12-year old Pooja lives with her parents and a brother in a small village of Amravati District. On the day I visited her village I found her working in a nearby cotton field dressed in her school uniform. She explained that she had been on her way to school that morning, but instead ended up in the fields since she didn’t have 10 rupees to buy a notebook for a school project. “Skipping school today is the only option left for me; I can’t enter the classroom without a notebook to do the project,” she said. “At the end of the day if I manage to pick 5kg of cotton then I can earn Rs. 10 to buy a notebook and I can go to school tomorrow; we are paid 2 rupees for every kg of cotton we pick.”
Her brother Ajay (14) has been spending the last month preparing fodder for livestock. He spent many hours gathering wheat, among other grains, separating them, grinding them, and laying them out in preparation. Ajay does this so the families’ cattle will not go hungry. Ironically, almost every day, at least one member of his family goes hungry. “Collectively, we get around Rs. 70 per day and give it to our parents. We don’t mind missing school for this; it doesn’t matter if dust gets in our eyes and they constantly water. It’s also alright if we are tired at the end of the day—at least we are of some help,’’ said Ajay.
There are many children in the Vidarbha region who juggle work and school every day. Some are ensuring they are of some help to their parents, whereas some are working to ensure that they can attend school the next day. Even before the advent of the recently enacted Right to Education Act, children should not have to make decisions about whether they attend school or not—education is a child’s right and the duty of the State, now even more so, to ensure that all children—especially those from the most marginalised communities—have opportunities to attend school on a daily basis. Pooja and Ajay naturally want to be of assistance to their parents and families, but at the same time, there is a far too entrenched culture of acceptance and tolerance that children from the poorest households and most marginalised communities have no other options but to work. These are false notions that Save the Children and partner organisations are working hard to dispel. We are redoubling our efforts to ensure that all children are in school on a regular basis as per the guidelines of the Right to Education Act while at the same time working with local duty bearers and communities to change perceptions about school, build the capacity of local communities to monitor education and at the same time, facilitating greater access to social protection schemes for poor households so as to remove the need for children to contribute to their families economic livelihood.
Pooja and Ajay smiled at the thought of being able to attend school everyday and not having to work.
Story contributed by: Siddhesh Gunandekar, Media & Communications Coordinator, Maharashtra- Save the Children
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