Education- “the process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school or university” or “an enlightening experience”.
Equality- “the state of being equal, especially in status, rights, or opportunities”.
Now we’re not here to make you learn the meanings of these words but it’s to emphasise that these terms exist in our Constitution as rights but are still being restricted in rural areas.
“The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act or Right to Education Act (RTE) is an Act of the Parliament of India enacted on 4 August 2009, which describes the modalities of the importance of free and compulsory education for children between the age of 6 to 14 years in India under Article 21A of the Indian Constitution.”
It clearly states words like “compulsory”, “importance” and “free”. If the government urges our citizens to be educated and educate their female offsprings, why is it that rural citizens still refrain from doing so?
Reasons for not providing education to children range from poverty to child marriage and even mere issues like “no one is home for safekeeping while parents work”. Often, good facilities for education aren’t provided which reduce girls’ motivation to participate.
Some ways to encourage education among rural families is to first, help them understand the benefits that come out of it. That way, reasons like child marriage may also disappear. Second is to provide mid-day meals or other facilities that might excite students to attend school daily. Third is to create such a schedule for school, that no parents can complain about “no safekeeping of their home”.
This way, our country keeps developing. Educating one female means educating an entire family. This is the biggest hope for eradicating illiteracy in our nation and we’re positive that we’ll observe results in the near future.
Written by Auroni Gupta
Credits:
Picture credit: