Who knows that once tagged as mere chitchat at a coffee shop would generate an idea to change many lives and become one of the finest proposals?

Coming up with a concept of Mahabazaar, a mock shopping mall for the downtrodden, under-privileged poor children, an organization called Fallen Leaves, that has been the brainchild of five school going students residing in Ranchi, capital of Jharkhand, a state in India, is basically educating young minds only with a twist, writes Parul Sanghi Bajaj.

To bring a smile and make them learn the regulations of shopping malls by creating a full-fledged fake shopping arena has been their only agenda while also making them aware of the debit card rules that happen to be absolutely fake.

“When we came up with this idea of creating fake ATM cards, India was going cashless. So, we thought of introducing these poor children to the word called Digital India and how is it abiding by the rule of cashless transactions. These children happen to be oblivious to all these technical terms and could never ever afford to visit a shopping mall in their life. So, what we do is create a mall kind of structure and print some debit cards. Suppose, if we have five hundred students, we create five hundred debit cards and teach them how it works in the introductory session,” says Vivek Agarwal, one of the five members of the organization.

Orphanage students busy buying their valuables.

Children from five to eighteen years of age are all brought together for a day at this bazaar set for them. Mahabazar, a Hindi word itself means a big and huge market. The basic aim of creating this market is to not only bring smile on the faces of these little children but also teaches them the syllabus of money management, rules of budget and of course shopping. These children are never exposed to such shopping expeditions naturally, they have their own small kiosk kind of road side small shops at their native villages from where they buy their valuables and required items. But this market provides them with the luxury they can never dream of and that too all free of cost. Although, they do not charge them any kind of money, the organisation only gives them a certain budget for their debit cards and accordingly they have to shop.

Another member says, “We divide the shopping arena into five different categories and charge each category with a certain amount that is called budget, mostly two hundred rupees. Its like you come up in a stall of clothes, you buy clothes only under that specific amount. By this, the children buy their most required items and not unnecessary ones. We actually go on a collection drive two months before where we choose the items that we take from donation, according to their conditions. We don’t accept damaged pieces.”

The main theme of the super market has always been sharing things with dignity and without obliging or demeaning anyone. This organization of five friends Rajat Vimal, Shreysee Banka, Ayush Budhia, Rishabh Ritu Raj now has more than sixty members who participate in one or the other non- profit deals.

Talking about the debit cards, the organization gets it printed and explains children in the learning session they take just before the shopping starts. The idea behind the debit card system was to teach them the value of Rs 1,000. In this amount, they can get five things – three clothes, one sports item and one thing from the bakery. The whole market is divided into five categories – Clothes, Toys, Stationary, Footwear/ Accessories and Bakery.  In bakery, they get to buy homemade, freshly-baked items. The children themselves decide what to buy and what not; either they take a football home or a pair of sports shoes. This in turn also teaches them to form a team – if one buys a football, some of them can buy shorts, while others can get shoes which can all be shared later on.

Happy faces

Fallen Leaves has almost twenty four collection centers spread all over Ranchi. They collect all items by the local people. Their collection centers include local clothes, toys shops where people could leave their donated items. The children visiting the market come from various orphanages in and around the city. They started off with two hundred and fifty children, and in four years, they are inviting thousand children, only to brighten up their personalities. The aim is to get children mostly from the outskirts of villages. But, the only hurdle arises when it comes to organizing it in a super scale. It’s been four years of Mahabazar, the students are ever increasing. The members are college students and haven’t started earning still they try to save their pocket money and spend on it. The organization did get offers from the other local non-profit organizations but according to them, they only need name and fame.

“Once we did collaborate with one of the organizations, but it did not go well. That organization took away their name while all the credit belonged to us. They did not participate in any activities but only wanted their names in the advertising materials, posters and social media. So, then we decided that we will keep things to ourselves and not take help from any other organization though individuals are always welcome. But then, we have become money constraints but still trying to improve as much we can,” says another member.

When students come to buy in the mall, they are also being treated with free breakfast and lunch. In recent years, they have started providing them with the conveyance to the orphanages or villages they want to get students from. The members rent a bus for a day, collect as many students and bring them up to their super market and when they complete their shopping, they are sent back to their respective places.

The organization is still trying to get sponsors. In order to help Fallen Leaves, by donating clothes, any other items or cash, interested readers can get in touch here:

Email: FallenLeavesRanchi@gmail.com
Facebook: Fallen Leaves Ranchi
Phone: +91 82100-14582, +91 78700-06666