
"These children do not know what a classroom looks like. Until I met them, they had no reason to visit a school," Kumar told AFP during one of his lessons, gesturing to a group of rapt-looking pupils.
A Right to Education Act passed in 2009 guarantees state schooling for children from six to 14 in India.
But education activists say schools are often overcrowded or inaccessible, or that the quality of teaching is so poor that children simply stop going.
Poverty is also a major driver, with India home to the largest number of child labourers in the world.
Kumar, who does not know his exact age but thinks he is in his mid-40s, has been conducting his mobile school for around two decades, with no fixed curriculum and no standard text books.
Most of his pupils are under 10 and have no education at all.
He teaches them functional English and mathematics, with the aim of getting them to a standard where they can start going to a regular school.
"I can relate to the lives of these kids. I know how tough life can be for want of an education," says Kumar.
As the son of a poor labourer who wanted his children in paid work as soon as they were able, Kumar had to fight to go to school.
He managed to find a place in a government-run establishment, but he ran away from home when he was a teenager because his parents insisted he stop studying and start earning his keep.
AFP
