Bharat Darshan- ASER Participation!

I got the opportunity to experience real India during my ASER (Annul Status of Education Report) participation. The annul survey is conducted by Pratham, an NGO dedicated in education sector, for the government of India. I was given a task to survey three villages of Bhagwanpur block of Roorkee tehsil, Uttrakand.

The visit proved to be quite enlightening, and I enjoyed most of it by experiencing the open fields, eating sugarcane, playing with children and talking to villagers. On the other hand, the miserable condition of the schools, myopic attitude of villagers and racism made it a little depressive.

Talking about the schools, I was literally shocked to examine the way things were. I hardly found two or three teachers who were seriously teaching the students, while others were either engaged with the mid day meal, which was not even edible, or in gossip. Many of them marked students present on the attendance registers, while the classes were having a few bags only. When I asked for the time table, one teacher showed me some charts drenched with dust and worms. Some schools, not even having electricity connections, were bestowed with the computers, and some of them were facing a serious shortfall of teachers. In one school, I found a teacher who was running it alone for the last seven years! School were having inoperable hand pumps, making the drinking water inaccessible within the school premises.

The condition of villages was even worse. Urchins attending nature’s call on roadside clearly showed the poor sanitation facility available. Some villagers were using school’s premises even for sanitary purposes!

During the survey, a few villagers expressed their dissatisfaction against government’s attempts for improving the education status.

Additionally, I would like to share one shocking experience with you. It happened when I conducted house to house children testing. A lady approached me and told me that she was the BHOJANMATA of the village school. I would like to narrate further conversation in the direct form:

Lady: Sahab ji, ham gaon ke school main pichle 4 saal se kam karte hain aur hamen keval 250 rupiya mahina milta hai. Ye bahut kam hai. Kya aap hamari salary bada denge?

I: dekhiye main yahan sirf survey karne aaya hun, main aapki salary nahin bada sakta, mere haath main kuch nahin hai.

Lady: Sahib ji aap to bade officer honge, aap to salary bada hi sakte hain. Kya mujhe aapko bhi ragging deni padegi?

This sentence is the most depressing sentence I have ever heard in my life!

Me: Nahin nahin aap aisa kyun kah rahi hain, main aapki prathna ko bade sahib tak pahuncha dunga. Vo aapki salary jaroor bada denge. Aap chinta mat kijiye.

So this is the condition of our India, where women are forced to compromise with their character to live in! We have to think seriously on these kinds of issues, and have to create an environment worth living for them.

During my observations, I realized that although the government is introducing new plans for the improvement of primary education, most of them fail on the ground level due to corruption in the system and lack of enthusiasm in the authorities, teachers and parents. We seriously need to find ways to deal with these two important issues, only then we can expect our India to grow exponentially.