Social Disparity in India

Every morning the kids of a locality get into school buses and go to schools of their choice. These kids study in what we call as English medium public schools. The children go to these schools, building their academic and personality foundations. When they reach the +2 stage they prepare for competitive examinations and try to get into a good professional course of their choice. Many of them go to colleges to do their graduation and then try to build their careers. Hopefully most of them land up in good jobs with a good salary and decent social status.

But what happens to those who were born in the streets. They grow up in the streets, following their parents from one construction site to another. May be, if they are lucky enough they might go to some Municipal School and have some level of education. If they are extremely lucky they might reach the college stage, gain entry to some good college and perhaps make their career.

The question is how many of them reach this stage. The answer would be in a negligible percentage of such kids. The children of this world start playing in the dust and end up making a living in the dust. And these are not isolated cases. There are millions of them. These under privileged children for whom childhood is a hard lesson of life are teeming in number across the length and breadth of this country. These children start making up their living right from their childhood. Things like education and a decent living can be conveniently forgotten for them. And we talk of removing social disparity from our society. We talk of education for all. We talk of becoming a developed nation.

But we can achieve nothing till they don’t get proper education and do not get to make a decent living. This is one of the most important social parameters for becoming a developed society. And what is the government doing in this regard. Our basic education infrastructure i.e. the school level education system is in shambles. Despite numerous education programmes and missions the misery of uneducated children remains as it is. Government schools meant for such underprivileged children lack even the most basic facilities. They don’t even have teachers. Children go to such schools just for getting free lunch in some or the other government scheme. Despite pursuing an affirmative socialistic agenda straight from the 1950’s successive governments have failed on this count. Trumpeting the agenda of reservations is of no help. It helps only those who are economically better off and can afford proper school education. But what happens to those who are socially as well as economically