HAVES HAVE -NOTS

WE CANNOT COMPLETELY PREVENT THIS WORLD FROM TORTURING CHILDREN BUT WE CAN REDUCE THE NUMBER OF TORTURED CHILDREN

Child work is found in developed countries where children are legally employed for working. The children in developed countries have enough to eat, can attend school, and have time to play, but the children choose to work part time or during holidays so they can have pocket money to spend. But for the under previleged children in developing countries it is a question of basic survival.

THE MAJOR STEP THAT CAN TURN THE TABLES: EDUCATION IS NOT THE ANSWER TO THE QUESTION; IT IS INFACT THE MEANS TO ANSWER ALL THE QUESTIONS!

Dr. B.R. Ambedker,who belonged to a socially deprived class of society headed the nation towards liberation and wrote the constitution of India. He set an example for the whole mankind that the deprived children, if provided with education can do wonders.

 Every private school that wants to open a branch in a metro or any tier 2 city must be required by law to open at least one small branch in a village.  Government should create a centralized monitoring center for these remote schools in metro cities.  Simple things like clean drinking water, working infrastructure, clean toilets are some of the things that the students in these schools should cherish.  A replacement teacher should be sent from a nearby school if a teacher goes on leave, ensuring that all classes are always staffed.

 There should be evening or night schools for teenage children who work in the factories, tea shops, cycle repair shops, work shops or do odd jobs during the day time.  These schools should provide them meals and educate them in a way that is entertaining and interesting for the children.  The learning process for the children should make use of audio visual methods, computers, educational charts etc.

 They can bring them to their campus at least once a week and give them classes for English, Maths, Science, personality development, general knowledge and so on.  They can also take them for games and sports and show them inspirational documentaries.  The Students of Universities and public schools can also contribute towards providing better quality education for slum children  They can enrich the experience that the slum children get from the government run schools that they attend.They can raise funds for them by organizing fetes, musical, cultural and sports events.  They can also donate their spare books, school bags, old magazines, stationery etc. for these children. It is truly wonderful that as part of their college and school activities the students are able to source funds and provide for a better education for the lesser privileged children of our country. And this work may not just stop at providing classroom education. They can organize extra curricular activities for the kids.

There should be mobile crèches for children of the labourers working at construction sites, factories and market places. These crèches should work towards providing the basic protection, healthy environment, nutrition and elementary education to children when their parents are out on work.

 Each of these schools can be built within the budget of Rs 20 lakh.  Each school will be located in half an acre of land and will have five classrooms (for standard 1-5) and a staff room. Other facilities will include toilets, a vegetable garden and a playground.  Every school will also have an internet connection.  The schools can also download teaching manuals and instructions from a centralized monitoring cell located in either the district headquarter or in metro city.  The schools will run on two shifts and will have 5-7 teachers whose salaries will start at about Rs 4,500. The head teacher can be paid about Rs 7,000. On an average, the foundation will spend about Rs 12 lakh per annum to run each school.

Education penetration is very good in cities and very low in villages. There is a huge gap that we need to fill else we will never be able to become a developed country. Education and schools in the village itself will create an eco system that will make villages more independent and people from villages will not have to migrate to cities. This will reduce the pressure on city infrastructure and there will be all round development Every one, even the private schools would benefit, as social activities like these will help create good branding for the schools in the cities which is where they make money.

Many industrialists such as: SUNIL MITTAL OF BHARTI, SHIV NADAR OF HCL TECHNOLOGIES and AZIM PREMJI OF WIPRO Ltd are spending money on education and the government is also stressing on greater corporate involvement in social service activities.

SUNIL MITTAL, Chairman of the Bharti Group (Airtel) is the man behind the Bharti Foundation which is running 236 schools across five states for underprivileged children.  These schools are being run at an annual cost of Rs 28 crore.  More than 30,000 students are now studying in Mittal’s free English-medium schools in Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu

 More than 70% of the students in these schools are from SC/ST and OBC categories.  Moreover, 47% of the students are girls.  This is likely to increase to 50,000 in two years. The plan is to eventually build 500 primary schools and 50 secondary schools which will enroll 100,000 students by 2013.

AZIM PREMJI, the promoter of WIPRO who cut short his education to look after the family business after the death of his father in 1966, has donated over Rs Crores worth of his shares, to build schools, train teachers, and fund other educational activities. This represents the single-largest donation by an individual towards philanthropic activities. The move comes at a time when there is greater awareness about and spotlight on the social responsibility activities of corporate and industrialists

SHIV NADAR OF HCL recently donated over 580 crore by selling his 2.5% stake in HCL Technologies to fund the education initiatives of his eponymous foundation.

“Teach India ”campaign which has been initiated by Times of India group. Teach India is a nation building initiative (or social initiative) from the Times of India that brings together children in need of education and people who can contribute a little time towards teaching them. It is based on one simple principle: “If you have the desire to teach, we will put you in touch with underprivileged children who are willing to learn. If we all pledge to educate at least 1 person in our lifetime it will be enough to help India rise from the status of a developing nation to that of a developed one.

The initiatives taken by : should be emulated by the other corporates as well The government should encourage them by giving them tax incentives on account of spending on these initiatives.

NOT JUST IMPLEMENTATION BUT ENFORCEMENT CAN BRING A CHANGE LET THE FIRE TO GO TO SCHOOL KINDLE