Two students in their teens have taken the initiative to visit underprivileged children and celebrate their birthday.

For Yash Chirimar and Yuvraj Bansal the idea was to “celebrate a day” with children who might have just seen others celebrate but never experienced it themselves.

The children are from the streets, some who do not have parents and some whose parents do not earn enough to send them to school or provide them with two square meals a day, let alone celebrate birthdays.

The students spend time with children. Telegraph picture

The two students have contacted two charitable organisations — one in Bansdroni and the other in Uluberia — where they “celebrated” the birthday of the children in that particular month and treated the rest of the children.

“We have always been pampered on our birthdays. But we realised many of these children do not know what happens on birthday. They do not even know when is their birthday. For some, the day they came to the NGO is their birthday,” said Yash Chirimar, a first-year BCom student.

“But I feel even if they face difficulties in their life they deserve a celebration. We also want to make them feel they are important,” Chirimar added.

The two started a foundation in January and they aim to visit an NGO every month to celebrate and spend time with them.

They ask the NGO to provide them with a list of children who have their birthdays in that particular month.

They went to Rajapur Sri Ramakrishna Ashram in Uluberia in March and Bansdroni Palpara Poor Child Help Society the month before that.

Because of the surge in Covid-19 cases one of the organisations have asked them to take a break for a few weeks before coming back.

The celebration is not very grand. They take a cake and gift the birthday child with clothes and give a treat to others.

“We keep a budget of Rs 1,500 for the child whose birthday it is,” said Chirimar.

Even for the heads of the organisations who run these places this has been a learning experience, something that one of them said they had not thought of before.

The students distribute food among children. Telegraph picture

“They have opened a door for us. So far children with their parents would come to celebrate their birthday with our children but this was a novel thought,” said Asit Kumar Pramanick, the founder of Rajapur Sri Ramakrishna Ashrama.

“What we would do was select one day in a year to celebrate for all of them by making payesh and arranging a better meal but this individual celebration is different,” he said.

At this centre in Uluberia, the birthday celebration was of a 14-year-old boy who has been there for 10 years.

Even for Chirimar and Bansal the experience was not what they had expected.

Initially many of the children were “introvert” and also a little intimidated.

“It was awkward in the beginning but gradually they opened up,” said Bansal, a Class XI student.

“In fact one of the boys was a little sceptical to cut the cake and we told him he could do so without being scared,” he added.