With a giggly voice, she said, “Dancer!”.
Ruchika, aged 10, currently studying in class Vth, is an underprivileged girl from Ranchi, Jharkhand, with an ambition of becoming a dancer.
She also aspires to become like the teacher in her village who, by getting educated, is now trying to help every child and person in her village.
She has been in the scaffolds of government-funded institutions since 2012 when she was enrolled in Nursery. She and her parents were aware of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and the need for educating their girl child.
On asking about the hardships which she and her family were facing in these times, almost on the verge of crying, she could only say,
“Bhaiya, Papa ko to security guard se hata diya corona ki wajah se.”(My father lost his job as a security guard in these covid times)
On hearing this, questions about how she was managing her education were hurriedly put forth and she answered them with quite the vigour.
Ruchika’s School, Saraswati Vishwa Vidya Mandir, in village Nawargarh, Angara(Ranchi) has not been conducting online classes since lockdown. An initiative, Teach from Home, by the World Youth Council has been looking after and managing her education since then.
But should it not be the government’s responsibility under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan to see to it, that children like Ruchika do not miss out on their education, after all the right to education from the ages of 6 to 14 is its tagline!
The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan also highlights bridging of gender gaps as one of its main objectives and was able to achieve this quite well, as studies published in a report on SSA by the Programme Evaluation Organisation did indicate an increase in enrollment of female children in schools as shown in the figure below.
But the policy is not being utilised to its fullest potential in order to ensure that female children are getting all the benefits that they can get from this policy.
In a report by the Ministry of Human Development titled Evaluation of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, even after 5 years of Right to Education (2010) girls were still dropping out at the upper primary level at an increased rate than before. The dropout rate of girls belonging to Scheduled Tribes was also higher than previous years.
All this could be attributed to the lackadaisical attitude of the government towards the implementation of the scheme and the improper management of funds by the State governments.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had recently submitted a report in parliament, about the failure of the government in setting up model schools at block level in Kashmir which resulted in non-utilisation of funds under SSA worth Rs. 44 crores.
This would have been enough to ensure the upliftment of hundreds of children who would have had a quality education. All this was a result of the state government’s callousness to release funds and ensure that proper implementation of the scheme was taking place.
The government should also see to it that the benefits which SSA provided to the families of the girls getting enrolled into schools, like setting up of bathrooms in their houses by the government, land insurance, groceries provided by the government at cheap rates etc, are still being provided in these times.
The government with Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan has a beacon to illuminate the lives of thousands of females and guide them to better lives, but this can only be ensured if it puts various checks and mechanisms in order to put an end to the promulgation of funds which this scheme has!
The author is a Kaksha Correspondent as a part of writers’ training program under Kaksha Crisis.