Rural Indian families urged to make school a priority for their children
Child labour
Children atRajyakaiya School in Narlai village, Rajasthan
On the mud floor of a hut in Rajasthan’s Dungarpur district, seven women and a man sit in a circle around three community workers. One of the community workers, marker in hand, asks why their children or grandchildren don’t go to school regularly.
At first, they are silent. Then one woman pipes up: “Thekids keep asking for something or the other – pencils,notebooks and if we don’t get it for them, they don’t go.”
The others murmur their assent. Another woman says: “Thereis work to be done at home. So they get late for school ordon’t finish the schoolwork. But who’ll do the housework then?”
One by one, members of the group – four widows and an uncleamong them – call out more reasons, which the community workerwrites on a chart taped to the wall. He then gets them tobrainstorm solutions.
The challenges of keeping children in the classroom faced bythese parents in Rajasthan are seen across rural India.
Children from India’s lower caste communities may be the first in the family to attend school and don’t get much support at home. While education in state schools is free, there are still some expenses such as paying for uniforms or stationery.
A boy walks barefoot to his school near Rohet in Rajasthan
It also means losing a pair of hands to fetch water from thewell or to tend to younger siblings.
In the case of olderchildren, it could mean forgoing an additional wage from workingalongside the father on a construction site or in the fields.
The challenge is greater in Dungarpur, one of the poorest districts in the state, where the average literacy rate is 58%, according to 2011 data. That compares with a national average of 74% and the state average of 66%.
“Parents don’t regard school as essential – they will pullkids out of school during harvest time or if there is work tobe done at home,” said Rukmini Roat, a teacher at a stateprimary school in Sasarpur village in the same district.
“When the kids get pulled out frequently, they fall behind and then lose interest in studies, then it’s hard for them to advance, so they drop out,” said Roat, who is the sole teacher for the 47 students from grade one to five.
This was the case with Pinki, who dropped out after the second grade to look after her younger brother when her parents took them to neighbouring Gujarat state in search of work.
Hindu students at their state school at Kaparda village
Last year, when the family came back to Dungarpur for avisit, the charity intervened. Communityworkers counselled her mother to leave the children with theirgrandmother, so they could go to school.
Pinki was re-enrolled in school, in the fourth grade, whileher brother started in the first grade.
“I like to study science and learn about the environment,”said Pinki, a slight girl of about 10, who helps her grandmotherwith chores before she goes to school and when she returns.
“I would like to study more and become a teacher,” she said.
Pinki’s progress is not typical of girls in rural Dungarpur, where the female literacy rate is about 44%, compared with the male literacy rate of 71%, according to 2011 census data.
Enrolment in schools has risen since India enacted the landmark Right to Education Act in 2009, guaranteeing free and compulsory education till the age of 14. Still, the dropout rate was almost 30% at the primary level in 2011.
A girl works at a farm at Sawai Madhopur, near Ranthambore
The rate is likely to be higher in rural Rajasthan, and mayclimb higher after the state issued an order last month thatsaid only children from families classified as below the povertyline and those from so-called backward castes and tribes, canapply to study in a private school under the educationact.
The order would deny more than 300,000 children the right tofree private-school education in the state, activists say.
Children who drop out of school are likely to be sent towork. The estimates there are5.7 million child workers in India aged five to 17.
More than half work in agriculture and at least a quarterare in manufacturing, embroidering clothes, weaving carpets,making matchsticks or rolling beedi cigarettes.
“The need is so acute that some families have no option butto send older children to work,” said Anita Sharma of Save theChildren.
“But they also aren’t aware that there are some governmentschemes that will give them some money, so they can at leastsend some kids to school,” she said.
This was the case with Jeeja, who lives with her widowed mother and siblings in Charwara village. After her father died, first her older brother, then Jeeja went to Gujarat to work in construction to help the family.
They’re happy to be headingto school at Doeli in Sawai Madhopur
A social worker, on realising Jeeja had dropped out ofschool, went to her home and talked to her mother.
She helpedher apply for a widow’s pension and other benefits that togetherbring about 2500 rupees ($38) a month. Jeeja, 14, returned toschool and is now in the eighth grade.
“We must let her study,” said her older sister Pramila, whois married. “I wish I had been sent to school. Jeeja mustn’tstop now.”
At the counselling session in Dungarpur, the communityworkers urge villagers to prioritise their children’s education.
“If they ask for the uniform or a note book, it’s only forschool, so don’t get angry with the children,” said Sharma.
“Give them time to do their school work, don’t give them somany chores to do. It’s important that they study.”
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