According to an NSSO report, about 32 million children upto 13 years of age in India have never attended school. Most of these children belong to a socially disadvantaged class. Shortage of good qualified teachers, lack of proper infrastructure and social and economic factors like poverty contribute to the dismal state of education in India.
Education is a universal right. No child should be deprived of the right to education. However, we find that education in India is in a dismal state even today. Effects of poverty and malnutrition can be seen on the impact they have on education. About 42% of children in India can read a grade 1 text. This highlights the problems of the education system in India.
What are the most important factors that limit the spread of quality education among children? Let us look at them.
- Poverty : Low income and deprivation of resources limits access to education. The generational cycle of poverty creates mindset that education is a waste of time and that the children born in the family must work to earn money. It creates a vicious cycle that itself requires education to break the cycle of poverty.
- Lack of infrastructure : Most educational institutions have poor infrastructure. Lack of schools in rural areas is also a contributing factor. There is also a lack of sanitary infrastructure and the lack of infrastructural support for girl children
- Backward mentality : Our society still struggles with gender bias, which is a very severe problem. Since people believe that girls’ education is not as important as boys’ (because girls won’t help them after marriage), they only send their boys to school and provide them an education, which furthers the imbalance in the ratio of girls’ to boys’ education. In rural and poor background families, education is seen as unimportant.
Fikrah believes that to serve the country the best and to help in nation-building, the role of education and literacy is paramount. Fikrah’s campaign for providing education to all underprivileged children is a step in this positive direction.
You can volunteer with Fikrah or choose to donate to our causes. You can engage with Fikrah in any capacity possible. Small steps in the right direction go a long way in bringing bigger changes.