Somaiya, the five-year-old daughter of a brick kiln owner, inaugurated a primary school for children of labourers working in brick kilns at Sarberia village in South 24-Parganas’s Sandeshkhali on Wednesday.

Class VIII dropout and Somaiya’s father Seikh Sahajahan, 39, set up the school at one of the kilns owned by him to fulfil his unaccomplished dream of education by educating the children of the brick kiln labourers.

There are around 900 labourers who work in the numerous brick kilns in North 24-Parganas and South 24-Parganas, Sahajahan said.

“It is a dream come true for me. The rootless life of the children of labourers used to haunt me. Their illiterate parents toil in the kilns and do not bother about the education of their children. I feared the kids would one day end up as child labourers. That spurred me into starting an awareness drive among the labourers about the need of education. I shared the story of my life and the pain of being a dropout. Once they realised the need of education, I decided to set up a primary school for them,” Sahajahan, who is also a Trinamul leader and pradhan of the local Sarberia-Agarhati gram panchayat, told The Telegraph.

The new school, which will have classes from I to IV, began its formal journey on Wednesday with around 300 students but teaching will start once Covid-19 pandemic restrictions are lifted.

Sahajahan said the classes would be held from Monday to Friday and the school timings would be from 7am to 11am.

To run the school, six local youths have been appointed as teachers, each of whom will be paid a monthly honorarium of Rs 4,000 by Sahajahan.

Asked why he had decided to ask his daughter, who is a kindergarten student, to inaugurate the school, Sahajahan said: “I took Somaiya to tell the labourers that if she could go to school, why should their children be left out. I am happy that my effort has worked as the labourers have enrolled their kids who had dropped out of school to resume study.”

Mizanur Mandal is one of those who enrolled her daughter who had dropped out of school to resume studies. “It was only because of Sahajahan bhai’s encouragement that my daughter can resume studies and does not remain illiterate like us,” he said.

Apart from the seven class rooms, Sahajahan has built a vaccination centre at the school.

“Education and vaccination are equally important for the children. Government health workers will be invited to vaccinate the children,” Sahajahan added.

Sahjahan, however, lamented that he would not be able to offer mid-day meals to the children but plans to serve them biscuits during tiffin time. “I hope I will be able to serve them mid-day meal one day,” he said.

Sandeshkhali Trinamul MLA Sukumar Mahato said: “No word is enough to praise Sahajahan. He is a man with a big heart. He has turned his pain into a noble gesture.”