Monday, May 7, 2012

Children beat the odds to pursue education

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 under kaptipada block of Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district.  

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.
 Photo: Manual stone crushing unit where children are employed

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, a local, says “It’s true that if the children go to schools, their involvement in domestic and economic activities decline. But one has to see the long term gain for the family and community from education.” In order to bridge the language barrier Sikshasandhan experimented with recruitment of a teacher, what it call as language teacher, who would teach the children in their local language.

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, out of the total strength of 188, daily attendance now varies in between110-125. Similarly, the Kathachua new primary Scholl was almost not functioning earlier. But now the daily attendance varies from 60 to 75 out of the total current strength of 94. This is based on our data colleted from the schools by our language teachers” informs Pitambar Sankhua of Sikshasandhan. “Education is the only means by which the children will be refrained from these,” adds his colleague Anil Pradhan.
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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 for 2012.