Breaking barriers in education with Pehchaan The Street School
Even though compulsory and free education is “guaranteed” by the constitution the situation at grassroot levels is still grim. Social, economic and cultural situations of many children render them uneducated and vulnerable to exploitation. Education gives strength and they are deprived of that.
This situation is what inspired the start of Pehchaan The Street School. We aim to provide education to underprivileged children and give our efforts to make education more inclusive to the low strata of society. Currently, we have 10 centres at different locations in Delhi – NCR.
According to the World Bank, about 22% of India’s population lives below the poverty line (2011 data) and in the inflated economy we live in where the fees of school are skyrocketing, these families fail to provide education for their next generation. They are forced to prioritise filling their bellies over education. Thus, the students don’t go to school but help earn bread – Stats say that 10.1 million children aged 5-14 engaged in child labour in India.
This staggering figure does not symbolize a stolen childhood but a potential loss. The children who should be inside the classrooms, reading books, and exploring their imagination about the future are found stuck in a web of poverty and exploitation. Pehchaan The Street School acknowledges this dilemma and strives tirelessly to provide free education and support to such vulnerable children in order to break a vicious cycle.
Beyond Economic Challenges: Social Barriers to Education
Economic challenges are not the only challenges faced by children in India. Concepts such as caste and gender discrimination have been deeply engraved and have remained a part of many parts of the country. The lower caste or tribal students bear discrimination; though the law is against it, it barely solves the deep prejudices and stigma attached.
While casteism has been abolished, it hangs over everything, even education. For example, Dalit children are ostracized and discriminated against in schools, resulting in higher dropouts. Pehchaan The Street School works at creating an inclusive environment where children from different backgrounds feel welcome and valued.
Gender Discrimination: A Long-Standing Barrier
Girls, on the other hand, are not allowed to go to college/school sometimes, as the family prioritizes boys having to be educated, or sometimes due to family elders who do not really feel that they even need to be educated. There have been other times when concerns relating to security and women going out raised fear in the minds of conservative families.
Statistics on this gender gap are pretty gloomy. While the female literacy rate stays way behind at 65.46 percent, that for males is as high as 82.14 percent, according to the 2011 census. This comes out to millions of girls being deprived of their basic right of education.
Other causes for not educating girls are:
27% of girls in India get married before the age of 18 years (UNICEF, 2018). Naturally, they cannot complete their school, leave alone higher studies.
Mostly, access to quality education is absent in remote rural areas. And the rural parents generally do not allow their daughters to go long distances for school.
Infrastructure and Quality: Other Barriers
Beyond the social and economic factors, the quality of education that is made available is a cause for concern. Internet facilities in only 22% of schools in India, as recorded in 2019, are a huge disadvantage to so many students against the backdrop of an increasingly digital world today.
Moreover, the country faces a shortage of more than 1 million teachers. This shortage would be synonymous with overcrowding of classes and overburdening of teachers at the cost of the quality of education being imparted.
Pehchaan’s Approach: Breaking Multiple Barriers
In circumstances like these, Pehchaan The Street School is trying it’s best to break barriers – promoting inclusiveness by providing equal opportunities to learn to all genders religions and castes. However, our approach goes beyond basic education.
We believe that education is not only literacy but it is a matter of empowerment. Thus, besides teaching students reading and writing, Pehchaan The Street School is committed to providing them a holistic development through integration of extra curricular activities in the curriculum and also promoting skill development through vocational training.
We connect with the families and community on grassroot level through awareness programs to address causes of educational barriers. This could mean providing nutritional support for malnourished children—35% of children under five are stunted, impeding their cognitive development, according to the National Family Health Survey–5, 2019–21—or providing vocational training to parents in an effort to lift families out of poverty.
Our centers are much more than classrooms; they are safe spaces to learn, play, and dream. We integrate technology where possible, bridging the digital gap to affect so many underprivileged children. Early education for children is much more focused, as according to the Annual Status of Education Report 2019 only 32% of children aged 3-6 years attended preschool.
The Road Ahead
While challenges are deeply rooted in society, organisations like Pehchaan The Street School are making a difference with their efforts. Although it may seem small in scale, but even the infinite numbers start from Zero! We believe that every child deserves the opportunity to get Education and have overall development – learn, play and dream irrespective of their caste, class or economic conditions.
We invite you to join us in our efforts to do this. Simple awareness of this problem—right from volunteering to donating—goes a long way in breaking down the barriers to education in India.
Together, it could very well strive for a future where every child gets quality education—when societal barriers such as gender and caste become no hindrance to seeking knowledge or economic conditions that do not define a child’s destiny. This is the vision that drives us.
Together we can.
Join Us through volunteering. https://pehchaanstreetschool.org/join-us/
DONATE HERE
https://www.instamojo.com/@pehchaanthestreetschool