The piece came in VIDURA, a quarterly journal by Press Institute of India (PII), April-June 2012 issue
Children beat the odds to pursue education
Pradeep Baisakh
It is a village in Odisha which seems like the back of
beyond. Here the children are made to work to add to the family income and
parents are not too fund of sending them to schools. Yet, there are girls such
as Namsi and Gurubari who just cannot do without attending classes, despite
being shouted down by their father. They even stay away from home to attend
classes. However, thanks to the effort of the volunteers of Sikshasandhan,
things are slowly changing in these parts and parents are beginning to send
their children to study.
Photo: Gurubari and Namsi, two sister, who overcame odds to continue education
Namsi
Purti resumed her study by rejoining in class 4 in Kathachua primary school
after a gap. Her father, Hadi Purti, however did not want her to be in school
as she was an earning hand for the family. She used to help her mother in
selling Handia (country liquor),
pluck Sal leaves and stitch them and help
in domestic chores. As she started going to school, her involvement in
household activities was reduced. Namsi is from Kathachua village of Kalamgadia Gram
Panchayat
One day, when
Namsi was preparing to go to the class, her father told her to go with her
mother to sell handia. But Namsi was
not willing to discontinue her school; she refused. Hadi shouted “What’s the
point of going to school. Go to work in the nearby mines and help mother in
work. What will you get from education?”. Namsi’s elder sister Gurubari, also
studying in class 4, received similar warning. That day, the sisters left home
and went to class. After school they were clueless where to go. Somehow they
decided to go to the house of the elder brother of her father.
The sisters continued
attending classes, but the problem of returning home remained. As days passed,
the sisters gradually started returning home. But Hadi’s antipathy toward education
continued. So they choose to go to school clandestinely. On occasions, the
girls would hide their books under the skirt while going out form the home so that
the father cannot know their destination. Over a period, the sisters’ conviction
in attending classes won over the minds of their parents. “When we were staying
out of house, we would quietly jump the walls of our house in night to take our
dinner” says Namsi.
When asked,
their father Hadi Purti says “No sir, I am for the education of my daughters.
But only once I said the younger daughter to stop school and help her mother. I
realise my mistake. I will now ensure that my daughters go to schools regularly”.
The sisters
managed the school dress and sandals on their own earnings. Gurubari worked in
nearby mines, breaking the stones to pieces and earned 450 rupees in a week;
Namsi collected Sal leaves and
stitched them to make plates and sell. From these earnings, the siblings
purchased school dresses, sleepers and other stuffs of necessity.
Volunteers of
Sikshasandhan, a Civil Society Organisation (CSO) working on Right to Education
Act (RTEA) have taken the effort to persuade the parents to send their children
to schools in this tribal area. It may not be quite pertinent to blame the
parents for not taking enough interest in the education of their children. Teachers’
absenteeism is rampant in all the primary schools. Schools used to be opened
only for few hours daily. The teacher would come at 11.30 and go by 2.00 to
2.30 pm. The teacher-student ratio was also too low in almost all the schools
till recently when some new teachers have been appointed. In most of the
schools there was only one teacher. Schools used to remain close on Saturdays. Given
such circumstances, the level of attendance of these schools has been abysmally
low. With no monitoring mechanism in
place, most of the teachers, who were mostly from general community, used to
take advantage of the situation and neglect their duties. Things have improved
after Sikshasandhan began alerting the community about the opportunity of
providing their children free elementary education. The school management committee,
a body of parents of the school-going children, has become vigilant on the teachers’
attendance in recent days, leading to improvement of the situation.
Kalamgadia GP is
a hilltop village with very poor road communications. The houses are mostly
scattered. The village Panchayat is dominated by Ho, Santhalis and Bathudi communities. As the literacy level of
these tribal communities is very low, people generally do not understand the
value of education.
There exists a
communication gap among the teacher and students owing to the language barrier.
The teachers could not speak the local language of Ho and Santhali and the
small children cannot understand Odia. There is no common medium of study and
instruction.
The children
generally constitute economic hands of the family. Children help parents in
agriculture, collect non timber forest produces (NTFPs), go to nearby hills to
break stones, and sell handia. Children
go to schools, the parents feel, would reduce the family income. The girls also
help the mothers in domestic chores. The elder siblings take care of the
younger ones when the parents go out for work or selling something. Asman Soy,
the language teacher of Kathachua
School
Enrolment increased and drops out rate decreased
Constant
interface with the community by the social workers have shown results. The
children are gradually being sent to schools by their parents. The language
teachers are teaching in Ho, Santhali and
Bathudi languages, that too narrating stories relating tribal culture.
Therefore the younger children find it very interesting as they understand what
is being taught. The government teachers have become regular and the schools are
opening and closing in time. “In 12 schools, the attendance has risen to almost
65 to 75 percent from barely 20 to 25 percent two years ago. For example, in Kalamgadia School
The
writer is a freelance journalist based in Odisha. He has extensively written on
transparency law, right to work and food, migration, forest and environment,
industrialisation and development, women-related issues and tribal rights. He
is a Media Fellow of the National Foundation of India
