Thursday, May 29, 2008

The Storm

Light breeze kissing the leaves
Dancing waves touching the shore
Whisper to me
A storm is on the way…
I want to be silent
I do not want to burden the wind
For my words might trigger a storm
I wait silently for the storm to pass
Once again I shall be ready
To throw my words to the winds

1999

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Reality:Real and Virtual

Kamal ghar bagh...
Kamal, see the house...
Thus begins one of the lessons in primary school texts in Marathi (Maharashtra, India). The book carries a picture of a smart girl-child with colourful frock but another picture flashes simultaneously in the mind of another Kamal, one of the many Kamals that we come across in our households as maid servants. They are dutiful and professional as maids, but unfortunately live only as servants. Inspite of free education for girls in Maharashtra and other states and many incentives by government and organisations we have many Kamals and Reshmis today, who by choice prefer to live as maid servants. They drop-out at a very early age from school.
Kamal and Reshmi prefer accompanying their mothers (who too are house maids) at a very early age. They become very familiar to the interiors of middle class and upper middle class houses. They help their mothers clean the houses. School? Kamal's mother general reply, “She doesn't like going to school...she has no brains...she is only good for household labour” and Kamal smiles shyly and keeps making negative gesture whenever school is mentioned. Soon she begins to work independently and earns quite a bit thanks to the enlightened middle class or upper class houses. She will be very fortunate if one of her employers sees a daughter in her and motivates her to continue her education, acquire some skills and slowly make a professional shift. But majority of them continue as house servants...they are exploited and at times molested too...married off at very early age and they get resigned to their fate. Their reality can be much worse if they become victims because of their sex.
These two are the two sides of the same coin; government wants to eradicate child labour, education is free for girl-childs, there are social workers who try to trace the drop-outs and there are adult literacy and sex education programmes and there are Kamals!!! These dropped out Kamals come back to adult literacy programmes after learning the hard way about the need of education.
Why is our Primary education so uninteresting? Even the incentives of free books, lunch can't lure them to schools. They find virtual reality of well to do houses where their mothers work more interesting. They seem to prefer the touch and feel of glass showcases, watch TV depending on owner’s generosity, eat good leftover food than the dull class rooms, dictating teachers, no blackboards and distasteful food. It takes years before the reality hits them hard. Can't we make our primary education more interesting with the use of modern technology?
We need to hold back such Kamals, shape their futures differently rather than have them back as adult learners with very few options and choices ahead. After all not all Kamals return as adult learners; some just get lost in this world.