Our efforts in 1976 to establish a literacy program had been spontaneous, an
outgrowth of our personal experience being on site in this place and became
part of our spiritual practice of seva.
Much to our dismay, when we changed our administration from Canadians to
an Indian administrator in 1989, the school deteriorated. Upon a recent visit in 2006, Shakuntala
handed me a roll of bills that remained unpaid.
The teacher, out of her meager honorarium, had bought over R800 worth of
school supplies over a period of time that our administrator had refused to
reimburse her for, claiming he had no money – while he was pocketing money from
various other activities at the ashram. He almost managed to destroy the
pioneering spirit that wanted to better life for everyone and make India a
place of which to be proud. But we will not let a good thing be destroyed.
I
went online to research illiteracy in India as I was winding up this page of my blog. It is October 2011. From Wikipedia:
“The large proportion of illiterate females is
another reason for low literacy in India. Inequality based on gender
differences resulted in female literacy rates being lower at 54.2% than that of
their male counterparts at 75.8% Due to
strong stereotyping of female and male roles, sons are thought of to be more
useful and hence are educated. Females are pulled to help out on agricultural
farms at home as they are increasingly replacing the males on such activities
which require no formal education. Fewer than 2% of girls who engaged in
agriculture work attended school.
Absolute poverty in India has also
deterred the pursuit of formal education as education is not deemed of as the
highest priority among the poor as compared to other basic necessities. The
MRP-based (mixed recall period) poverty estimates of about 22% of poverty in
2004-05 which translated to 22 out of per 100 people are not meeting their
basic needs, much less than meeting the need for education. Severe caste
disparities also exist. Discrimination of lower castes has resulted in high
dropout rates and low enrollment rates. The National Sample Survey Organization
and the National Family Health Survey collected data in India on the percentage
of children completing primary school which are reported to be only 36.8% and
37.7% respectively. On 21 February, 2005, the Prime Minister of India said that
he was pained to note that “only 47 out of 100 children enrolled in class I
reach class VIII, putting the dropout rate at 52.79 per cent.” It is estimated
that at least 35 million, and possibly as many as 60 million children aged 6–14
years are not in school.”
