A large chunk of population stays in the rural India and amongst them there is again a major portion of children who are under 14 years of age. Under the Right to education act 2009, all the schools are supposed to provide free education to the children under the age of 14 years. But how far has it been implemented?
The second phase of child education begins with primary school but statistics show that a lot of villagers enrol the children to schools but the children end up not attending the schools. In the end the only attraction remaining is the mid-day meal scheme where they get food and ofcourse free school uniforms which provide the BPL people a way to provide clothing at least for their children.
Aayushi Siddharth saxena, who is a biotechnologist by profession and stays in the Kicha, a small town in Uttaranchal, says that most of the children just make their presence felt at school as there they get a stomach full of healthy food which is definitely not possible in a normal family where the father is a poor farmer and mother takes care of 4 children at home.
A big reason why children restrain from going to schools is the distance at which the government schools are situated from the main village and consequently girls become the first ones to withdraw.
Girls would generally serve as a helping hand in the family thereby making it another reason for them being stopped from attending schools. It is a problem faced more by the girl child than a boy.
Onset of menstruation serves no less to the fate of being a girl child in rural India till date.
Rapid privatisation where the private schools pay anytime more as compared to the government schools is taking the major teaching crowd to the private schools therefore only under-qualified teachers left for the government ones where any teacher can barely be seen teaching as their sick leave never gets over!
The importance of education is yet not being realised by our political leaders and they talk about making India a developed super-power! Well, thanks to the Non Governmental Organisations in the country which are making endless efforts to spread education in the let out societies and areas and making their Right to Education achieved to a certain extent.