LIC agent Nilima Shirke is having a busy day despite a vacation. It’s June 1 and she has a list of about dozens of her clients who are celebrating their birthdays. Some of her colleagues have a bigger task, with over 150 clients having birthdays on June 1. 

The Facebook walls are also flooded with birthday wishes and 21 million people were talking about June 1 birthdays. In many cities and towns of Maharashtra, cake shops have pre-booked orders for birthday cakes. As thousands celebrated their birthdays on June 1, the day also was flooded with jokes about “public birthday”. 

But for Sunita Bhosle, Sarjerao Kamble, Balasaheb Ubale, and thousands like them, June 1 is the day that changed their lives as they stepped into the school on this day. 

The June 1 stories 

“People jokes about June 1 birthday. But for me, it is the most important day in my life. This was the day when my mother took me to the government school in Amle village in the Pune district. Like other women my mother never went to the hospital for delivery. I was born in a forest where we lived. She was illiterate and hence did not remember my birth date. As new academic years started on June 1, my teachers recorded my birthday as June 1” says Sunita who comes from the Pardhi community which was once branded as a criminal by the British Raj. 

Sunita couldn’t complete her education as she had to beg for survival during her childhood. But today at the age of 27 she has taken admission to the Open University to complete her graduation. She also runs the organisation Kranti to educate children and youth in her community. 

Sarjrerao Kamble, who came from a small village near Kolhapur and completed his communication degree at Shivaji University, says that June 1 is not just a birthday but also a day that brought light to the lives of thousands of children from deprived and poor communities and changed their lives. 

The school day celebration

 “Majority of the parents requested to admit their kids in the school but had no documents like birth proof. Many parents even asked us to name the child while admitting in the school as their kids only had nicknames. The birthdate and names were given by school teachers” recalls R A Shinde a former Head Master in a school in Sangli.     

Not surprisingly thousands who don’t know their real birthdates celebrate June 1 with much funfair. The day which opened the doors of education and opportunities for those whose generations had not even stepped into the school premises. “For us it is a school day celebration” says Sunita.

Activist Ashok Tangade says that June 1 still comes on the school admission documents of many children as deliveries in hospitals still remains a distant dream for the poor women like sugarcane cutters.    

June 1 is not just a date but also a reflection of what we are  as a society and where we stand, he added.       

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