Rajesh Sharma has been teaching under the bridge for seven years (Picture: Ahmer Khan)

A grocery store owner has been holding free lessons for slum children under a bridge in India for the past seven years after being inspired to help them.

Rajesh Sharma noticed the hardship faced by children living in the slum area of New Delhi and was was driven to do something after he himself was forced to drop out of college for financial reasons.

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His lessons run from 9am until 2pm and are attended by around 200 children, some of whom then go on to take lessons at nearby government schools.

Subjects covered include English, Hindi, science, mathematics, history, and geography.




The lessons have no school bell, seats or tables and there is only one wall which is a concrete part of the still-used railway bridge.

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The school exists off donations from the public (Picture: Ahmer Khan)

Initially the school had two or three pupils (Picture: Ahmer Khan)

Now it has classes of up to 200 (Picture: Ahmer Khan)

The 45-year-old finishes his day running his grocery store (Picture: Ahmer Khan)

Rajesh, 45, told Ahmer Khan for BuzzFeed News: g’I was strolling by and saw children of labourers playing in the dust and mud when this metro bridge was under construction.

‘I spoke with the parents and asked, “Why don’t you send them to school?” They said, “We want them to be educated but we can’t afford their education and the school is too far.”‘

The open-air school was initially attended by two or three children but the class sizes have since swollen.

There is no government funding so it is reliant entirely on public support, with donations including books, uniform, footwear, and food.

On Saturdays they play cricket, football, badminton, and other games with donated sports equipment.

He was inspired to help after dropping out of college himself (Picture: Ahmer Khan)

Many children go to a government school in the afternoon (Picture: Ahmer Khan)

(Picture: Ahmer Khan)

(Picture: Ahmer Khan)

(Picture: Ahmer Khan)

But the grocery shop owner’s day doesn’t end when lessons stop, he often goes straight to his store where he works until 10pm.

But he isn’t the only teacher with other volunteers pitching in from the city.

Umar Imam, a local graduate, told the Weekend Leader: ‘It gives immense me satisfaction to teach these kids. Initially, I devoted 2 hours in 3 days, but now I stretched it to 4 hours daily.’