EVEN AFTER hectic planning, numerous welfare programmes, a series of legislative and administrative actions in the past five and a half decades, a huge chunk of Indian children continue to remain in distress and severe chaos. The ‘Indian childhood’ can be said to be one of the worst. This neglected chunk of ‘innocence’ is an epitome of malnourishment, illiteracy, trafficking, physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. The problem of child abuse and indifference is an increasing phenomenon but the sorry state of affairs is that even now the public and the government are not taking it seriously.
About 59 million out of 200 million children (6-14 years) in India are still out of school. 40% of the children who start going to school do not complete even their primary education. There are ‘n’ number of NGOs working in this regard, but the strategy and the planning is not as apt as it should be. The motif at many places is just to earn money and show something on paper.
The problem can be solved by spreading education among them and creating awareness of their ‘self’ as well as ‘social ignorance’.
The following strategy can be followed step by step:
1. Conduct study in various parts of the country to assess the gravity of the situation in the target children group and to solve the situation by working out a suitable type of education and schooling in target locations.
2. Ensure the participation of community to uplift and help the needy children by giving infrastructural and ‘socio-emotional support’.
3. To coordinate and interact with other organisations/stakeholders involved in similar kind of projects to achieve the goal.
4. To extract maximum out of the available resource and infrastructure and try to make it work in a better way to satisfy others need as well.
5. Ensure required participation of family as well as surroundings to make the society a better place for these children.
6. To prioritise child rights in respect of education.
The target should be to help the target children get a means of education that not only lets them gain knowledge of books but also makes them think about themselves and their past condition. They should be able to behave in a required way that is acceptable in a good environment. The mission should be to make them stand independently and think rationally.
This can be achieved by motivating the parents or community (where the child resides) towards the importance and positives of education. It is expected that most of these children will need great attention and strong motivation to read and write. Any organisation/individual should endeavour to establish a child-friendly method of education that the children is comfortable with.
There are various ways like eLearning, thematic schools, learn at play, and methods that do not require books to impart education.
These methods can be made operational in existing schools or by integrating other supportive infrastructure. Here community schooling comes in play. Volunteers should be invited to impart education to these deprived children. They can be taught to teach in a way that doesn’t seem burdensome to the children.
I see a vision of a beautiful Indian childhood without the blot of child abuse in any way. I see a vision of a restored innocence. I see a vision of every child in school who later becomes a responsible Indian. I dare to vision a “CHHOTU- free” India.
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