Nidhi Srivastava. Picture by Himanshu Sheth

Ranchi, April 27: Tucked away in one obscure corner of Azad Bustee on Old Purulia Road near trans-Subernarekha locality, there is a land of equality that’s ruled by children.

In that area, an institution — Vivekananda International School — run by Swami Vivekananda Trust, under the aegis of Ramakrishna Mission, is making magic happen.

The school’s authority are not only keeping students from economically-weaker sections of society in school, but are also making them into exemplary people.

Take Shankar Patro, a student of Class X, for instance. After his father’s death Patro was about to join the hundreds of students, who drop out of high-school due to financial reasons. But seven of his classmates, five girls and two boys, intervened and visited Shankar’s village, some distance from Jamshedpur, to persuade the boy to continue his studies.

The friends, whose parents belong to the economically-weaker section, too, pooled in the necessary money for Shankar’s fees.

Interestingly, all the seven friends of Patro, do not share his religion.

These days when communal disharmony is a major issue, the school’s students prove that such words are non-issues if lessons are sound.

The school in question, from where such students evolved, was established in 1997. Over the years, it grew from seven students (in 1997) to the present number of nearly 600.

Among them, 97 per cent hail from nearby areas of Mango, which have a predominantly minority population.

Among the 600 students, a healthy percentage of 47 comprise girls. This co-education institution has classes from Nursery to Class X as per ICSE curriculum and has merely 10 classrooms for all the students.

For records, plans to build new rooms, library and a bigger building are on the anvil.

But the school does not let the lack of space become an issue with them. The 16 dedicated teachers take classes in shifts with morning shift for Nursery to Class II students and a day shift for the higher classes. The school staff is headed by principal Dr Nidhi Srivastava.