Republic Day Write Up: Education

Hope is a state of mind, not of the world. Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good. -Vaclav Havel

There are ways of thinking and there are means of doing. This applies to everything that we wish to achieve but have shelved for lack of time or effort. What I believe we need to do is to educate one child at least and motivate that child to live, to create the truly wonderful thing that children are capable of creating in their lives; meaning. How often have we rolled our windows up in disdain at the shabby appearance of the boy selling flowers at the traffic signal or muttered something about pity or worse yet asked him, “Aye yeh sab kya karta hai, school jana chahiye!” Don’t even bother answering that. But give it a thought.

In other episodes, we may have very graciously given clothes our children have grown out of to the children we see walking around close to the building. We believe we have done our good deed for the day and in some way improved their lives. But how do these mindless acts of so-called charity contribute to their lives? DO you really believe that these children care how they’re dressed? Well maybe in a superficial sense they do but what they really want is to be acknowledged as a success story, not a statistic! They want to be known by their names, live in houses like you and I, have a family to live with. That’s what they really want and need.

So why can’t we with all our haloed existences provide this kind of environment to one child in India? All we’re talking about is some time and even lesser money. But a lot a will; will to not give up in the face of the child’s resistance to your efforts to make contact with him or her. Most children by this time in their lives have seen things more scary than people like us will see in a lifetime. They develop a natural mistrust of people and refuse to believe that good does indeed exist somewhere in the world and that not everyone has ulterior motives behind giving them an opportunity to do something.

The statistics with reference to destitute children in India belong to the Stone Age. While one may endeavor to do something positive for these children, one doesn’t even know the extent of this problem. Thankfully, child labor laws have been revised to extend childhood to the age of 18. But this has also been done in a fashion that has affected the children adversely as many of them were then listed by employers as illegal and hence paid much less. The environment in which Indian children live,learn and grow frustrates their attempts to have equal access to education. Initiatives like the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan taken by the Government have not made much of a difference. The difference will not be seen overnight. But why should I not start by educating my maid’s child!

- Pradnya Surve