When I opened my eyes, I looked at the roof and a drop of
water fell on me. The tarpaulin had a hole, and smoke from the Chula almost choked my breath, my legs
were weak and I felt hollow inside. When
I was five, I realized we ate just once in a day and my father drank whenever
he had enough money. By the time I was seven , I was taken to sethji (wealthy employer) to work at his
house. There I saw someone like me, he had more clothes than me and was heavier
too. He had “khilone” (toys) and a small bed for himself. One day he was eating
something wrapped in a plastic and as “mem sahib” (wife of employer) called he
ran and left behind two pieces of the wrapped thing on the floor. I picked them
up and looked at them and unwrapped one and placed in my mouth, sethji
seeing me shouted “chori kar raha hai” (he is stealing) and thrashed
me and threw me out of the house. At home father scolded me.
As I was ten, I was rolling biddis (Indian cigarettes) and also worked at the local tea-shop.
One day a traveler asked me, “ Tum school nahi jate?” (Don’t you go to school?)
and I laughed and said “wo kya hota hai” (What is that?)
This is the story of Madhav.
Well not the story of one Madhav but more than 50% of the
children of India between the age of 6 and 14. We do not need the support of
statistics to prove it. We would have been “the traveler” most of the
times. It is easy to question them why
they don’t go to school but no one provides them any alternative. The situation
is worse for the girl child if she survives the successive stages of feticide, killing
and death due to malnutrition. Even if she escapes infanticide or feticide, a
girl child is less likely to receive immunization, nutrition or medical
treatment compared to a male child.
[1] Statistics are mere indicators; the actual story will be way
brutal than the worst of imaginations. Madhav was born in India, he should have
thanked fortune for not being born as Madhvi. There
was one-sixth chance he would have survived.
Merely enacting the RTE (Right to Education Act), or the
Child Labor Act or for that matter the Juvenile Justice Act is enough. How many
of the complaints at 1098 (Child helpline number) have been solved and for that
matter how many children know of this number? [2] Well if it were so then being born in India
would be a matter of pride not only for a selected few but for everyone. Madhav was born in a shanty but had he been
provided education at elementary level, things could have been different. The
problem is justice was denied to him and in such cases children cannot find
endless legal battles or for that matter childhood lost cannot be regained.
That brings us to a very pertinent question - What can be
done?
Statistics : Before
answering this question let me take you for a ride into some eye-opening statistics
published by the honorable Government of India (Ministry of statistics and
Programme Implementation):
- As per the NFHS -3 (2005-06), nearly 11.8% children age 5-14 years works either for their own household or for somebody else.
- The very young children (age 5-7 years), both boys and girls, are mainly doing unpaid work for someone who is not a member of their household. The older boys age 12-14 are mainly engaged in paid work or family work, whereas girls in this age group are involved mainly in household chores or family work.
- An increase of 122.2% has been observed in cases of ‘importation of girls’ during 2010-11, and 56% of these cases reported in 2011 are from Madhya Pradesh.
- In 2010, IMR is reported to be 47 at the national level, and varies from 51 in rural areas to 31 in urban areas. [3]
Government policy: Government has done its
bit too, although out of every 100 rupees spent by it a meager 3 paisa is spend
on child education and programs. To say that the government has done nothing
would be a gross under-assessment. For its part government has launched several
programs like:
- National nutrition policy
- SABLA(Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent girls)
- IGMSY( Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana)
- Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan(SSA)
While the government boasts of a high enrollment rate of
around 94% no one makes the effort of looking beyond the enrollment, a UNESCO
report says just 20% of those attended schools. If the both the reports were
true then the ground reality is definitely not as pleasant as the government
claims. [5]
We may well celebrate the World day Against Child Labour on
12th of June every year yet the “chotu”
and “munni” (generic names of
children working at tea stalls and homes in India) continue to serve us. We
might argue we are providing the employment but deep within we all know what
he/she wants is education. For education alone could rid their family of
poverty. The political will is lacking but to add to that is public sympathy.
What they want is you apathy to understand their misery. We are ready with our argument,”
In this fast paced life who has the time!!” But then again it is for this
reason you had voted and laid the foundation of democracy. Your job didn’t end.
If they are not listening, it’s your duty to make them listen otherwise democracy
loses its meaning.
A beginning: Although a
welfare state, we still cannot hold the government responsible for all our
problems. There are steps which even we should take at our level. We can take
inspiration from the case of Mrs Mukti
Gupta. More than a decade ago, when Mukti encountered yet another urchin
knuckling on her air-conditioned car pane with ‘Didi, teen din se kuch
khaya nahin’, she didn’t respond with a dismissive ‘Maaf karo’. She
went home and proposed, ‘Can we set up a school for them?’ When people like you
and me indicated that buses are for commuting in and not for running schools,
Mukti stripped off the seats to create a clean 175sq ft sitting facility with
desks and a ‘wall’ plasma TV for audio-visual learning. When someone suggested that
urchin-entrepreneurs are too busy scraping a living to go to school, Mukti
proposed that her bus school would teach the kids a vocation for immediate
monetization and provide them with fruits, so that once they saw this as
financially and nutritionally rewarding, they would prefer to come back (and
only then be gradually drawn into the teaching programme).
 |
Courtesy: www.volunteeringindia.org
|
The example of Mrs Mukti is not only for us but also for the
government to follow. The government has to teach them something more than
elementary education. If we have to prevent them from working, besides
education we need to provide them hand-in-hand skills training which will not
leave them employed in hazardous industries,
bidi-making, theft and other immoral acts. What we need is a trained and educated
individual who doesn’t go unemployed at the end of his childhood such that he
is able to live his childhood and satisfy the income problem of his family,
which will in turn make people send their children to schools. And there should
be a pro-bias for the girl child in the form of compulsory scholarship for
higher education in case of meritorious students and some form of post-marriage
knowledge which will go a long way in curbing the evil problem of child
marriage in India which is not there in books but the harsh reality faced by
people. [6]
The future: May be a
decade later a Madhav will again be born in India in a shanty but will not be
employed by sethji or will steal a
chocolate but will be studying in a school and by 20 have a mobile repairing
shop and support his family. A madhvi will be born too with higher chances of
survival, will go to school and learn weaving and work at a garment center and
help her father in raising her siblings, and will not be a burden to marry off
but an asset to part with. She will then marry at an age when she knows the
meaning of marriage. They will then be if not privileged at least happy to have
been given an opportunity rather than the Madhav of today who had no
opportunity. Down the lane, less of
people might be inclined to join insurgency operations or riots because they
will know the true meaning of education. India will change from being a country
of huge unskilled labour to a country of buyers. In the words of our Hon’bl
President Shri Pranab Mukherjee –
“In my view, education is the true alchemy that can bring
India its next golden age.”
References:
- http://america.cry.org/site/know_us/cry_america_and_child_rights/statistics_underprivileged_chi.html
- http://www.indianchild.com/childlaws/child-laws-in-india.htm
- http://mospi.nic.in/Mospi_New/upload/Children_in_India_2012.pdf
- Yojana Magazine(November 2012)
- Kurukshetra Magazine(September 2012)
- http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130220/jsp/calcutta/story_16583151.jsp#.USTW3R2D-KI
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Rajan Agarwal was Born In India and takes keen interest in the issues that plague his country. You may write to him at indianpolicy2010@gmail.com
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