Social Disparity in India

Every morning the kids of a locality get into school buses and go to schools of their choice. These kids study in what we call as English medium public schools. The children go to these schools, building their academic and personality foundations. When they reach the +2 stage they prepare for competitive examinations and try to get into a good professional course of their choice. Many of them go to colleges to do their graduation and then try to build their careers. Hopefully most of them land up in good jobs with a good salary and decent social status.

But what happens to those who were born in the streets. They grow up in the streets, following their parents from one construction site to another. May be, if they are lucky enough they might go to some Municipal School and have some level of education. If they are extremely lucky they might reach the college stage, gain entry to some good college and perhaps make their career.

The question is how many of them reach this stage. The answer would be in a negligible percentage of such kids. The children of this world start playing in the dust and end up making a living in the dust. And these are not isolated cases. There are millions of them. These under privileged children for whom childhood is a hard lesson of life are teeming in number across the length and breadth of this country. These children start making up their living right from their childhood. Things like education and a decent living can be conveniently forgotten for them. And we talk of removing social disparity from our society. We talk of education for all. We talk of becoming a developed nation.

But we can achieve nothing till they don't get proper education and do not get to make a decent living. This is one of the most important social parameters for becoming a developed society. And what is the government doing in this regard. Our basic education infrastructure i.e. the school level education system is in shambles. Despite numerous education programmes and missions the misery of uneducated children remains as it is. Government schools meant for such underprivileged children lack even the most basic facilities. They don't even have teachers. Children go to such schools just for getting free lunch in some or the other government scheme. Despite pursuing an affirmative socialistic agenda straight from the 1950's successive governments have failed on this count. Trumpeting the agenda of reservations is of no help. It helps only those who are economically better off and can afford proper school education. But what happens to those who are socially as well as economically underprivileged like the children on the street. Their lot remains as it is. The government talks of opening new IIT's and IIM's and reservations in the private sector but when it comes to providing decent education to the really underprivileged children of our society, it scores a big zero.

The problematic area is therefore of the school education. The real panacea to remove social disparity is to provide good quality schools where these underprivileged children can have access to good education and can compete with the affluent section of the society.

Of course the government cannot shy away from its responsibility. But as responsible citizens don't we have a duty towards one of these major ills of our society. All of us had good education and today find ourselves well placed earning well. Should not we come forward on this front?
I wish to be a responsible citizen. I want to be able to look myself in the eye and acknowledge that I made a difference, that I was able to make someone's life a little easier, no matter how small or big may the issue be. I do not want to be a person who is rich materialistically but is poorer than most in what counts. And for this purpose I do help them. I do help teach some underprivileged children near my house.
An idea which can in a small way contribute to the solution of this problem is to start a residential public school for the underprivileged children. An NGO can be formed for this purpose whose mission shall be to provide quality education to the socially and economically underprivileged children so that they make a decent living on their own. No longer these children would have start in the dust and remain forever in the same dust.