Something was going in my mind since a long time. But, I got a chance to write today because due to some fault in it, TV at my home has not been working since past two days. Also, I’m now free from the college things and as far as my new office is concerned, it’s a Sunday holiday for me. Writing needs sincerity and deliberation. Though I’m an amateur writer but, since I was editing my college newsletter till sometime back; I feel that it’s a great responsibility on any writer who wants to share his/her work with others. I was free enough to take that responsibility today. Other than that, something happened last week which strengthened the thoughts which had originated and were getting flourished in my mind. Read on.
My father went to meet his friend at his place. My uncle (my father’s friend) is a very kind- hearted and a noble person. He is practicing Yoga since past five years. Now, he also teaches Yoga and it is his part-time but, a prominent activity. My Uncle happened to visit a municipality school in a nearby locality for teaching Yoga there to school kids. When he met my father he narrated his experience and expressed his feelings. He told my father “students in municipal schools come in ragged uniforms; nobody looks at it, and this makes me feel very sad.” My father said “you are right and I understand your feelings but the fact remains that economic classes from which the students go to the municipal schools, it more important to see that they go to school, leave the uniform aside.” Then he told his experience of the Yoga class, “I asked the children in the school to raise their hands if they drink milk daily and I was surprised to see that they were very few hands up. On the contrary when I asked if students drink tea, there were majority hands up. I explained to the kids that tea is bad for health and they should drink cow’s milk every day.” He was seeking appreciation from my father but to his dismay my father said something else. “Do you know how much fee do the students pay in that school?”. He said, “It must be less than hundred for a month.” My father said, “Then do you think that their families would afford to provide milk to them; they were taking little amount of it in tea and you asked them not to take even that.” Uncle, little disheartened now tried to counter argue by questioning “Jain sahib what education the students get in municipal schools? What is so great about it? You don’t know when I went there I saw teachers scolding kids, punishing them. I felt very bad for the kids. I have decided, making a declaration he said, from now onwards I’ll go and teach to them in my free hours. I want you to come along. And I have also decided to assist at least one student financially for his education.” He further said making an indication towards my father, “I’ll also ask my some friends to adopt one such student.” With this Uncle had almost finished. Now, my father’s turn; he told uncle, “That’s a very noble idea of supporting an underprivileged student. I’m already doing that for an orphan child in MP and I would further like to do that for a deserving student without coming in the view of the student or others. But, as far as coming to teach the municipal school students is concerned, I don’t think that we should take up the work of teachers in our hands. It is not our job; it is someone else's job. When you saw a teacher scolding kids, did you try to understand at the teacher’s place? How much do you think the teacher there would be getting paid? Do you know the other work of elections and census surveys are given to them? What you should also think of doing is, motivating the teachers there to teach in a better way. They can reach to larger number of students than us. Giving a small gift like a pen or a book to the teachers in these schools would be great gesture to begin with. You can then organize a training camp for teachers.”
My father told me about this whole conversation with uncle. Then I thought over again about the bug that was biting me in my mind since a long time. Sometimes, we try to become so kind that we tend to look at problems from surface and not from the deep inside. And we end up doing wrong things or things with unmeasured results. We don’t uproot the disease but try to cure the symptoms. Many of my friends are associated with apparently a noble cause where they go to teach English to school kids in municipal schools. My question to them is if they have ever analysed the need to teach the municipal school students English? Students in these schools are children of mostly labourers. By teaching English are we trying show them the dreams of becoming “doctors and engineers”? Maid who works at my place has three children, two out them dropped out of the school after 4th or 5th Standard. Third kid is very small right now. But, he also seems to have the same future. All her three children would end up becoming labourer like her. We have no right to show them a dream that will shatter just because we want to show a kind gesture towards the underprivileged people. And if at all we want to do something, we should guide them towards a right path. Government launched a Skill Development Scheme in 2008. They have more than 40 courses in vocational training. We can give an orientation to kids in municipal schools, their parents, their teachers about these courses and mind it, not in English but, in the local language. We can finance their vocational trainings also. Because, the fact is that we cannot improve the lives of this generation which studies in the municipal schools. I feel sad about their conditions, about the fact that they are not very blessed. But, we should think about a broader, long term, strategic solution. If these students get trained in the vocational courses after their elementary education, they might not get in position as god as a “Doctor and Engineer” but, certainly their next generation would be.
My aim is not to discourage good work from happening. I’m sure all the kind-hearted people would be kind enough to take my criticism positively and would come up with better thoughts.
Being kind is not enough; kindness should be for a right cause and in a right direction. All we need to be doing is ANALYSIS.
