Reaching Out To The Neglected-Indian Tribes

THE SPREAD of education among the weaker sections of our society is vital as education is a prime requisite for socio-economic development. The policy to promote educational interests of the weaker sections of the people, especially the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, has been enshrined in our Constitution as a Directive Principle of State Policy. In the days of yore tribal people had a well-organised system of education. The child learnt at home and at `dormitories' and this training related to various activities of tribal life. But with the advent of Christian missionaries modern schools came up in tribal areas.

Homogeneity is the main characteristic of a tribe; but this characteristic has been dealt a death blow due to the impact of modernity. On the one hand a few privileged people are reaping all the benefits and on the other the vast bulk of tribals is living in poverty and deprivation. Moreover these educated elites, instead of trying to improve the lot of the underprivileged, are ruthlessly exploiting them. This has led to a situation where the majority of the tribals look upon these educated `babus' with distaste and distrust and thus it has evoked a negative attitude towards education. With modern education have come modern values which have clashed with the age-old traditional values of tribal society; this has also led to the tribals being antagonistic to modern education.

Retarding factors

Lack of social mobility and the problem of inter-cultural communication are major retarding factors in tribal education. As the teacher and the taught in the tribal areas belong to different cultures the communication barrier becomes almost inseparable. The late Humayun Kabir had rightly remarked that even the best system of education is bound to fail without an efficient and resourceful teacher. Most of the teachers appointed in tribal areas are a disinterested lot due to various problems faced by them such as lack of proper residential facility, good salary, communication facility and social distance from the tribal people.

Thus the teacher feels isolated and unhappy and a disgruntled teacher is, certainly, not the best communicator of modern ideas and messages to tribal children. So even though the government has come up in recent times with various plans and programmes to improve the educational lot of the tribals, there is not much result to show as there is lack of sincerity on the part of the officials charged with the implementation of these programmes. If all these problems are to be tackled successfully, the government has to bring about a change in the basic orientation in tribal education.

The government in its zeal to provide facilities to the tribals has constructed hostels for the tribal students, supplied textbooks, provided different types of scholarship, etc. But instead of bridging the gap it has widened the rift. The tribal students staying in separate hostels, availing themselves of separate scholarships, feel naturally lonely. This should change and instead there might be some percentage reservation of seats for tribals in a general hostel and tribal students should be encouraged to take an active part in various college as well as hostel activities. Only then they could be brought into the mainstream.

It has also been proved that when a tribal child begins his education he starts with no linguistic information and conceptualisation whereas a non-tribal child starts with a few familiar concepts and linguistic associations. So preschool training programme for the tribal child is a prime requirement and the government should undertake such programmes if it means to put the tribal students on an equal footing with the non-tribal.

As for appointment of teachers, more and more appointments should be made from among the tribal population so that the teachers become `accepted' and they deal with the tribal students by using a more permissive and motivational approach. The existing teachers should be provided with adequate facilities and they should be properly oriented. It should be a must for the teachers to learn the tribal language and there can also be attempts at writing textbooks in tribal languages.

Moreover the education of children has little functional importance to them. Even after secondary education there can be no gainful employment. Thus there is no incentive for education. So the existing curricula should be related to socio-economic and cultural life of the tribals. Emphasis must be on imparting skills and modern information on agriculture, poultry, forestry and carpentry, etc.

Only by providing better communication facilities, sanitary programmes, teaching materials and methods the government can hope to bring about an attitudinal change in the tribal population towards education. Otherwise with the present state of affairs the dream of our Constitution makers about tribal education would always remain a dream.

Miles To Go Before I Reach...

I have always felt strongly for anything concerning education. A few days before, I was going through some articles on the website of India Together about education, when I came across an issue that has been discussed in class a lot of times.


The Indian Education system has progressed to great extent, with a wider reach. According to a report prepared by Ernst & Young, in association with FICCI, India’s expenditure on higher education is set to increase in the next 10 years. With an increase in the income earning capacity of individuals these days, nearly 55% of the parents in the country are able to spend money on academic quality, employability-linked education as well as foreign education. In short, the progress is essentially visible in towns, cities and to a small extent in some developed villages. However, in almost all villages, dropping out after primary education is still a prevalent practice.

In the village of Mundrampatti, in Krishnagiri district, Tamil Nadu, the odds of children making it to college are one per cent, ten times below the low national average. Some children have completed their primary education, but have dropped out of school due to many deterrents. The same are the reasons for many of them who do not go to school, even for primary education. The article talked about N. Priya, a 17 year old girl who dropped out after completing her education till class XII. For pursuing higher education in government colleges, she would have to walk a couple of kilometres, which is not considered safe for her. Bus services are also inappropriate for her – one each early morning and late evening. So that too is not a safe option for her. A daughter of agricultural workers, her parents cannot afford to admit her in nearby private colleges.

Priya is not the only student with this kind of a problem. Children as young as 6 year walk 2 kilometres every day to their schools due to the inconvenient timings of the buses. Hence, the significance of free bus passes given by the government to these children remains questionable.

The roads are perhaps amongst the best in the state, with almost all villages roads concretised and highways and main roads in good condition. But traveling from one village to the other either entails walking or a ride from the occasional two wheeler rider. Neither mode of transport is considered safe for girl children by parents. Many then choose to pull out their children from school in the name of safeguarding them. This then sets up a kind of trend in absence of any choices and alternatives.

Another factor which acts as a deterrent for sending children to school is the unhygienic surroundings. Some schools are built right next to the dumping ground of the village. There are some schools build in places where people have been defecating for generations. Who would want to send their children to such a place of mess?

In Nagamangalam village, S Rajesh and his friends have an ambition of becoming police officers, given the rate of crime, domestic violence, alcoholism in their midst. A class topper, Rajesh says he wants to enter the Indian Police Service, inspired by movies. But for secondary schooling, Rajesh and his friends will have to travel to the Block headquarters Kelamangalam and for college another 16 kms to Denkanikottai. Rajesh's prospects may be better than his friends' given his interest in academics.

Also, the transition from high school to higher secondary school is especially hard for the children in Telugu-medium schools, given that the medium of education in colleges is either English or Tamil. Even if the children manage a different medium of instruction, the distances lead to poor enrolment rates. Given the distances between schools and villages in Kelamangalam block, the drop-out rates in higher classes are very high. Only about 10 percent of those starting school complete school and perhaps one in that 10 enter college. Children are married off at an early age which too interferes with their basic education.

Even those who finish schooling end up earning Rs 3000 or so per month. Agricultural work gets them Rs 50 per day for women and Rs 100 per day for men, with nothing extra for overtime. Schools charge for uniforms, notebooks, tuition fees and other fees. Then there is the bus charge. Managing all this obviously becomes difficult. What makes it even more difficult is that major part of this fee is charged illegally by schools. Being unaware of ways to complaint or the Right To Information, which again is due to lack of knowledge and education, it is next to impossible to bring about transparency in the system.

Education is one tool that stays with us throughout our lives and gives returns in the most difficult times as well. There is a need to begin at the grass root level first in order to strengthen the entire education system and hence the society.

THE MOSQUITO REGIME !

Our video originated not far from our homes!! In the past few months, we have seen Darya Ganj become a place of total mess in the name of beautification and restoration of the area. What started in July-end with a simple small-scale digging of the road in front of our homes soon turned out to be a large scale project of underground wiring by BSES (Electricity Board), where all overhead wires would be placed under the ground and all pillars with numerous crossing and dangerously overlapping wires would be removed, making the clear blue sky visible at the least!! The people living in Darya Ganj were not complaining as they realised that overhead naked and loose wires were anyway accident prone and can 'spark' current (if not protests!) anytime. So, despite the risk of water and telephone lines being damaged while digging, we were hopeful of a restoration of our area.



We too were pretty happy and what contended us even more was the speed with which the work was progressing. Throughout the day and also the night, labourers were working as if not only their wages, but their lives depended on the project!


Soon, the wires were placed underground, the wire-filled (yes, they were literally 'filled' with wires) pillars were removed. Street lights were installed as well, and that too those extremely bright ones. However, they were so many that even the night sky was visible as clearly as during the day!! Anyway, now what we have is an overly illuminated Darya Ganj.


So Far, So Good!! As soon as all the work was finished, we were happy that now the work of restoring the roads and removing the debris will start. However, all the labourers and the contracters disappeared as discreetly as they had come. The place was left in a mess. We were disturbed seeing the scattered debris all around. So, this is how the idea struck!!


As long as the debris was dry, it was still bearable. However, soon our fears were confirmed and with the onset of monsoon, our locality turned into a mess, complete with the water effect. "Where there is water, there is life"!! It soon became a heaven for mosquitos and malaria-dengue found an additional place to breed. The ambulance parked amidst all this only deepened our concern for those dependent on the doctors and medical facilities during their health trauma.


This is not the story of only our locality. We knew the weather would have created similar situations elsewhere too, as there is always debris scattered here and there, waiting for the water to come to it and hence inviting diseases. Again we did not have to go too far. The Rajendra Place metro-station near our college provided us with enough footage!


So basically, our video is about the unhygieninc surroundings created by unprotected disposal of waste and scattered debris in which water accumulates which in turn leads to diseases like Dengue. Some of the preventive measures are also mentioned.


We got this opportunity following our assignment in Development Communication given by Abhay Sir. We thank you Sir for giving us a push to take up this unique and probably the best medium as you said, to express ourselves - movie making.



So, not testing your patience anymore, here is the link to this video...

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bWshGPD9Ok

Women Empowerment

I recently read an article on Women Empowerment on the website of Azad India Foundation – a Foundation committed to development of rural India.


In India, it is believed that women resemble Goddesses. If ever a girl child gets a chance to be born in this world, she is worshipped as a child Goddess and her whole life is ‘devoted’ in giving blessings to her so-called devotees or worshippers.

Such is the status of women in India. Yes, those women who are equivalent to Goddesses. These features may seem to be applicable to an India that we have left behind and moved on, but there are many cases which still involve the same stereotypes for women.

However, there has been, no doubt, considerable work done in the field of women empowerment. The phrase itself has evolved over the years. Policy approaches have shifted from the concept of ‘welfare’ in the 70s to ‘development’ in the 80s and now to ‘empowerment’ for and of women. Women Empowerment refers to increasing the spiritual, political, social or economic strength of Women. It often involves the empowered developing confidence in their capacities. This would essentially involve :

* Having decision-making powers of their own

* Having access to information and resources for taking proper decisions

* Having a range of options from which they can make choices

* Ability to exercise assertiveness in collective decision making

* Having positive thinking on the ability to make change

* Ability to learn skills for improving one's personal or group power.

* Ability to change others’ perceptions by democratic means.

Over the last few decades, there have been basic changes in the status and role of women in our society. A new millennium – 2001 – was ushered by the Government of India by declaring it as ‘Women’s Empowerment Year’ to bring the nation’s women to the forefront of national development. More than anything or anyone, the women themselves seem to have taken the charge and are becoming increasingly self-conscious of their discrimination in several family and public matters. They are now able to mobilize popular opinion on issues that affect them as a whole.

This is a picture that would lead us to believe that India is on the road to a wholesome development. However, such is the case only if we look at the periphery of this picture. One would not have to go deep down to find the contrasts that can shatter these myths in seconds. Women have been struggling since ages to make a space for themselves which they can call their own. This is prevalent despite the constitution giving them equal opportunities and rights. They are still considered as a child producing machine that’s only here on the earth to produce children and feed them and the family. The deep-rooted patriarchal society has prevented her from realizing her true worth and potential.

Females are considered as a secluded section of society right from birth. No wonder it is so difficult for a girl child to come out alive in this world. There is still very high preference for male child in state like UP, Punjab, MP, etc. The male-to-female ratio is very high in these states. As mentioned above, even if a girl child is born, she’s either made into a Goddess or married at a very early age on the pretext that she is here to serve her family. As if that was not enough, her marriage is also not guaranteed to be a happy and satisfying one. Producing children and looking after them is considered as her sole task. Her health is severely compromised with. She is also required to keep the family happy even though the family may never bother to understand her and take care of her. Domestic violence is another factor that totally breaks a woman. Even though she’s assured of immediate help in case of domestic violence, the section to which this law has reached consists mainly of the urban women population.

The Government has started various programs for women empowerment such as Swashakti, Swayasidha, Streeshakti, Balika Samridhi Yojna. But these, as other policies, have only been drafted on paper and reached out to a very meager number of the women population in India.

Women make 52% of our country’s population. Thus, it is evident that India cannot progress leaving 52% of the population behind and completely neglecting it. A wholesome progress of our society depends on needs and interest of women who determine the direction in which the society is moving. Not much is needed to be done. Education is one solution that would automatically create a ripple effect and ensure that this much neglected section is able to come out of its fears and carve a niche for itself.