A privilege is a right or an advantage, and people who are underprivileged lack such rights and the advantages. For years, education has been the bend Point for individuals to transcend their limitations. Many children in India are not getting proper education, they lack the basic necessity of every individual and there are many people who wish to help the unfortunate, many of them come forward through different means and try to help the underprivileged. The arrival of great charitable organization and NGOs are one of the means. These organizations have made it possible for gifted and hard-working children to have access to opportunities they could not have imagined before.
Everyone speaks about education and its importance for underprivileged children. Hence, let us understand what defines education. Education means acquiring knowledge. In immense terms, education means acquiring various skills in diverse fields that are vital to our life and very existence. These skills can be achieved through classroom training and during the course of our life.
By giving good education to these children we will not only help them but also can secure the living of their parents and their future, those parents who are not capable enough to give education and a brighter life to their children. There are ample reasons as to why they need education and how it is important for them. It will help them to improve themselves and learn new things, find good opportunities, become a good human being and lead a respectable life in the society with their head high. The more education these children will acquire, the higher is the chance to create a good life for their family.
One in five adults deficit the written communication skills they need to progress in life, and 57 million children do not know what it’s like to step inside a classroom. Many millions more are in education, but not learning adequately. The global challenge for education is not just about providing access, but also assuring progress. Proper and well educated is very important for all of us. It eases quality learning all through the life among people of any age group, caste, creed, religion, and region. In India, due to patriarchal Indian society especially girls are deprived of education.
Being educated gives an equal opportunity to women to be an employee and a skilled worker who use their learning as a boon that will help better the future of their families. Educated girls also help end biased social evils like child marriage and dowry which are still prevalent in our society. These social evils are not only restricted to only one gender. From very small ages these children start to work in factories, hotels or as a bagger on the streets. Most of them indulge in any illegal activities such as burglary, pickpockets or some of them even addicted to drugs. Due to which, at an age when they need to focus on their career and enjoy their childhood, these children start working as the breadwinner for their families.
Our government has also taken many steps and started many programme to stop child labour. Initiatives like mid-day meal and “school chalein hum” has started to promote and encourage children and their parents who are from the underprivileged section of the society. So that more and more number of children enroll themselves to schools. But even after so many initiatives, the quality of the schools has not improved in many of the cities and where schools are in a better condition, the number of children is very less.
With a good education, we can make a good career and good money. Education does not only mean the knowledge that one gets from books but the life lessons that make a person more humane. Education can complete a person in many ways. But in today’s economic world where everything is so money minded. Now, education has become so costly that many people who belong to the lower section of society can’t even afford that. Due to these reasons every year many children leave studies. In this scenario, loans at cheaper rates can help excessively in improving the lives of school dropouts.
There are government initiatives and numerous NGOs that are helping these underprivileged children but we need to go beyond by providing them food and shelter. Because most of these children either come from a background whose family economic conditions are low or have no family. So providing only education is not going to help them. We also need to help them with shelter, food, and clothes. Rather than taking a random approach we must follow a practical and scientific approach to address this issue. Before drafting any strategy, we need to do a rigorous brainstorming session and try to identify the root cause of poverty.
(Richa Prasant, Founder of Sunaayy Foundation (www.sunaayyfoundation.org), a non-profit NGO, operating in the thematic areas of education and human rights, based in New Delhi)