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EDITORIAL:
In this issue of Prayas, we focus on two topics.
The government has announced plethora of schemes to help the poor and the needy.
They range from ration to housing schemes to pensions. However,the schemes often
remain just that-a scheme on paper and rarely reaching out to the people it is
meant to help. Often the bureaucratic procedures are so tedious and involving so
many steps that an ordinary villager is never able to complete all of them. In
many cases a new dimension is added when the government officials demand bribes
in order to release money. Neelkamal's article highlights one such incident
involving marriage pension scheme that the government has launched.
In the second article Mrs. Meenakshi Apte examines the issue of education of
girl child which has lagged behind for myriad reasons. Mrs. Apte gives an
overview of the issue particularly pertaining to the girl child and of existing
efforts in improving the quality and accessibility of education. In particular
focuses on how the Sarva Shiksha Abiyan can provide a framework for implementing
girl child education efforts.
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan has been launched by the Government of India to ensure
education reaches every child of India. There have been other government schemes
with similar ideals. It remains to be seen whether the planned goals, which are
ideal, are met. Problems often crop up in the implementation, with the benefits
not reaching the children.
As usual your comments and thoughts are welcome. Please email them to
rmuthuswami@yahoo.com or
linuslax@yahoo.com
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THE INCAPACITY OF GOVERNMENT PENSION REACHING OUT TO PEOPLE
Neelkamal
Translated by Partha Dey
My intention is to talk about all those government pensions which are directed
towards the poor, needy, and the oppressed people of our country. It is a bitter
truth that government’s goodwill towards the society is only contained within
the domain of paper based directives.
Government has various forms of pension directed towards the oppressed part of
society. But whether this pension reaches only the people to which it is
directed is a question to which I am unable to give an answer.
Let me begin this discussion with government granted marriage pension.
When Chandralekha’s daughter’s marriage was fixed, she came to me with the
request of arranging the necessary government aid to help her in the cause (that
of getting her daughter married). Upon her request I contacted the
representative of gram panchayat (village council). I requested him to get me a
copy of Chandralekha’s family document. Hearing my request the representative
informed me of a complicated process, which is extremely difficult to undertake
for an ordinary villager. Upon completion of the process mentioned by him I went
to the registrar to get the caste certificate which is one of the documents
required for the application of government pension. He enlisted an even more
complicated process compared to gram panchayat representative, which was also
completed. Now came the turn to actually procure the certificate. At this stage
the register clerk asked for Rs 50, which I refused to give. Upon refusal to
bribe him, he made us come to the office at least 10 to 15!
times before actually handing over the required certificate. There are other
processes involved with application for government aid and in each of these
processes a bribe of anywhere between 50-500 bucks is an acceptable norm. I
would not get into the nitty-gritty of the matter. At the end there is the added
problem of submitting the application. After going through the long drawn
process we finally reached the stage of submitting the application, whereupon we
had to take the help of District Magistrate Mr. Hardoi.
In spite of the directives from the DM, Chandralekha was not awarded government
pension.
Chandralekha’s daughter’s marriage was on the 9th of February and the
application was in place by the 4th . Yet no pension was received. I was able to
go through the whole process but it is impossible for a person to get this work
done. In their attempt get pension,people end up paying huge amounts of money to
the middle men and government workers and finally they end up getting only one
third of what they are supposed to get.
I do not understand who are these people for whom government pensions are made
for? Government’s attitude of irresponsibility whether it is widow pension or
pension for handicapped or old age pension or pension for family of the
deceased, whether it is a matter of education or ration card, is rampant.
My message to all brothers and sisters
“I agree that this garden cannot be transformed into a mecca of flowers
But at least the thorns can be removed from the way to this garden”
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GIRL CHILD DROP OUTS
Smt Meenakshi Apte.
The decade of the 1990s is closely identified with the expansion of children’s
access to primary education in India and a strong national commitment to
achieving universal elementary education. The current challenge is to address
the key issues of equity in and quality of education with a view to ensuring the
right of all children to basic quality education in the new millennium. Girl
children and children from marginalized communities need special attention.
Girl child education has been lagging due a variety of social, economic and
cultural reasons including;
-large child populations,
-social attitudes towards girl children,
-poverty, ignorance, illiteracy amongst indifferent parents,accessibility of
schools from the residence of child
-the girl child becoming surrogate parent of younger siblings when very young,
-irrelevant school curricula
-early marriage.
Amongst the many innovative and successful interventions that have particularly
benefited girls, the following could be advocated and supported: (SOURCE UNICEF)
-Bridging courses for mainstream out of school children
-Residential learning camps for girls who are particularly vulnerable because of
living in remote areas or being workers, or those who have never attended
school.
-Effective learning through child-centered and activity-based learning within a
multilevel and multi grade classroom.
-Making curriculum relevant and improving on life-skills education.
-Strengthening community participation and empowering women in local governance.
-Integrating school sanitation, health and hygiene issues in education.
Sarva Shikshan Abhiyan of Government of India, designed with the assistance of
international bodies like UNICEF, emphasizes the commitment of bringing all
children under the education fold. SSA can provide a framework for implementing
girl child education efforts.
The thrust of the programme is on:
-Improving school effectiveness through holistic and gender sensitive
understanding of good quality education.
-Developing context-specific strategies to reach out to girls, especially from
socially disadvantaged groups-from the urban poor, the Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes, and working children in order to eliminate gender and social
disparity in primary education.
-Promoting documentation and research on the nature of challenges in education
to ensure effective action and advocacy at different levels.
In order to promote quality education we need to examine SSA’s key aspects:
Children as learners - with a focus on developing their reading, writing,
speaking, numeracy and analytical skills and accompanied by regular classrooms
which are fair and reflect the learning progress of all children.
Teachers-in their role as facilitators working toward enhancing children’s
understanding as well as nurturing their creativity; and investing in teachers
to broaden their skills with a focus on the active involvement of children.
Schools-Where schools have adequate infrastructure; every classroom has a
trained teacher who turns up every day to teach; every classroom has an adequate
supply of books and learning materials; there is a ceiling for class sizes to
ensure a manageable classroom; and importantly schools are safe and welcoming.
Content-Where children are able to make links between what they learn in school
and what they experience in the outside world; curriculum and materials, which
are responsive to the diverse needs of children; and exhibit a certain degree of
flexibility to engage with local issues and culture.
Community-where families and communities are interested, actively involved, and
empowered to monitor the effectiveness of schooling and education; and also make
linkages between children’s education and adult learning.
Process-where education is child friendly, activity-based, truly participatory
in nature and upholds the rights of all children.
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DISCLAIMER: ARTICLES HAVE BEEN MODIFIED TO SUIT ASHA'S NEEDS.
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UPCOMING EVENTS:
Asha Sanctuary is organizing two events in the months of Dec/Jan.
1. Conference in Pune on December 13th 2004. The day-long event focuses on Girl
Child Drop-outs and Malnutrition. The event is being organized with Akshardeep.
2. Meeting in Lucknow on Jan 2nd 2004. The meeting will be held at NEED
headquarters. Guria and Rah will be participating in this meeting. NEED is based
in Lucknow, and their strength is in organizing womenscollectives and self help
groups for credit and social mobilization. Discussions will revolve around this
and alternative livelihood options for women in the region that Asha Natpurwa
and Guria deal with.
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DISCLAIMER: ARTICLES HAVE BEEN TAILORED TO SUIT ASHA's NEEDS.