Slums
Representative image.Reuters

With a heavy load of books and a few modest possessions, Aditya Kumar cycles about 40 miles every day on his broken-down bicycle in an effort to educate India's slum children.

Home to some of the country's most deprived communities, Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh is fortunate to have this science graduate who has dedicated his life to teaching the underprivileged, reports AFP.

He of course charges no money for his lessons, which he provides all over the city.

"These children do not know what a classroom looks like. Until I met them, they had no reason to visit a school," Kumar said during one of his lessons.

State schooling for children in the age group of 6-14 in India is guaranteed under A Right to Education Act, which was passed in 2009.

However schools are often overcrowded or inaccessible and the quality of teaching is so poor that children simply stop going, say education activists.

With India being home to the largest number of child labourers in the world, poverty is also a hindrance to education.

Kumar teaches his pupils, most of whom are under the age of 10, functional English and mathematics.

"I can relate to the lives of these kids. I know how tough life can be for want of an education," he says.

Having never had any ambition of becoming a proper school teacher, Kumar has no teaching qualifications, but believes he can make a difference through his mobile school, which he says reaches around 200 children a day.