कल शाम हमारे घर पर एक करीबी रिश्तेदार का आना हुआ। वह जनाब बड़े चिंतित नज़र आ रहे थे। उनकी शक्ल पर शिकन कुछ यूँ विराज़मान थी, मानो किसी फरेबी ने उनकी दोनों किडनियां ही निकाल ली हो। जिस पर गौर करते हुए मेरे पिता ने उनके परेशानी का कारण जानने की कोशिश की। तो इन महानुभाव ने बताया कि उनका लड़का तीसरी बार सी.पी.एम.टी. (कंबाइंड प्री मेडिकल टेस्ट) के परीक्षा में बैठने वाला है और उन्हें डर है कि अगर कहीं इस बार लड़के को अच्छा मेडिकल कॉलेज नहीं मिला तो मुहल्ले मे बड़ी बदनामी होगी।

उनकी इस परेशानी को गंभीरता से लेते हुए मेरे पिता ने फिर बड़ी उत्सुकता से पूछा कि, “अगर इस बार अच्छा कॉलेज नहीं मिला तो फिर बच्चे ने आगे के लिए क्या सोचा है?”, तो उन्होंने बड़े विश्वास के साथ कहा, “मिश्रा जी! सोचना क्या है? अबकी बार तो मैं अपने बेटे का एडमिशन अच्छे कॉलेज में करा ही दूंगा, चाहे चालीस-पचास लाख डोनेशन ही क्यों ना देना पड़े।” फिर अपनी मूछों को ताव देते हुए जवाब को पूरा किया, ” मैं अपने बेटे को डॉक्टर ही देखना चाहता हूँ”।

कितनी अजीब बात है ना, हमने अपने समाज में ऐसा रिवाज़ बना रखा है कि बेटा बेटी को इंजीनियर या डॉक्टर ही बनाना है। जिसके लिए हम लाखों रुपए डोनेशन देने को भी तैयार रहते हैं। पर हम कभी तसल्ली से बच्चे के बगल में बैठ कर यह जानने की कोशिश नहीं करते कि आखिर वह दिल से क्या करना चाहता है, किसमें उसकी रूचि है? नन्हे से परिंदों की उड़ान का दायरा हमने इस हद तक सीमित कर दिया है कि वो बस एक रिमोट का खिलौना बन कर रह गए हैं।

यह मामला आज इतना गंभीर हो चुका है कि बच्चे के जन्म लेते ही उसके अभिभावक यह फैसला सुना देते हैं, घर में इंजीनियर आया है या डॉक्टर आई है।

बच्चे को बचपन से ही यह घुट्टी पिलाई जाती है कि तुम्हें डॉक्टर या इंजीनियर ही बनना है। यह मेडिकल और इंजीनियरिंग का रसायन उनके दिमाग मे कुछ यूँ डाला जाता है कि उन्हें यह भी पता नहीं होता, इसके अलावा भी दुनिया में और भी बहुत कुछ करने को हैं। फिर एक दिन जब घर मे मेहमान आते हैं तो उसी 2 साल के बच्चे को बुलाकर बार-बार उससे पूछा जाता है, “बेटा तुम बड़े होकर क्या बनोगे?” और अगर बच्चे ने तुतलाते हुए कह दिया कि डॉक्टर या इंजीनियर, फिर अभिभावक को ऐसा सुख मिलता हैं मानो मेहमान के सामने भारत रत्न मिल गया हो।

और अगर कहीं वही मेहमान जाते-जाते यह कह दें कि बड़ा होनहार बच्चा है फिर तो भाई साहब, माँ बाप तब तक साँस नहीं लेंगे जब तक उसका आई.आई.टी. (इंडियन इंस्टिट्यूट ऑफ़ टेक्नोलॉजी) या सी.पी.एम.टी. (कंबाइंड प्री मेडिकल टेस्ट)) का फॉर्म ना भरा दें।
जिस बच्चे को अभी इंजीनियर डॉक्टर का मतलब भी पता नहीं, उसके मुँह में हाथ डाल कर उससे बुलवाया जाता है। फिर उस दिन से रोज उसे, उस जुर्म की सजा दी जाती है, असल में जो जुर्म उससे कराया गया था। हर बार जब उनका सामना न्यूक्लियर फिज़न , नम्बर थ्योरी, सेमिकन्डक्टर और काईनेटिक थ्योरी से होता है, तो वे यही सोचते हैं कि क्यों कह दिया था बचपन में डॉक्टर /इंजीनियर बनूंगा।

लालच दिखाकर, दबाव डालकर, आर्थिक परिस्थितियों का हवाला देकर, बचपन से ही डॉक्टर /इंजीनियर के नाम का रट्टा मरवा कर और अन्य तरीकों से उन्हें वह बनाने की कोशिश की जाती है, असल में जिसके लिए वो बने ही नहीं हैं। यह हमारी अज्ञानता है, और हम मान चुके हैं कि पैसा,विलासमय जीवन, समृद्धि और शौहरत सिर्फ़ इंजीनियर या डॉक्टर को ही मिलती हैं।

एक रोज़ मैं अपने परिवार के साथ एक शादी में गया जहाँ मेरी मुलाकात एक और विचित्र महानुभाव से हुई, इन्हे सब दूबे जी कह रहे थे। वह महाशय बड़े खुश थे, क्योंकि उनके बेटे को आई.आई.टी. में दाखिला मिल गया था। भाई साहब! वह इतने खुश थे कि शादी में आए लोगों को पकड़-पकड़ कर उन्हें अपने पुत्र की वीर गाथा सुना रहे थे। हम आपको बता दें कि ऐसे वाचाल लोग उस श्रेणी में आते हैं, जो हम जैसों को सुकून से जीने नहीं देते हैं। मतलब होता यूँ है कि ये लोग तो पहले अपने पुत्र की गाथा हमारे माँ बाप को सुनाते हैं, फिर रोज़ सुबह शाम वही गाथा हमारे माँ बाप हमे सुनाते हैं, “दूबे जी के लड़के को आई.आई.टी. मे एडमिशन मिल गया, कुछ सीखो…. तुम भी कुछ सीखो…. उसके जैसी मेहनत करो…. ताकि मैं भी गर्व से कह सकूँ कि मेरा बेटा आई.आई.टी. कर रहा।”

हे भगवान! प्लीज़ तू दो मिनट के लिए नीचे उतर आ और इन्हें बस इतनी सी बात समझा दे कि मैं मिश्रा जी का लड़का हूँ, दूबे जी के लड़के की कॉपी नहीं।

खैर मुझे गालियां पड़ ही रही थी, कि छौंक लगाने खुद दूबे जी आ गए। “अरे मिश्रा जी आपका लड़का क्या कर रहा?” मेरे पिता जी ने कहा कि “बड़ा होकर लेखक बनना चाहता है। फिजिक्स और केमिस्ट्री इसके पल्ले नहीं पड़ती थी, इसकी इच्छा थी पत्रकारिता पढ़ने की, वही पढ़ रहा है। यकीन मानिए दिल से लिखता है।” फिर दूबे जी भारत के नक्शे सा मुंह बनाते हुए कहते हैं, “वो सब तो ठीक है पर मिश्रा जी! कुछ ढंग का करा दिए होते, आखिर बच्चे के भविष्य का सवाल है।”

लो कर लो बात अब मुझे कोई ये बताए कि ये ढंग का क्या होता हैं? बड़ी शिद्दत से मेरी सार्वजनिक तौर पर बेइज्जती की ही जा रही थी, कि दूर खड़े तिवारी जी भी आनंद लेने चले आए। “अरे मिश्रा जी! मेरे बेटे का भी फिजिक्स और केमिस्ट्री मे बुरा हाल था, पर मैंने तो कुछ पैसे-वैसे देकर प्राइवेट इंजीनियरिंग कॉलेज में दाखिला करा दिया है। भाई मुझे इंजीनियरिंग के अलावा और कोई फालतू ताम-झाम समझ नहीं आता है। चार साल बाद जब नाम के आगे इंजीनियर लग जाएगा फिर तो समझो कोई ना कोई नौकरी तो पक्की ही है। पर लेखक (मोमोज सा मुँह सिकोड़ते हुए) बड़ा संघर्ष है।”

ये हम कैसे समाज का निर्माण कर रहे हैं? क्यों हर अभिभावक को अपने बच्चे में डॉक्टर या इंजीनियर ही दिखता है? आज अगर 100 में से करीब 40 बच्चे इंजीनियरिंग या मेडिकल की पढ़ाई करने के बजाय कुछ और पढ़ने की सोचते भी हैं, तो सिर्फ इसलिए क्योंकि उन्हें या तो अच्छा कॉलेज नहीं मिलता है या फिर उनके परिवार की आर्थिक स्थिति इतनी अच्छी नहीं होती हैं कि वो लाखों रूपए का डोनेशन दे सकें।

मेरा ऐसा मानना है, कि अधिकांश अभिभावकों की रूचि को देखते हुए हमारे मानव संसाधन विकास मंत्रालय को बारहवीं कक्षा के पंजीकरण के साथ-साथ आई.आई.टी./सी.पी.एम.टी. का पंजीकरण भी अनिवार्य कर देना चाहिए। ज़ाहिर है कि बारहवीं मे हर साइंस साइड स्टूडेंट के अभिभावक यह फॉर्म तो ज़रूर भरवाते ही हैं, ऐसे में उन्हे आसानी हो जाएगी। सुनने में आपको यह बात थोड़ी अजीब लग सकती है, मगर हकीकत यही कहती है कि अभिभावक अंजाने में ही सही पर अपने बच्चों के भविष्य से खिलवाड़ करते आ रहे हैं।

बात शुरू यहाँ से होती है, जब अभिभावक अपनी झूठी शान और बचकानी मानसिकता के चलते अपने बच्चों को ज़बर्दस्ती ग्यारहवीं मे साइंस दिलाते हैं।

फिर बारहवीं का परिणाम आने से पहले आई.आई.टी./सीपीएमटी का फार्म भरा देते हैं। कॉलेज मिला तो मिला, नहीं तो दूबे जी के लड़के को देखकर कोटा भेज देते हैं तैयारी करने। भाई साहब! जिस बच्चे को साइन थीटा, कॉस थीटा ,बेंजीन, फिनोल और किर्चौफ्स लॅा का नाम सुनने से ही बुखार आता था, उसे तीन साल कोटा मे फिज़िक्स, केमिस्ट्री और मैथ पढ़ाते हैं। शायद यह सोचकर कि एक दिन कोई अजूबा होगा और मेरा बच्चा आइंस्टीन बन जाएगा। फिर तीन साल बाद गालियों के साथ उसे घर ले आते हैं, और या तो किसी प्राइवेट कॉलेज में लाखों रूपए देकर दाखिला करा देते हैं, या फिर घर बैठा कर बैंक की तैयारी कराते हैं।

पर बच्चे की ये मुश्किलें दाखिले के बाद भी कम नहीं होती, वहाँ जाकर भी उसे वही फिज़िक्स, केमिस्ट्री और मैथ का ही सामना करना पड़ता है। परिणामस्वरूप 4 साल की डिग्री मे 8 बैक लग जाती हैं या तो बच्चा दो साल में ही कॉलेज छोड़ कर भाग जाता है। अंत मे फिर उसे हासिल गालियाँ ही होती हैं, मगर इस बार देने वालों की संख्या ज्यादा होती है। मामला अब यह होता है कि नाम के आगे इंजीनियर तो लग गया पर वेतन चपरासी से भी कम मिलती है।

पता है क्यों? क्योंकि वह जिस दौड़ में वर्षों से दौड़ रहा था, असल में तो वह दौड़ उसके मकसद की थी ही नहीं। वह कैसे एक अच्छा इंजीनियर बन जाता जब उसे मजा तो फोटोग्राफी / स्केच / डिज़ाइनिंग गेम्स/ पॉलिटिक्स आदि मे आता था। ये सब कुछ बिल्कुल वैसा ही था मानो वह मरीज ईश्क का था और उसे दवाइयाँ कैंसर की खिलाई जा रही थी।

एस्पाईरिंग माइंड नेशनल एम्प्लॉयबिलिटी की एक रिपोर्ट के मुताबिक, भारत के लगभग 650 कॉलेज के तकरीबन 1,50000 इंजीनियरिंग स्टूडेंस जो कि 2015 मे ग्रैजुएट हुए हैं, उनमें से 80% बेरोज़गार हैं। और इंजीनियरों के इस बिगड़े हुए हालात का सच यही है कि हर अभिभावक को अपने बच्चों में सिर्फ इंजीनियर या डॉक्टर ही दिखता है।

आज हमारे समाज का आलम यह है कि हर अभिभावक को अपने बेटी का हमराही भी इंजीनियर/डॉक्टर ही चाहिए। मेरे पड़ोस के सिंह साहब अपनी बेटी की शादी के लिए 30 लाख दहेज दे रहे हैं। जब मैंने उनसे इतनी बड़ी रकम दहेज में देने की वजह जानने की कोशिश की तो उन्होंने कहा कि “लड़का डॉक्टर है मेरी बेटी खुश रहेगी”। अब या तो मुझे कोई ये बताए कि किस किताब में लिखा है कि बेटी का विवाह इंजीनियर, डॉक्टर के साथ कराने पर वह 100% गारंटी के साथ खुश रहेगी, या कोई सिंह साहब को यह समझाए कि डॉक्टर/इंजीनियर होने से पहले ज़रूरी है कि वह एक अच्छा इंसान हो। जिसे बेटियों का सम्मान करना आता हो। आज हमारा समाज इतना विकसित हो चुका है कि हमने दूल्हों का भी रेट लिस्ट निर्धारित कर डाला है।

पहले तो हम रेट के अनुसार दूल्हा खरीदते हैं, फिर हम उस खरीदी हुई चीज़ से यह उम्मीद करते हैं कि वह मेरी बेटी को खुश रखेगा।
जिस तरह एक हाथ की पाँचों उंगलियाँ समान नहीं होती हैं, ठीक उसी तरह हमारे समाज का हर बच्चा, समान बौद्धिक शक्ति का नही होता है। हर बच्चे में अलग हुनर होता है जो कि उसे एक नई पहचान प्रदान करता है। बचपन में बच्चों में इतनी समझ नहीं होती है कि वो अपने लिए सही राह का चुनाव कर सकें, ऐसे में अभिभावकों का ही दायित्व होता है कि वो जानने की कोशिश करें कि उनके बच्चे की कुशलता किस क्षेत्र में है।

उसकी काबिलियत को समझने की कोशिश करें और उसे उसकी मंजिल की तरफ कदम बढ़ाने के लिए प्रोत्साहित करें। याद रखिए पैसे से या दबाव डालकर आप अपने बच्चे के नाम के आगे डॉक्टर /इंजीनियर तो लगवा सकते हैं, पर आप कभी उसे कुशल डॉक्टर /इंजीनियर नहीं बना सकते हैं। इसमें कोई शक नही है कि आपका बच्चा आपकी खुशी की खातिर इस दौड़ मे दौड़ेगा तो जरूर पर सच यही है कि उसकी यह दौड़ कभी मुकम्मल नही होगी। सारी उम्र वह सिर्फ दौड़ता ही रहेगा।

मुझे नहीं लगता कि आपको कोई खास असहजता होनी चाहिए यह बात मानने में कि “हर बच्चा बिल्कुल हीरे जैसा होता है, बेशकीमती!”, उन सब की अपनी चमक, अपनी अलग पहचान होती है। ऐसे में मुझे समझ नहीं आता है कि उनके हुनर की चमक को तराशने के बजाए, हम उस पर कालिख की लेप चढ़ाने मे क्यों व्यस्त हैं?

क्यों करते हैं आप अपने बच्चों की तुलना किसी और के बच्चों से? कभी ज़रा गौर करके देखिएगा तो आपको यह बात जरूर नजर आएगी कि जो सिंह साहब, दूबे जी, तिवारी जी, चौधरी जी, मिश्रा जी, किसी का भी बच्चा नहीं कर सकता है वो आप का बच्चा कर सकता है। बस आपको अपने नौनिहाल के उस काबिलियत को तलाशने और तराशने की ज़रूरत है।

कितनी अजीब बात है ना कि जिंदगी तो सब जीते हैं, कुछ शेर की तरह दहाड़ के जीते हैं तो कुछ गीदड़ की तरह दुबक कर जीते हैं। कुछ घुट-घुट कर जीते हैं तो कुछ मज़े में जीते हैं। कुछ अपना काम इसलिए करते है क्योंकि उन्हें मजा आता है, तो कुछ इसलिए करते हैं क्योंकि उन्हें करना ही है। जनाब आपका बच्चा भी एक दिन बुलंदियों पर होगा, बस एक बार उसे वह करने दीजिये जिसके लिए उसका जुनून है। देखिए तो कितना बड़ा है यह नीला आसमां, बस एक बार तो उसे पंख फैलाकर उड़ने दीजिये। उसे किसी सांचे मे ढालने से पहले ज़रा कल-कल कर के बह तो लेने दीजिये। उसे इंजीनियर या डॉक्टर बनाने के पहले उसे एक अच्छा इंसान बनाने की कोशिश तो कीजिये।

The post दूबे अंकल का बस चले तो पेट से ही आला और मशीन लेकर पैदा हो बच्चा appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz, an award-winning online platform that serves as the hub of thoughtful opinions and reportage on the world's most pressing issues, as witnessed by the current generation. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to find out more.

For Rajeev, it was just a normal day as he rode his cycle-rickshaw with a person called Kaine. It was a 4-hour return trip – and Rajeev would earn a mere $5 and a tip for all his troubles.

However, for Kaine Johnson, who is a community organiser at The Wilderness Society in Australia, Rajeev was a new face in India whom he had discovered while visiting one of its oldest cities, Varanasi.

While Rajeev paddled for four hours and Kaine looked around the city, a very unlikely conversation took place between them. Unlike the generalised conversation you would expect between a rickshaw puller and the customer – in this conversation, Rajeev opined on matters of philosophy, technology and international politics. He even expressed his thoughts on literature.

Eventually, the conversation veered towards Rajeev’s favourite topic. Here, he spoke a lot about climate change and said that his dream was to become an electrical engineer, and to contribute in the implementation of climate change solutions in India.

The ambitious and determined Rajeev had a clear dream to make the world a better place. But, his dream had stagnated due to his chaotic life and the harshness of its circumstances. After all, he had to choose rickshaw-pulling to make ends meet. This, despite the fact that he’s fluent in English and has a basic education. By bowing down to his life’s fortunes, he had made his dream of being an engineer an unattainable one.

On hearing Rajeev’s story, Kaine was motivated enough to try and fulfil Rajeev’s dream. Now, Kaine has launched an initiative to raise funds for Rajeev’s education, with the help of Ketto, one of Asia’s most visited crowdfunding platforms.

Rajeev can now complete his studies at the Shri Krishna College of Technology and become an electrical engineer. The cost of this is a little over $6500. In this way, Rajeev can help in the country’s progress, while also inspiring many others like him.

There are many ‘Rajeevs’ out there, who are carrying their secret bags, full of ambitions and dreams. But, every time they carry that bag, the scarcity in their lives compels them to forget these dreams. Not surprisingly, they only work towards earning a basic livelihood.

Due to the lack of opportunities, we are also losing ambitious, determined people, who are necessary for India’s progress. So, Kaine’s initiative to provide an opportunity and hope should be appreciated.

Even though the revolution to provide opportunities for all won’t come in a fortnight, any step to creating such a revolution will always lead to the nation’s progress!

 You can contribute to Rajeev’s education here.

The post How A Rickshaw Puller Is Fulfilling His Dream To Be An Engineer Through Crowd Funding appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz, an award-winning online platform that serves as the hub of thoughtful opinions and reportage on the world's most pressing issues, as witnessed by the current generation. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to find out more.

Udaipur is a district in Rajasthan that has been further divided into 17 blocks. Most of the population of these blocks are tribals, living in rural set-ups. Education is the most pressing need of the hour; it acts as a ray of hope for these underprivileged people living in conditions where three meals a day are difficult to manage.

Sarada block of Udaipur consists of 219 villages, but only 170 schools, out of which just 20 are secondary schools, 40 upper primary, and the rest provide education till class 5.

The Government is trying to bridge the gap by developing plans and schemes which only become poisonous in the long run. One such scheme is the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan. Many out of these 170 schools were built under this scheme. What, then, is wrong? Isn’t it great to have these many schools? Sadly, the correct response is ‘no’.

The word school derives from the Greek word ‘skholē’ originally meaning “leisure”. A school is thus a place where you have the leisure to pursue anything. When we think of a school, we have an image of classrooms with benches, blackboards, proper management of students, painted walls, and all kinds of things which help in creating a healthy environment or space for kids that is conducive to learning.

But, most of the kids in Sarada block are forced to study under ceilings leaking rainwater. The school walls cannot even hold chart papers because of the excess moisture in them. The plaster on the walls has started peeling on its own. The corridors are also in similar conditions.

“The attendance of students drops by 40-50% during the rainy season, because the water is all over the classrooms through the ceilings. We even have to club different classes in one classroom to let the school function on many days, which definitely hampers class-wise learning,” said Kailashchand Ameta, who serves as a teacher in Government Upper Primary School, Bootvas, Sarada.

The schools are made of the same material as most houses in the area, but only very rarely will you see a house’s ceiling leaking. The labourers are also local, and involved in the construction of houses and other buildings alongside the schoolhouse.  The buildings for Panchayat Samitis, Atal Seva Kendras, SDM offices etc are unaffected during rains in this area. Seeing only school buildings be affected by the rainwater is troubling. It hints towards the possibility of large scale corruption happening at the implementation levels of these government schemes. Similarly, when it comes to implementation, the scheme of providing seasonal fruits once in a week to the students in the government schools of Rajasthan is also failing miserably in deprived areas like these.

Kali Meena, a resident of Ambala Village of Sarada who also happens to be a mid-day meal worker, says,“These governments come and go, they keep changing policies, but nobody knows what actually happens with poor people like us. Sometimes, we don’t even have a space to make food for the kids because here we only use firewood and we cannot light the fire because of the raindrops dripping off the ceilings. We still manage. Only we know how.”

The villagers are compelled to either keep their kids at home or send them to these schools where they have to form elaborate strategies in order to find a dry place to sit. The communities are not economically well-off enough to send their kids to the fully equipped private schools functioning in the area. “Bachcho ko padhaana to hai hi, ab school nahi bhejein to kya kare? Teacher jaise taise to baitha hi dete hain bachchon ko school mein (We have to educate our kids. Now, what should we do if we can’t send them to school? The teacher makes them sit haphazardly, wherever possible),” said  Keshav Meena from Udpuriya Village. His daughter, Pramila, has just passed class 5. She wants to pursue teaching as a profession in her future.

Consider a student being irregular in the initial three months of an academic year, during the rainy season. How will that kid ever catch up with the pace of studies? No matter how sharp or brilliant, it will be difficult for them to understand the theoretical concepts and lessons due to a lack of continuity.

It is crucial to get down on the field to improve the state of affairs; the bottoms-up approach is exactly what India as a nation needs for development in such realistic scenarios.

The post The Terrible State Of Schools In Udaipur That’s Forcing Students To Miss Classes appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz, an award-winning online platform that serves as the hub of thoughtful opinions and reportage on the world's most pressing issues, as witnessed by the current generation. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to find out more.

In 2014, a classroom in Vidyaniketan School Chennai, transformed into a fashion show. Nathaniel Seelan divided his students into groups of choreographers, models and designers, and took them through the entire procedure of organizing a show. But why bring fashion into the classroom?

After graduating from the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Nathaniel spent three years in the fashion industry. As he went from designing clothes to providing brands with creative direction and fashion forecasting, his interest gradually shifted to process design. Mulling over pursuing his Masters, Nathaniel decided to try his hand at teaching. “I was taking a break, so I applied for the Fellowship. Because the way I looked at it, teaching was a process also. The plan was to get back to my Masters and design if I didn’t like teaching. But I fell in love with the work that happens here and the creativity and design that takes place at Teach For India,” he says.“Design has got a lot to do with problem-solving.We are taught to arrive at the best solution given the constraints. At Teach For India, I had a bunch of kids, we had a bunch of problems to solve, and it was all about thinking critically and being creative,” he states further.

During the summer break between the two years of his Fellowship, Nathaniel was a resident volunteer at the sadhana forest in Auroville. Apart from taking up environmental protection activities at the reserve, the volunteers spent four hours on weekends with children from the local community, practising a method known as ‘unschooling’.“The children were given practical, hands-on experience with the environment. Some days they were taught how to grow pineapples or take care of baby rats! We also had sessions to discuss topics like politics, to encourage an exchange of ideas,” explains Nathaniel.

His experiences at Sadhana and in the mainstream education system shaped his current vision of creating a legitimate middle-ground by taking the quality of alternative education to the scale at which mainstream education is functioning now. After his Fellowship ended in 2015, Nathaniel spent six months as the Chennai City Coordinator at Youth For Seva, an organisation that mobilizes volunteers in health, sanitation, education, environmental protection and women’s rights. “I realized that each sector is massive and has multiple battles to fight. So I decided, after dabbling in all of them, to focus on education. I felt like we could impact all these other sectors via education,” he says.

In January 2016, he went back to work with Vidyaniketan as an assistant school leader and has been there for the past year and a half. Quite early on in his Fellowship, Nathaniel had begun to see that the education system was not as much broken as it was lopsided. “There were kids in my class who were academically inclined – ones who were good with numbers, or languages, or at memorising stuff; and the system catered to them fairly well. But I felt like there were these other kids, with different skill sets, that the system just refused to see,” he explains.

It was this imbalance that he went back to try and correct. After conducting research, he discovered that talent exists mainly in three pools – academic, artistic and athletic. “The reason academics is taken so seriously is because it is assessed,” he says. His goal is to move towards a fairer system – one where all three pools could be at par, be assessed and help spot potential.

This is, of course, a complex task. It was at this time that Nathaniel came across RASA: an organisation in Chennai that works with special-needs individuals through theatre. He collaborated with RASA to devise an assessment rubric, dividing each pool into further sub-pools. The arts were categorised into music, visual arts, drama, and movement. “With music, for example, we broke it down into rhythm, tempo, form, and other elements. We assessed each aspect to determine the student’s aptitude.” The school ran this pilot program for the fourth and fifth grades, and explained to the parents that their children would be receiving three report cards that year – one each for academics, athletics, and the arts.“We wanted the parents to understand that their child shouldn’t end up becoming a mediocre engineer when he/she could’ve become an excellent something-else!” says Nathaniel.

He managed to reschedule the students’ timetables in order to devote more time to arts and athletics. He believes that “for the system to be truly fair, we have to work towards exposing kids the same or similar amount to arts and athletics as they have been to academics.”

This year the goal of his project, ImpART, is to develop intricate rubrics for each aspect that they focus on, create more transparent assessment procedures, and design a solid arts curriculum in consultation with professionals. Through this initiative, they also aim at providing support to artists who want to teach. Orchestrating such change was not an easy task. “My biggest strength is ideation and planning, and I feel like the Fellowship contributed a lot to it,” says Nathaniel. “My execution was relatively pathetic. I have now come to appreciate the people around me; I realized that I could not do all of this alone.”

This spirit of collective action is what’s helping Nathaniel and others like him work to give every child an opportunity to shine!

Written by Ananya Damodaran – Communications at Teach For India.

Applications for the 2018-2020 Teach For India Fellowship program are now open. Please visit apply.teachforindia.org to submit your application by September 3rd, 2017.

To learn more about Teach For India, visit www.teachforindia.org.

The post This Fashion Designer Turned School Teacher Has Created A Unique Time Table For Students appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz, an award-winning online platform that serves as the hub of thoughtful opinions and reportage on the world's most pressing issues, as witnessed by the current generation. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to find out more.

Learning a brand new language can be a key to finding success in your career.

It can help you stand out from the crowd. It can also help open up amazing job opportunities, including those unorthodox ones where it is mandatory for the candidates to know a different language just for the sake of the post itself.

Yes, learning a new language is never easy. Time constraints become a factor, especially when you start on this journey in high school or college. However, there are a few tried and tested tips and tricks that can come in handy for this. Let’s take a quick glimpse at them without further ado.

1. Commit To It

You are on a mission or at least make it look like it.

You cannot succeed unless you commit fully to it. Believe that you will cross all the hurdles that will be thrown at you during your journey down this road of yours. Prepare accordingly and take the challenge head-on, and you’ll see that you have learned the language in no time.

2. Learn To Accept Mistakes

You need to go back to the way you used to study in your childhood. That’s because learning a new language involves a whole lot of fundamental learning, consisting of things like learning the alphabets, the vowels, the consonants, words, sentence constructions, etc.

You are basically starting everything from scratch, just like the way you learned English when you were a child. So mistakes are bound to happen and this might frustrate you.

Learn to accept mistakes. Remember, they are an integral part of education. There’s a saying that if you don’t fail, you don’t learn. Learning from mistakes is something that counts the most.

3. Practice And More Practice

The more you practice, the more efficiency you gain.

It won’t be effective if you attend your language class every week and then, don’t practice anything on your own. If you go down that road, everything will just go downhill for you.

So find out a little bit of free time from your busy schedule and reserve the same for your practice, no matter what the circumstances. Practice religiously every week, and you’ll start getting results before you even realise it.

4. Take The Aid Of Technology

You are not in the stone age anymore. You are in the 21st century. Advanced mobile technology has actually become a part of our daily life. Why don’t you use that to great effects for this purpose? They are competent enough.

You will find many apps such as:

• FluentU – for learning French, Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish, Chinese, etc.; available on the iTunes for iOS devices.
• Rosetta Stone – for learning Spanish, Italian, German, Dutch, Filipino, Arabic, Chinese, etc.; available on iTunes for iOS devices and Google Play for Android devices.

You can also find many others on the apps stores that can aid you a lot in learning a new language from the very comfort of your drawing room.

So don’t ever hesitate to use these apps. They can definitely come in handy for this.

5. Use A Dictionary

While learning a new language, you would definitely come across words or phrases that you would not recognise at first glance. As a result, you might feel a little lost because you are not understanding anything.

A dictionary can aid you a lot in such circumstances. So try to carry a pocket dictionary on your phone – one that’s capable of bringing out the meaning of those unknown words and phrases in the language that you know the best, such as English – so that you can refer to it whenever you want to.

Who knows? You might actually learn something new every day.

Last but not the least, do remember that learning a new language is all about enjoying and having fun during your lessons. If you are not enjoying your language classes, you will get bored quickly and may just quit after a period.

So enjoy what you are doing, and you will see that you have picked up the new language before you even realise it. We wish you the best in this endeavour of yours.

The post 5 Simple Tricks That Can Help You Learn A New Language With Ease appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

In India, engineering as a career has attracted a lot of students in a big way and a large number of aspirants taking engineering exams are a testimony to this fact. The youth in India dream of themselves as engineers earning a decent package.

Every year, lakhs of students appear in the entrance examination for institutions like the IIT but only a few of them manage to clear the exam. Those students who are unable to fulfil their dream of becoming an IITian – either they start preparing for the second time or they knock on the doors of the private colleges. But after dedicating crucial time from their lives, do they really become skilled engineers or are their engineering skills limited to their certificates?

These questions arise today because of the shocking results of the survey carried out by Aspiring Minds which revealed that only 7% engineering graduates in India are employed. What’s wrong with India’s engineers? According to this same report, only 3% of engineers in India have the suitable skills required to get a job in core sectors of engineering. Around 1.5 million engineers in India are released every year from various colleges but most of them simply do not have the skills required to be employed.

But what can be the relevant reasons behind this? No doubt the report clearly indicates the lack of required skills which the market expects from these graduates. The tier -3 colleges are making the scenario worse. Let us understand the basis for categorising the colleges.

• Tier 1: It includes the top central colleges like the IITs and NITs.
• Tier 2: It includes the top ranked private institutions and all other state sponsored government colleges, such as BITS, SRM, etc.
• Tier 3: It includes all those remaining colleges which are private institutions but are not categorised specifically.

Here, it is significantly important to focus this analysis on tier-2 and tier-3 colleges because their presence across the country is in large numbers as compared to Tier 1 colleges. India gets most engineering graduates from these colleges.

The equation of less demand and more supply can be one of the reasons behind poor employability but more than this, the actual reason is demand versus quality. Yes, in the past few years, the number of engineering colleges have sprung up like never before. This has resulted in more supply but despite this, the quality of education remains poor making it difficult for graduates to grab a suitable job.

In India, a student is often considered to make three mistakes in their life. First, they are very good at studies. Second, they are good in mathematics. Third, after making the first two mistakes, they choose engineering as the only option.

There are certain students who are really interested in engineering but there are others too who unwillingly make it their passion. This results in a lack of interest in learning new skills in this field. Some even choose this career to make them a credible player in the ‘shaadi market; of India, so that they can get a hefty amount of dowry during their weddings. Although we must not see all through the same lens because, in India, people are good at turning their profession into their passion.

But blaming only the students who don’t possess the required skills will not be fair because responsibility always works with accountability and along with responsibility, accountability also needs to be fixed. By this, I mean the accountability of colleges and the education system in India. If the market demands practical skills from a graduate, then why are engineering colleges still focusing more on theory rather than practicality?

The field of engineering is considered as job-oriented, meaning anyone who studies in this field is directly placed in various companies after course completion. But today, if somehow a graduate is placed in a company, the company needs to teach them skills in their training period because they did not acquire the necessary skills during college.

The current education is accountable for this outcome because of their flaw in designing the curriculum for this course. Today, students in engineering are compelled to study subjects which are of no use in the industry. There is a lack of an option for open electives which would allow students to pursue subjects that interest them.

Earlier, the quality of engineering students was good because there were only a few colleges offering this course and that too only if you were eligible. But with time, the number of engineering colleges increased rapidly, introducing the concept of tier 2 and tier 3 colleges. It also became a platform to earn money by assuring aspirants better jobs for them but slowly, such assurances stopped paying off. The graph below shows how the number engineering colleges have increased.

Perhaps the expansion of engineering college would not have been a problem in India if they were consistent in quality. But the main problem lies in the fact that they are becoming the hub of unqualified engineers.

The AICTE gave approval to these private colleges once and after they forget to monitor the standards of these institutes, these institutes become commercialised. In most of the engineering colleges (excluding IIT and NIT), one can easily observe more focus on securing marks and simply to pass semester exams rather than innovation. The current structure measures quality only on the basis of securing good marks and how much a person is able to memorise things very well. If memorisation is a talent, then a parrot is also having a sharp mind.

Courses should be designed in such a way that there is more focus on practicals and less on theory. Giving away rewards on the basis of memorising things should not be encouraged. Instead, marks should be awarded for having better concepts. With every single passing day, technology is changing but the syllabus still deals with old technology which nowadays is of no use, so a major reform is needed in the current educational curriculum.

The current state of the education system in engineering is about selling certificates, not quality. That is the reason most engineers cannot even find a proper job for themselves and some are even bound to switch to other sectors. Some become Uber and Ola drivers in big cities like Bangalore and Delhi.

You cannot run a vehicle without fuel and the same applies for engineering. Only certification is not enough. Along with certification, qualifications are also required. The private institutions also need to appoint quality teachers who do not simply narrate from textbooks and urge students to write the same.

The criteria of 75% attendance, prevalent in some colleges, needs to be scrapped. Because forcing someone to watch a movie without knowing the language of the movie seems boring. Instead, students should be allowed to innovate new ideas in their own time.

It is very unfortunate that the USA imports most of the engineers from India when our own country is facing the crisis of quality and skills. Today, the market is looking for qualification along with certification. So, it becomes important for engineering institutions (especially private institutions) to create quality engineers instead of just giving away certificates.

The post India Produces 1.5 Million Engineers A Year. Why Are Most Of Them Unemployed? appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

शिक्षकों के सम्मान में पढ़े जाने वाले कसीदे, शिक्षकों का अभिनंदन और ‘गुरूर बह्मा-गुरूर विष्णु’ कहने की रस्म अदायगी, शिक्षक दिवस का पर्याय बन चुकी है। ऐसे समय में जब सशक्त भारत के लिए राज्य (state) अपनी जिम्मेदारियों को निगरानी और नियंत्रण के तरीकों के साथ निभाना चाहता है, शिक्षकों की पेशेवर स्थिति के सामाजिक-राजनीतिक मूल्यांकन की ज़रूरत है।

आधुनिक संदर्भ में औपनिवेशिक शिक्षा की शुरुआत एक ऐसी प्रक्रिया है, जिसने शिक्षकों की स्वतंत्र स्थिति के बदले उन्हें राज्य के अधीन एक सरकारी कर्मचारी की हैसियत प्रदान की। इसकी वजह से शिक्षक बनने के मूल में शिक्षण और सीखने-सिखाने की जिजीविषा के बदले सरकारी नौकर बनने की इच्छा को स्थान मिला। इस भूमिका में उन्हें अंग्रेज़ों द्वारा परिभाषित वैध ज्ञान और उसे प्रदान करने के तरीकों को अपनाना पड़ा।

चूंकि यह ज्ञान और तरीके उनके अपने परिवेश से जुड़े नहीं थे, इसलिए एक ऐसा ढांचा विकसित हुआ जिसमें शिक्षकों को बकायदा प्रशिक्षित किया जाने लगा। इस प्रशिक्षण के प्रभाव को दीर्घकाल में जांचने के लिए ‘इंस्पेक्टर राज’ का आगमन हुआ। उस दौर की कहानियों और उपन्यासों में ऐसे इंस्पेक्टरों का उल्लेख मिलता है, जो शिक्षक के शिक्षण कर्म का आंकलन करने के लिए नियुक्त थे। इस व्यवस्था में शिक्षक की सामाजिक और व्यवसायिक स्थिति लगातार कमज़ोर होती चली गई।

ज्ञान की राजनीति ने, शिक्षण के मूल सवालों जैसे कि क्या पढ़ाना है? कैसे पढ़ाना है? के निर्णय को शिक्षकों के अधिकार क्षेत्र से बाहर कर दिया। ‘क्या उसने सही तरीके से पढ़ाया है?’ जैसे सवालों ने ‘नौकरी’ के बहाने उसकी सामाजिक-आर्थिक सुरक्षा को घेर लिया और उसकी वैयक्तिक अस्मिता में जानने और सिखाने वाले के बदले राज्य पर निर्भर एक कर्मचारी होने के ठप्पे को मढ़ दिया। इस तरह से विकसित शिक्षण व्यवसाय में साल की शुरुआत के साथ कक्षा में पढ़ाना, परीक्षा लेना, परिणाम घोषित करना और फिर से नए साल की प्रवेश प्रक्रिया प्रारंभ करने का चक्र ही शिक्षक का दायित्व बन गया।

वर्तमान में भी उसकी स्वतंत्र भूमिका की इबारतें केवल नीतियों की आदर्श परिकल्पना मात्र है। विडंबना देखिए कि एक ओर उसे आप केवल पाठ को पढ़ाने वाले का अधिकार देते हैं और दूसरी ओर यदि शिक्षा अपने लक्ष्यों को पाने में असफल होती है तो इसका ज़िम्मेदार भी आप शिक्षक को ही सिद्ध करते हैं। इस विरोधाभासी स्थिति में शिक्षक ‘कारीगर’ (क्राफ्टमैन) ना होकर ‘कामगार’ बनकर रह गए हैं। इस तर्क के पक्ष में एक सरकारी विद्यालय के अध्यापक के विचार का उल्लेख करना चाहता हूं, जिसके अनुसार वह ‘ऊपर’ से आए सर्कुलर के अनुसार हर गतिविधि का आयोजन करते हैं।

सर्कुलर, ऑफिस ऑर्डर और मेमो में उलझकर कार्यालयी दक्षता निश्चित रूप से आती है, लेकिन यह भी समझने की ज़रूरत है कि सीखने-सिखाने के लिए सीखने की इच्छा और जिज्ञासा से इसका कोई लेना-देना नहीं है। इसी तरह निजी विद्यालयों में शिक्षकों की स्थिति डेलीवेज वर्कर जैसी है। उन्हें श्रम के निर्धारित मूल्य से कम मूल्य पर कार्य करना पड़ता है। विडंबना यह है कि शोषण की स्थिति में काम कर रहे इन कामगारों को हमारी ‘सिविल सोसाइटी’ अधिक प्रभावी मानती है। इसी तर्क के आधार पर हममें से ज़्यादातर अपने बच्चों का प्रवेश निजी संस्थानों में करवाना चाहते हैं।

स्थिति तो यहां तक पहुंच चुकी है कि नीति आयोग भी सिफारिश कर रहा है कि ‘असफल हो रहे’ सरकारी विद्यालयों की गुणवत्ता बनाए रखने के लिए इन्हें निजी हाथों में सौंप दिया जाए। ज़ाहिर है कि यह कदम, शिक्षक की स्थिति को कमज़ोर करने का एक हथियार बनेगा। साथ ही इससे यह भी स्थापित होगा कि शिक्षा की गुणवत्ता के लिए शिक्षकों की आज़ादी के बदले उन पर दबाव और निगरानी ज़रूरी है। यह व्यवस्था एक बार फिर से इंस्पेक्टर राज की ओर बढ़ने का पहला कदम होगी।

निगरानी और नियंत्रण की जाल में फंसे अध्यापक के लिए उसकी ज़िम्मेदारी की चेकलिस्ट को पूरा करना महत्वपूर्ण हो जाता है। इस कार्यदबाव और ‘कारण बताओ’ जैसे नकारात्मक तरीकों से बचने में तत्पर व्यक्ति से यह पूछना कि उसने पाठ्यक्रम की नीरसता को कैसे तोड़ा? उसने विद्यार्थियों की सृजनशीलता के लिए क्या किया? बेईमानी है। हां यह ज़रूर है कि हर साल वह पाठ्यक्रम पूरा कर रहा है।

विश्वविद्यालयों के शिक्षकों की स्थिति भी ज़्यादा बेहतर नहीं है। ‘कैरियर एडवांसमेंट स्कीम’ को रोकने की धमकी, सीनियर-जूनियर की परंपरा का कट्टरता से पालन, यहां भी चुप्पी की संस्कृति को पैदा कर रहा है। विश्वविद्यालय परिसरों में यह चलन आम होता जा रहा है कि वे शिक्षक जिन्हें प्रशासनिक पद मिला हुआ है, वह अपने सिवाय अन्य अध्यापकों के वृत्तिक विकास के अवसरों को रोकने के लिए तत्पर रहते हैं। कई घटनाएं तो ऐसी भी आई, जहां कि वरिष्ठ होने के डर दिखाकर किसी दूसरे के काम को अपना काम बताकर प्रकाशित और प्रस्तुत किया गया।

कुल मिलाकर लालफीताशाही (अफसरशाही) के प्रभाव में प्राइमरी से लेकर विश्वविद्यालय तक व्यवस्था के मठाधीश, अपने मातहत अध्यापकों के अधिकारों के हनन और उत्पीड़न के सुख का आनंद ले रहे हैं। दुःखद तो यह है कि जिन शिक्षकों को बौद्धिक जागरण का दूत माना जाता है, वे भी चुप्पी की संस्कृति को ओढ़े हुए हैं। ‘चुप्पी की संस्कृति’ का प्रसार शिक्षकों की भूमिका के साथ उनकी सामाजिक और वैयक्तिक पहचान को लगातार कमज़ोर कर रहा है। इसका एक उदाहरण ‘सरकारी’ शिक्षकों पर अक्सर लगाया जाने वाला आरोप है कि वे विद्यालय और महाविद्यालय में अक्सर अनुपस्थित रहते हैं। जबकि हाल में ही अजीम प्रेमजी फाउण्डेशन द्वारा किया गया एक सर्वे सरकारी विद्यालयों में अध्यापकों की अनुपस्थिति के तर्क को खारिज करता है।

शिक्षकों के दायित्व को आदर्शवादी नजरिए से देखना और उनकी भूमिका पर सवाल खड़ा करना एक आम चलन है। इस परिपाटी में मान लेते हैं कि विद्यालय की बौद्धिक गतिविधियों का उद्देश्य केवल विद्यार्थियों के विकास के लिए है। शिक्षकों का बौद्धिक विकास का प्रश्न नहीं पूछा जाता है, उनके पेशेवर विकास की बात की जाती है और इसे पढ़ाने की नयी विधियों के ज्ञान द्वारा पूर्ण मान लिया जाता है। जबकि शिक्षक की सृजनात्मकता का संवर्धन, उसके विषय ज्ञान का अध्ययन करने की सुविधाएं जैसे- कितनी पत्र-पत्रिकाओं की उपलब्धता, स्वतंत्र अध्ययन के अवसर आदि पर व्यवस्था मौन है।

शिक्षा में सुधार के लिए सरकारी निवेश बढ़ा है, लेकिन आंकड़ें यह भी बताते है कि शिक्षकों के संदर्भ में विगत वर्षों से नियमित शिक्षकों की तुलना में अस्थायी शिक्षकों की भागीदारी बढ़ती जा रही है। बिहार और उत्तर प्रदेश में निश्चित मानदेय पर बड़े पैमाने पर शिक्षकों की नियुक्ति इसका उदाहरण मात्र है। इसी तरह दिल्ली में भी हर वर्ष ‘कॉन्ट्रैक्ट’ पर विद्यालयी शिक्षकों की नियुक्ति होती है। विश्वविद्यालयों में एक लंबे समय तक ‘एड-हॉक’ और ‘गेस्ट लेक्चरर’ के तौर पर काम करना एक मानक (मजबूरी) बन गया है। ये प्रवृत्तियां इस अर्थ में प्रासंगिक ठहरती हैं कि शिक्षकों की सरकारी कर्मचारी की हैसियत भी बैसाखी के सहारे खड़ी है। शिक्षा व्यवस्था का सर्वाधिक महत्वपूर्ण कर्ता इन उपेक्षाओं और अस्थिरताओं के बाव़जूद अपनी ज़िम्मेदारी को निभा रहा है। जान पड़ता है शिक्षक होने की सामाजिक स्वीकृति उसकी इस ऊर्जा का मूल होगी।

फोटो प्रतीकात्मक है।
फोटो आभार: getty images

The post जो शिक्षक कभी आदर्श थे आज महज़ सरकारी नौकर बनकर क्यूं रह गए हैं appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

In our endeavour to create a nation of 10 million readers by 2022, Stones2Milestones has been wholly relying on the teachers who conduct our flagship program, Wings of Words, in schools. On the occasion of Teacher’s Day, we would like to extend our gratitude to these teachers for helping us make reading a magical experience for the children.

Shama Malik is the coordinator of the pre-primary section and teaches in the primary section of the Colonel’s Central Academy (CCA School), Gurgaon. She has been in this profession for 20 years. She has also been a part of the Stones2Milestones mission for the past five years. Not only has she been incredibly supportive of the cause, she’s also been an inspiration for us.

This is an article written by her – about being a teacher.

Being A Teacher – A Never-Ending Journey

“The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.” – Khalil Gibran

Looking back at my career of 20 years, the phase I loved the most was when I was just a teacher. The moment I realised that teaching was my call, I knew that in order to be a teacher, I primarily needed to be a learner.

I have worked in many schools holding various responsibilities like the house-in-charge, co-curricular-in-charge, school magazine editor, examiner-in-charge, etc. The one thing I have continued to believe is that I am a teacher as long as I am a student. That is why my students enjoy my lessons too.

I still remember that in one of the classes I taught, I used to conduct ‘one-minute competitions’ every day, and the students used to wait for me to enter the class, eagerly. Presently, I am working as a co-ordinator of the pre-primary section at CCA School. Energetic and chirpy kids fill me with their innocent compliments and unconditional love. This always keeps me charged with boundless energy.

Being an English teacher, my love for reading has been translated to my kids. Very soon I intend to write a book, which has my dream for a long time. Stones2Milestones’ Wings of Words programme has helped my grade I students enhance their comprehension skills, vocabulary, expression and, of course, their love for the reading. They look forward to various activities like role-plays of the stories and poems. They are full of innocence – waddling into the classroom sharply, oozing with excitement and laughter.

I believe that if I can make a student smile, boost a child’s self-esteem and instil confidence, I will feel that I have made a difference. The future is a mystery – but I definitely see myself always in a classroom. I will keep learning and teaching – may be in my own school or as a principal, where the potential and strength of each child can be transformed to achieve unsurpassable standards of workmanship.

Plenty has been said about teachers and the noble profession of teaching. It is time for us to hear from these teachers themselves. From this month on, we will feature two articles that showcase the voice of the teachers, their hopes, dreams, opinions and aspirations for themselves and the world.

The post ‘I’m A Teacher Only If I’m A Student’: An English Teacher’s Inspiring Journey Of 20 Years appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

गुरू-शिष्य की तो बहुत सारी कहानियां हैं। एक कहानी सूफी संत निज़ामुद्दीन औलिया और अमीर खुसरो की है। औलिया-खुसरो को पीर-मुरीद के तौर पर भी जाना जाता है।

“गोरी सोवे सेज पर मुख पर डारे केस, चल खुसरो घर आपने सांझ भई चहुं देस।”

इसका अर्थ है- मेरे प्रिय, बिस्तर पर लेटे हुए हैं। इन्होंने संसार से पर्दा कर लिया है। इनके जाने के साथ ही इस संसार से रौशनी चली गई, अब यहां सिर्फ अंधकार ही अंधकार है। चल खुसरो अपने असली घर, अब चारों ओर अंधेरा हो गया, रात हो गई।

यह अमीर खुसरो की आखिरी पदावली है, अपने पीर निज़ामुद्दीन औलिया का पार्थिव शरीर जब खुसरो ने देखा तो उनके मुंह से बस यही निकला था। इसके बाद उन्होंने कुछ नहीं लिखा, वे शोकाकुल रहने लगे और फिर कुछ समय बाद उनकी मृत्यु हो गई। कहीं-कहीं यह भी लिखा गया है कि इतना बोलकर खुसरो गिर पड़े और उनकी मृत्यु हो गई। (इसकी विस्तृत व्याख्या मध्यकालीन इतिहास 13वीं से 14वीं शताब्दी के बीच मिल जाती है।)

सूफी मत में पीर-मुरीद या पीरी-फकीरी (मतलब गुरू- शिष्य) परंपरा का बड़ा महत्व रहा है। हिन्दुस्तान में यह और फला-फूला क्योंकि हमारे यहां धार्मिक ग्रंथों में गुरू-शिष्य परंपरा का वर्णन पहले से ही था। अमीर खुसरो, निज़ामुद्दीन औलिया के शिष्य थे और औलिया सूफी संत बाबा फ़रीद के। लेकिन जो प्रसिद्धि औलिया-खुसरो को मिली वो और किसी को नहीं मिली। खुसरो और औलिया का ऐसा तालमेल था कि दोनों बिना बोले एक-दूसरे की दिल की बात समझ लेते थे।

दोनों की समाधि भी साथ ही है। दिल्ली में हजरत निज़ामुद्दीन की समाधि के पास ही अमीर खुसरो की समाधि मौजूद है। हर साल यहां उर्स (दक्षिण एशिया में उर्स आमतौर पर किसी सूफी संत की पुण्यतिथि पर उसकी दरगाह पर वार्षिक रूप से आयोजित किये जाने वाले उत्सव को कहते हैं) मनाया जाता है। हर उर्स का आरंभ खुसरो के इसी अंतिम दोहे से किया जाता है– गोरी सोवे सेज पर। कुछ लोग कहते हैं खुसरो- औलिया का संबंध अलौकिक था। यह मध्यकालीन भारत की कहानी थी।

आधुनिक भारत में गुरूओं के सम्मान में भूतपूर्व राष्ट्रपति डॉ. सर्वपल्ली राधाकृष्णन के जन्मदिन को शिक्षक दिवस के रूप में मनाया जाता है।
लेकिन बदलते वक्त के साथ-साथ अब सब बदल गया है। पढ़ाना एक व्यवसाय और पढ़ना एक बोझ जैसा हो गया है। अब पढ़ने वाले कम पढ़ाने वाले ज़्यादा हैं, सीखने वाले कम और सिखाने वाले ज़्यादा हैं, सुनने वाले कम और सुनाने वाले ज़्यादा हैं। कहीं कोई आत्मीयता नहीं है, सब धंधा या व्यवसाय का एक हिस्सा हो गया है।

गुरू वो नहीं हो सकता है जो एक घंटे बैठकर ज्योमेट्री और ट्रिग्नोमेट्री रटवाता हो, जो परीक्षा में पास करवाने की गारंटी लेता हो। गुरू वो भी नहीं जो घड़ी देखकर आए, होम वर्क चेक करे, होम वर्क दे और फिर चला जाए, ये तो व्यवसाय है। सीखने-सिखाने के लिए ना तो कोई तय वक्त हो सकता है और ना ही कोई तय स्थान। जिस वक्त हमें यह लगने लगता है कि हम किसी से कुछ सीख रहे हैं, उसी वक्त उस संबंध में आत्मीयता आने लगती है। लेकिन अब सीखने वालों की भारी कमी है और सिखाने वाले अब प्रोफेशनल कहलाते हैं।

The post इस टीचर्स डे पर ज़रूर पढ़ें हज़रत निज़ामुद्दीन और अमीर खुसरो की कहानी appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

As the country celebrates Teacher’s Day, let’s have a look at the lives and teaching styles of two teachers determined to make a difference. While no two people could be more different regarding their background, what makes 48-year-old Dinesh Ankush and 37-year-old Harish Iyer similar is that they share a similar agenda. They both want to empower their students to make India more equal.

Ankush was born in a family belonging to a socially-backward caste and had experienced discrimination first-hand as a teenager. “The other savarna children in my school thought they were superior because they spoke fluent English and had fairer complexions – whereas I was a dark-skinned, long-haired boy from a backward caste. But when they saw that I was also good at my studies, their perception started changing,” he recalls.

That’s when he decided that he would educate himself as much as he could. After he completed his graduation in History, his sister filled out his B.Ed. admission form, thereby propelling him into a career in education. At first, he taught at a school where most of the children came from privileged backgrounds. But then, one day, the vice principal made him realise that children from socially- and economically-backward backgrounds could benefit more from his efforts. Ever since then, Ankush has been teaching at a number of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)-run Marathi medium schools. Presently, he teaches students from class 6 to class 8 at a BMC school in Ramabai Nagar in Ghatkopar. He also counsels older students and encourages them to get a college degree, at least.

“The students are at an age when they are just beginning to have their first experience of discrimination. I want to make sure that they focus on doing everything to improve their lives, instead of feeling hopeless and giving up,” he says. “It is easy to blame the parents or the child. But we need to understand that some of the older children do odd jobs to support their family’s income. If they lose interest in school, they will quit and take up casual labour and their standard of living will never improve,” he explains.

Ankush therefore works towards giving his students an academic experience close to that enjoyed by privileged children in fancier schools. Ankush discovered that many of these children come from families that have mobile phones. Additionally, some children also go to the neighbourhood cyber-cafe. “That’s when I started treating them to PowerPoint presentations along with the usual chalk-and-blackboard drill. I also encourage more group activities instead of singling out students – so that learning is less stressful or humiliating,” he says.

Ankush discovered that these teaching aids resulted in higher attendance rates. The children also started taking a greater interest in education. “Some of the older children have their own mobile phones – so I advise them about the apps they can download to learn new words in English and be more comfortable in the language,” he says. From time to time, he also keeps bringing successful members of the community to speak with children and encourage them to complete their education, so that they can have a chance at a better life.

Meanwhile, Harish Iyer uses his irreverent sense of humour to help students understand and respect people of all genders and sexualities. Iyer is a guest lecturer in copy-writing at a few colleges – and he uses this opportunity to break stereotypes.

“I once asked a group of boys to write a copy for an advertisement for female hygiene products . I was happy when they asked their female classmates what they were looking for in an ideal product,” he says. “I asked the girls to write a copy for an advertisement for undergarments for men. I was thrilled when their ads did not depend on an attractive woman to make the man appear more desirable, and instead focused on the real qualities of a good inner-wear such as eliminating the need to constantly adjust the crotch. This way both genders begin to develop empathy for each other,” he says.

Iyer is also a well-known equal rights activist and is often found studio-hopping and talking about matters related to the LGBT community on news channels. Iyer wants to normalise the LGBT community for the general population – and believes that it all begins in the classroom. “Activism cannot be limited to TV studios or candle light marches. It has to be a conscious, sustained effort and an integral part of our day-to-day lives,” he insists.

Incidentally, one of the colleges where Iyer teaches also happens to be a place where he was bullied as a teenager for his effeminate body language. Iyer had slit his wrists and would have died, had he not received medical attention in time.

“I have noticed that effeminate boys, whether straight or gay, face a lot of discrimination in a patriarchal society. To de-stigmatise femininity, I often switch pronouns based on gender. So I call girls ‘he’ and boys ‘she’ in class,” says Iyer. “This is an age when children have many questions and  want to talk. I let them ask me all kinds of questions. Sometimes, I even broadcast my lectures live on Facebook and the students answer questions from viewers,” he says.

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If you know about inspirational teachers who are working toward empowering marginalised communities, please leave a comment below.

The post These 2 Unconventional Teachers Are Heroes For Creating Equality In The Classrooms appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

शिक्षा के प्रसार और प्रभाव का आकलन* प्रायः मात्रात्मक* आंकड़ों के आधार पर किया जाता है। ये आंकड़े समय के सापेक्ष* नामांकन के दर में कितनी वृद्धि हुई? किस सामाजिक पृष्ठभूमि*, जाति और जेण्डर के कितने विद्यार्थी औपचारिक* शिक्षा में शामिल हो चुके हैं? जैसे सवालों का उत्तर देते हैं। इन पैमानों पर भारत में औपचारिक शिक्षा के प्रसार की दशा और दिशा सराहनीय* बतायी जाती है। कई बार ड्रॉपआउट दर के चौंकाने वाले आंकड़ें इस तरह की सराहना पर प्रश्न चिन्ह लगाते हैं। इन मात्रात्मक विश्लेषणों* की एक सीमा यह है कि वे विद्यार्थियों के शैक्षिक अनुभवों के बारे में कुछ खास नहीं बताते हैं।

हाल में एक साक्षात्कार* के दौरान अनेक स्नातक* विद्यार्थियों के शैक्षिक अनुभवों को जानने का मौका मिला। इनके अनुभव भारतीय शिक्षा व्यवस्था की अनकही कहानी कहते हैं। इन विद्यार्थियों में से अधिकांश की विद्यालयी और उच्च शिक्षा महानगरों के सरकारी संस्थानों में हुई थी। ये कलावर्ग के विद्यार्थी थे। इनकी स्नातक शिक्षा ‘दूर शिक्षा’* और ‘मुक्त शिक्षा’* के माध्यम से हुई थी। इस दौरान दिन में अर्थात जब इनके हमउम्र अन्य विद्यार्थी कैम्पस, कैंटीन, और फ्रेशर्स में मस्त थे ये अपने परिवार की आर्थिक ज़रूरतों को पूरा करने में व्यस्त थे।

प्रथम दृष्टया* इसकी व्याख्या इस तरह की जा सकती है- परिवार की ज़िम्मेदारियों के चलते इनकी औपचारिक शिक्षा द्वितीयक स्थान पर आती है। अतः रोज़गार और कमाई करना इनका पहला मकसद था। इसके बावजूद ये अभिप्रेरित* हैं और शिक्षा के मूल्य को समझते हैं। इसलिए शिक्षा को किसी भी हाल में जारी रखना चाहते थे। इस तरह की व्याख्या ज्ञान की ताकत और राजनीति को विश्लेषण से बाहर कर देती है। हम इनकी असफलता को स्वाभाविक घटना मानते हैं जिसमें शिक्षा व्यवस्था की भूमिका नहीं है। यह व्याख्या संसाधन की उपलब्धता और सीखने की सुलभता पर आधारित है जिसके अनुसार सीखने के लिए सांस्कृतिक और सामाजिक पूंजी की उपलब्धता आवश्यक है।

इन विद्यार्थियों के संदर्भ में सर्वाधिक महत्वपूर्ण तथ्य यह है कि वे प्रतिष्ठित* महाविद्यालयों में प्रवेश के लिए अपनी पात्रता* नहीं सिद्ध कर पाए। इस तरह से वे ज्ञानार्जन के एक औपचारिक संस्कृति के भागीदार नहीं बन सके।

यह तर्क दिया जा सकता है कि उन्होंने शिक्षा के लिए अपने संघर्ष को वैकल्पिक माध्यमों से जारी रखा। लेकिन माइकल यंग जैसे समाजवैज्ञानिक इसकी एक भिन्न व्याख्या* प्रस्तुत करते हैं। इनके अनुसार औपचारिक शिक्षा की विषय आधारित सीखने-सिखाने की संस्कृति जो एक व्यवस्थित* संरचना के अनुरूप संस्थागत* ढांचे में संचलित होती है वह अपने भागीदारों को एक खास प्रकार का ज्ञान प्रदान करती है जिसे वे ताकतवर ज्ञान की संज्ञा देते हैं। ताकतवर ज्ञान की संकल्पना* को एक उदाहरण द्वारा समझा जा सकता है। इन विद्यार्थियों से साक्षात्कार में जो सवाल पूछे जा रहे थे उनमें से अधिकांश विषय आधारित, संदर्भ निरपेक्ष, अमूर्त और सैद्धान्तिक ज्ञान पर आधारित थे। इस तरह के सवाल साक्षात्कार ले रहे इंसान को ज्ञान की सत्ता और जानने वाले को ज्ञान के अधिकारी की भूमिका में प्रस्तुत करते हैं। इन सवालों का ‘सही जवाब’, जवाब देने वाले को ताकतवर ज्ञान का ‘धारक’ होने की पात्रता प्रदान करता है और ‘गलत उत्तर’ ज्ञानहीन बनाता है।

यही ताकतवर ज्ञान, विचार और कर्म के माध्यम से व्यक्ति को सशक्त करता है क्योंकि इसके माध्यम से विद्यार्थी को नई आर्थिक और सामाजिक भूमिकाएं निभाने का पात्र समझा जाता है। जो विद्यार्थी इस मुख्यधारा में शामिल नहीं हो पाते हैं वे ताकतवर ज्ञान और इसके फलों से वंचित हो जाते हैं। इन विद्यार्थियों के साथ भी यही हुआ। एक बार व्यवस्था के बाहर होने के बाद व्यवस्था इन्हें लगातार हाशिए पर ढकेल रही थी। इसी का प्रमाण यह है कि इनमें से अधिकांश विद्यार्थी परास्नातक* स्तर पर पुनः प्रतिष्ठित संस्थानों में प्रवेश पाने में असफल रहे।

इस बार मुक्त शिक्षा या दूर शिक्षा के माध्यम को न चुनकर इन विद्यार्थियों ने रोज़गार परक शिक्षा का रास्ता चुना। इस स्थिति में इन्होंने शिक्षक बनने की ठानी। इस व्यवसाय के चुनाव के कारण को उनके अनुभवों द्वारा समझा जा सकता है। इनका वर्तमान रोज़गार कौशल आधारित था जैसे- कम्प्यूटर टाइपिंग, ड्राइविंग और डिलवरी मैन इत्यादि। इस तरह के रोज़गारों में वे नहीं बने रहना चाहते। कारण कि इन्हें ‘सम्मानित’ नहीं समझा जाता। इसलिए ये कुशलता आधारित रोज़गार से ज्ञान आधारित रोज़गार की ओर बढ़ना चाहते हैं। इसके दो निहितार्थ* हैं। प्रथम, इससे प्रमाणित होता है कि कुशलता आधारित रोज़गारों की सामाजिक स्वीकृति* नहीं है। द्वितीय, इनके लिए शिक्षक बनना एक ऐसे पेशे को अपनाने के रूप में देखा जाना चाहिए जो इनके लिए ताकतवर समूह में प्रवेश का रास्ता खोलता है। इनके लिए ताकतवर का अर्थ ‘शोषण और वर्चस्व’ न होकर अपनी स्वायत्तता पाने का लक्ष्य था जहां ज्ञान के धारक होने के कारण उन्हें अपनी आवाज़ और विचारों को रखने का अधिकार मिले।

यह भी उल्लेखनीय है कि ये विद्यार्थी महानगरों के रहने वाले थे। महानगरों के श्रेष्ठ संस्थानों में प्रवेश न हो पाने के कारण ये दूर-दराज के कस्बाई संस्थानों में प्रवेश के लिए तैयार थे। इस प्रवृत्ति की तह में जाए तो आप पाएंगें कि महानगरीय केन्द्रों में कुछ अच्छे सरकारी संस्थान हैं। इनकी प्रवेश परीक्षाओं के लिए सीटों की संख्या सीमित हैं और असंख्य आवेदन आते हैं।

जब कोई गरीब, दलित, मुस्लिम या महिला टॉप करती है तो इन अपवादों का महिमा मंडन किया जाता है। इन अपवादों को छोड़ दें तो इस तरह के असंख्य विद्यार्थियों के हाथ असफलता लगती है। इस स्थिति में इन्हें महानगरों के बाहर ऐसे संस्थानों का रूख करना पड़ता है जहां प्रवेश प्रक्रिया में मारा-मारी ना हो।

कुछ अपवादों को छोड़ दिया जाए तो ये श्रेष्ठ संस्थान कमज़ोर सामाजिक-आर्थिक पृष्ठभूमि से आने वाले विद्यार्थियों की पात्रता को खारिज कर देते हैं। इसका कारण शिक्षा को लेकर हमारी व्यवस्था की मान्यता है जिसके अनुसार ‘शिक्षा’ एक सुविधा है। पढ़ने की इच्छा रखने वाले व्यक्ति के रोज़मर्रा के जीवन में शिक्षण गतिविधि ही सर्वाधिक महत्वपूर्ण गतिविधि होनी चाहिए। इनके पास इतनी फुर्सत हो कि वे अन्य गतिविधियों को रोककर शिक्षण संस्थानों में उपस्थित रहें। यदि अपनी सामाजिक-सांस्कृति-आर्थिक पृष्ठभूमि के कारण वे इन शर्तों को पूर्ण नहीं कर पा रहे हैं तो मुख्यधारा की उच्च व व्यावसायिक शिक्षा इन्हें हाशिए पर ढकेल देगी।

1) आकलन – एक अंदाज़ा लगाना, Estimation. 2) मात्रात्मक – संख्या बताने वाला, Quantitative  3)  सापेक्ष – तुलनात्मक, Proportional.  4) पृष्ठभूमि – पीछे की कहानी, Background.  5) औपचारिक – Formal. 6) सराहनीय- प्रशंसा के योग्य, Commendable. 7) विश्लेषण – छान-बीन करना, Analysis. 8) साक्षात्कार – इंटरव्यू,  Interview. 9) स्नातक – अंडरग्रैजुएट, Under Graduate. 10) दूर शिक्षा – Distance Learning/Education. 11)  मुक्त शिक्षा – Open Learning. 12) प्रथम दृष्टया – At First Sight. 13) अभिप्रेरित – प्रेरित, Motivated. 14) प्रतिष्ठित – सम्मानित, Prestigious. 15) पात्रता – योग्यता, Eligibility. 16) व्याख्या – विवरण, Explanation. 17) व्यवस्थित – Systematic. 18) संस्थागत – Institutional. 19) संकल्पना – धारणा, Concept. 20) परास्नातक – Post Graduation

The post क्या ‘ताकतवरों की शिक्षा’ ही ‘ताकतवर शिक्षा’ होती है? appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

छात्र-राजनीति किसी भी देश के भविष्य निर्माण के लिए काफी महत्त्व रखती है, क्योंकि आगे चलकर इन छात्र नेताओं में से भी कुछ लोग देश की बागडोर संभालने का काम करते हैं। स्टूडेंट्स के राजनीति में हिस्सा लेने से उन्हें किताबी दुनिया से इतर और भी काफी कुछ सीखने को मिलता है और उनमें पढ़ाई के अलावा कई और तरह के कौशलों का विकास होता है जो किसी के भी व्यक्तित्व के विकास के लिए ज़रूरी है। मैं व्यक्तिगत रूप से राजनीति को पठन-पाठन के ही एक हिस्से के रूप में देखता हूं क्योंकि शिक्षा का उद्देश्य सिर्फ साक्षर बनाना ही नहीं होना चाहिए, बल्कि इसके द्वारा स्टूडेंट्स के व्यक्तित्व का पूर्ण विकास होना भी ज़रूरी है।

आज जब देश के अधिकतर विश्वविद्यालयों में छात्र संघ चुनाव हो रहे हैं या उनकी तैयारी ज़ोरों पर है, मैं एक ऐसे संस्थान के स्टूडेंट गवर्नेन्स के बारे में बताने जा रहा हूं जो कई मायनों में बाकी शिक्षण संस्थानों के लिए एक नज़ीर पेश करता है। आईआईटी मद्रास का छात्र होने के नाते और देश के कुछ शीर्ष संस्थानों की छात्र राजनीति से अवगत होने के बाद मैं यह बात भरोसे से कह सकता हूं कि मेरे संस्थान की राजनीति कई सारे संस्थानों की तुलना में काफी पारदर्शी, समृद्ध और प्रगतिशील है।

जो चीज़ें आईआईटी मद्रास के स्टूडेंट गवर्नेन्स को सबसे अलग बनाती हैं वो हैं- यहां के स्टूडेंट्स के लिए उनके अलग संविधान (Students Constitution) का होना और यहां की छात्र विधायिका परिषद (Student Legislative Council), जो देश के संसद का एक प्रतिरूप है। इसका मुख्य काम इसके सदस्यों द्वारा प्रस्तावित विधेयकों (Bill) पर चर्चा करना और वोटिंग के आधार पर फैसला करना होता है।

त्रिस्तरीय प्रणाली पर आधारित इस व्यवस्था में छात्र विधायिका परिषद का सबसे अहम योगदान है, क्योंकि इसके मेंबर प्रत्यक्ष रूप से अपने-अपने क्षेत्रों से चुनकर आते हैं और अपने संबंधित चुनाव क्षेत्र से जुड़े मुद्दों को इसकी बैठकों में उठाते हैं। छात्र विधायिका परिषद विद्यार्थियों को उनकी समस्याओं की पहचान करने, उन समस्याओं के कारणों पर चर्चा करने और उनके हल खोजने के लिए एक मंच प्रदान करती है।

प्रत्येक संस्थान में कई समस्याएं होती हैं – प्रशासनिक, शैक्षणिक, सामाजिक और आर्थिक आदि। इन समस्याओं में से कई समस्याएं केवल प्रशासन द्वारा जारी दिशा-निर्देशों और सूचनाओं के साथ हल नहीं की जा सकती हैं। उन्हें स्टूडेंट्स की सक्रिय भागीदारी की ज़रूरत होती है और यहीं पर छात्र विधायिका परिषद अहम भूमिका निभाती है।

अभी कुछ दिन पहले छात्र विधायिका परिषद द्वारा पारित एक प्रस्ताव इस बात का सबूत है कि यहां की राजनीति कितनी प्रगतिशील है। हुआ यह कि पिछले दिनों संपन्न हुए चुनावों में छात्र चुनाव आयोग ने उन सभी उम्मीदवारों को, जो निर्विरोध खड़े थे, विजयी घोषित करने का फैसला किया। लेकिन छात्र विधायिका परिषद के हस्तक्षेप के बाद कि स्टूडेंट्स को खारिज करने के अधिकार (राइट टू रिजेक्ट) मुहैया कराया जाए, छात्र चुनाव आयोग को अपना फैसला बदलना पड़ा। उन सभी छात्रावासों या विभागों में जहां से उम्मीदवार निर्विरोध चुन कर आए थे, वहां मतदान कराने की घोषणा हुई।

बात अगर काॅलेज के छात्र-संविधान की करें तो आईआईटी मद्रास संभवतः देश का पहला संस्थान होगा जिसका अपना ‘छात्र-संविधान’ (Student Constitution) है। ये संविधान 1980-81 में लागू किया गया था और अब तक इसे तीन बार संशोधित किया जा चुका है। इनमें 2016 में हुए संशोधन का जिक्र उल्लेखनीय है, जिससे संविधान में स्टूडेंट्स के अधिकारों और ज़िम्मेदारियों से संबंधित एक नया अध्याय जोड़ा गया और छात्र न्यायालय (Student Court) की स्थापना करने का प्रस्ताव रखा गया।  इस संविधान में छात्र राजनीति के लिए ज़रूरी सारे दिशा-निर्देशों का उल्लेख है।

इस छात्र- संविधान के अंदर एक न्यायतंत्र का भी प्रावधान है जिसका दायित्व संविधान की व्याख्या करना और उसे लागू  करना है। इसी के अधीन छात्र चुनाव आयोग (Student Election Commission) आता है जो चुनाव से संबंधित सारे कार्यों की देखभाल करता है। फिर एक वित्तीय समिति (Financial Accountability Committee) का भी प्रावधान है जिसकी ज़िम्मेदारी किसी भी तरह के वित्तीय अनियमितता को रोकना होता है ।

पिछले सालों के दौरान छात्र विधायिका परिषद द्वारा पारित कुछ बिल या प्रस्ताव जो स्टूडेंट्स की स्वतंत्रता के लिए काफी महत्तवपूर्ण हैं-

(1) पिछले साल सुरक्षा का हवाला देते हुए लड़कियों को नाइट आवर्स के दौरान बाहर निकलने पर पाबंदी लगा दी गई थी, लेकिन फिर छात्र विधायिका परिषद के दखल के बाद छात्रावास अधीक्षकों (Hostel Wardens) को ये फैसला वापस लेना पड़ा।

(2) पिछले साल ही कॉलेज प्रशासन ने रात के दौरान LAN (Internet) कनेक्शन बंद करके का फ़ैसला किया था, लेकिन छात्र विधायिका परिषद के द्वारा इसके खिलाफ प्रस्ताव पारित करने के बाद इस फैसले को वापस ले लिया गया।

आईआईटी मद्रास के छात्र-संविधान में, भारतीय संविधान की तर्ज़ पर, स्टूडेंट्स के मौलिक अधिकारों और कर्त्तव्यों का वर्णन होना, आईआईटी मद्रास की छात्र राजनीति की प्रगतिशीलता को दर्शाता है।

यह संस्थान के सारे स्टूडेंट्स को, बिना किसी भेदभाव के, कुछ वाजिब प्रतिबंधों (Reasonable Restrictions) के साथ, अभिव्यक्ति की आज़ादी, स्वतंत्र छात्र संगठन बनाने की आज़ादी, किसी भी धर्म को मानने की आज़ादी जैसे अधिकार प्रदान करता है।

कुल मिलाकर, ये कहा जा सकता है कि आईआईटी मद्रास की छात्र राजनीति कई सारे संस्थानों की तुलना में काफी अलग और परिवर्नात्मक है। कारण यह है कि यहां हर किसी की जवाबदेही निर्धारित है और किसी भी पदासीन व्यक्ति का अपनी पोजीशन का गलत फायदा उठाना लगभग नामुमकिन है।

अरविंद, Youth Ki Awaaz Hindi सितंबर-अक्टूबर, 2017 ट्रेनिंग प्रोग्राम का हिस्सा हैं।

The post कैसे IIT मद्रास बन सकता है स्टूडेंट पॉलिटिक्स में देश के लिए मिसाल appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

By Saptak Choudhury and Sourya Majumder:

India has certainly made significant strides in literacy in its 70 years of independence: from 18% literacy in 1947, we stand at 72% now. Yet, merely achieving literacy is not enough – when 47 million young people drop out of school by class 10, something is still clearly lacking in the state of education. As a signatory to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), India has committed to ensuring inclusive and quality primary and secondary education to all children, by 2030. With a startling 4.34% drop out rate at the primary level, we need to talk about what’s keeping India’s children out of schools.

On International Literacy Day (September 8), Youth Ki Awaaz took the discussion to Twitter, and asked some key questions to a panel of education experts including Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation, The YP Foundation, Magic Bus India Foundation and Stones2Milestones, which threw up several crucial insights into the problem of education in India:

#GoalPeBol It’s critical that education is understood as a fundamental right, not a scheme. Scarcity of resources can be no excuse!

— NBV Deutschland e.V. (@NBVDeutschland) September 8, 2017

The Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation

Q: What are the challenges in ensuring education for children from underprivileged or minority communities?

KSCF: The Right To Education does not necessarily ensure rights within education (for instance, safe transportation to and safety in schools). Universal access to a protected environment at home, schools and within communities are imperative to ensure holistic education for a child.

Q: What factors and facilities constitute a ‘quality school’ for all children?

KSCF: Besides infrastructure, [qualified] teachers and ensuring rights in and through education (for example, awareness about child sexual abuse) are necessary components.

Q: What steps can the govt take to address the challenges to universal primary and secondary education?

KSCF: Underprivileged children are most vulnerable to abuse. Bringing together child protection mechanisms and education is the next step. Crimes against children (child labour, child marriage, child trafficking) are the main reason that causes school dropouts. Awareness of child rights in school, training of teachers are effective first responses to address violence against children.

In addition, students face programmatic, cultural, societal, instructional inequities in schools that causes dropouts #GoalPeBol

— The YP Foundation (@TheYPFoundation) September 8, 2017

How to end segregation in education in India? What about the introduction of a Common Neighborhood School System? #GoalPeBol

— NBV Deutschland e.V. (@NBVDeutschland) September 8, 2017

Magic Bus India Foundation

Q: What kind of activities have been most effective in drawing children to education, in your experience?

MB: Having a mentor, a positive role-model within the community is a huge asset. This is why we focus on building a network of such mentors. Training teachers across all schools to listen to children and getting them to participate in classroom discussions is a universal need of the hour.

Q: Is incentive-based education the way forward to promote equitable education in India?

MB: We have to define incentives effectively and identify system-driven, evidence-based approaches for them to succeed. Incentives (for instance, mid-day meals) fill in the gaps within the existing system and encourage community participation. In our experience, incentives have worked as behavioral nudge for participation. We see access to a mentor as an incentive as well.

Q: In your experience, what are the challenges young people face while transitioning from schools to jobs?

MB:

• Engagement – providing a safe and engaging space for adolescents to voice their opinions or ask questions and seek out role-models.
• Accessibility to higher education simply because of financial constraints or distance.
• The traditional school system doesn’t prepare children for employability and real-life work issues. Availability of opportunities in a community often deter them from pursuing jobs because migration requires resources and support systems.
• More than 30% of Indians aged between 15 and 29 years are neither employed nor are they educated and trained. In our experience, life skills like resilience and self-efficacy are as important as any other skill to make a successful transition.

In our experience, focussing on building employability and life-skills is the need of the hour. The choice to aspire should be open to all.

Every system has scope for improvement. Skills that would aid in employability in the long run. Not simply rote-learning. #GoalPeBol #Goal4

— Magic Bus (@MagicBusIndia) September 8, 2017

For every 100 girls that enroll in a school in rural India, only 1 makes it to grade 12. #internationalliteracyday @YouthKiAwaaz #goalpebol

— Dasra (@dasra) September 8, 2017

YP Foundation

Q: What steps can schools, parents and teachers take to bridge the gender gap in Indian education?

YPF: Female-friendly and better infrastructure (hygienic toilets, running water, menstrual products, transport, security, etc.), sensitised teachers and staff are a must. Interactions between parents and schools on the importance of education, especially for girls, also need to be strengthened. Comprehensive sexuality education in all schools and institutions is also a priority.

Q: What are the 2 or 3 key things young people can do to promote equitable and equal education in India?

YPF: For those of us who have graduated from school, now is the time to start giving our time and other resources to organisations working on education and for raising awareness on equitable access to education.

Breaking the taboo around co-ed schools and choosing the right reasons to send children to a girls only/ boys only schools.

— Nine is Mine (@9isM9) September 8, 2017

This brings in another aspect of children sent to girls/ boys only schools but don’t identify as either. What does one do then?

— Nine is Mine (@9isM9) September 8, 2017

Stones2Milestones

Q: What steps can be taken to introduce reading in a second language like English to young children?

S2M: Systematic intervention, that develops the will and the reading skills of the child, is much required. Training teachers and providing engaging materials is also necessary. This is the main strategy behind our Wings of Words program.

Once children start enjoying classes, the skills will be learnt automatically. Equip children to learn by themselves.This is exactly what we do. Systematic ‘bite-sized’ lessons that simplify the process of learning English are also helpful.

Q: What are the creative ways you use to emphasise the importance of reading in education?

S2M: In education, the importance of reading is obvious – the kids need to read to learn concepts. In school, reading should be taught as a skill, in a manner that’s fun for kids. They will be drawn to libraries and teachers will take more interest.

Developing reading skills needs systematic interventions, and can’t be left to chance. A child who reads is a learner for life. Stories in their syllabus itself can be made more interesting if they are handled in the right way. This is where teacher training comes in. Schools have several constraints. Attempting to enforce the law is more difficult. The trick is to be empathetic and collaborate for change.

The RTE Act mandates a library in every school. But they are not there. U-DISE data is often wrong. We need to implement the law!

— NBV Deutschland e.V. (@NBVDeutschland) September 8, 2017

We bribe the children to fall in love with reading! Amazing material, Engaging activities, Indian sounding stories, peer work & love!

— Aditi Mehta (@adimeh) September 8, 2017

The chat, which was organised as a part of #GoalPeBol, a campaign by Youth Ki Awaaz and National Foundation for India (NFI), drew participation from several Twitter users. Organisations such as Nanhi Kali Foundation and Care India also chimed in, adding valuable perspective. The conversation achieved over 4 million Twitter impressions, and most importantly, opened up new avenues of discussion around the issue of universal, equitable education in the Indian context.

What do you think can be done to improve the state of education in India? Write on Youth Ki Awaaz and together, let’s take this conversation ahead. Publish your post today.

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Featured image used for representative purposes only.

Featured image source: Pixabay

The post What’s Keeping India’s Children Out Of School? Experts Answer appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

A massive Delhi government school building is like a fortress for families from the low-income neighbourhoods. It keeps the parents in awe and ensures that a wide gap is maintained between the school staff and the parents’ community. However, Delhi’s mega Parent Teachers Meeting (PTM) has a potential to transform these sarkari (government) fortresses into public-owned schools.

For the third time in the last two years, on September 1, Delhi’s government schools opened their doors to parents. Our team decided to meet some not-so shy parents who attended the mega PTMs in their ceremonial attires. A thousand parents were interviewed across the state with help from members of school management committee.

Research says that schools only require three bold steps to engage parents – ‘welcoming’, ‘honoring’ and ‘connecting’. The Delhi mega PTMs have aced the first step of ‘welcoming’. In the true spirit of a warm welcome, rangolis were prepared, personalised invitations were sent and school gates were decorated with welcome messages. When Babita, the mother of a child enrolled in the school couldn’t find the correct classroom, a high-school student escorted her to the correct room. There was tea, water and every little thing that would make them feel welcome.

The second step is ‘honouring’ the parents by recognising their efforts and importance the in child’s education. We came across teachers who exchanged phone numbers with parents encouraging them to stay in touch and teachers who had a list of standard complaints. When a curious parent inquired about his son, the young science teacher started explaining the importance of coming to school regularly, to drive home the point that his son needs to be more regular in school. As soon as the teacher took their first pause, the boy interrupted by saying, “I only missed the school once in last 7 months.” His father vouched for him.  There were teachers who did their homework and gave precise feedback to students based on their performance in the previous unit test. An absence of formal training and guidance on how to make parents feel honoured was felt. However, in roughly four to six minutes of parent-teacher interaction, the role of parent was either unrecognised or misinterpreted.

The third step of ‘connecting’ parents to educational outcomes seems like the end of a rainbow. This step requires inclusive policies to reconstruct the role of parents beyond monitoring the schools and being passive recipients of information. We need audacious principals and teachers who consider parents as partners to maximise learning outcomes for the students.

School factors are important for a student’s achievement but there are studies that claim that ‘parental effort is consistently associated with higher levels of achievement.’ Thus, while interviewing the 1000 parents who attended the PTM, we also tried to explore their key role in their child’s education.

Around 49% of the parents reported that they have occasional conversations with their child’s teachers. Almost 50% parents opted for regular PTMs and 20% demanded extra classes. There were 23% of parents who also asked for regular updates through phone calls and SMS services.

We asked parents about the kind of support they provide to their children to ensure learning after-school. We could gather varied responses ranging from finding tuition classes to playing simple word games. Almost 361 parents, more than one third, gave an unclear answer or indicated towards providing no academic support. The rest of the responses could be broadly categorised as the providers, the participators, and the encouragers.

The providers have ensured that the child has access to tuition books and other learning resources. Around 36% of parents sent their kids to tuition and 6% said that they make sure that the child has access to support books, stationeries, and the internet.

Interestingly, 33% of parents confirmed that they directly participate in their child’s learning activities. Checking note books and school dairies and discussing school related work were quite common. There were a couple of responses where unlettered parents sat with their children during homework hours. There were quite a few parents who played the direct role of a tutor at home and engaged with the child through learning games. The direct involvement in homework made us call them ‘the participators’. Also, 9% of parents said that their children got academic support at home from siblings and other family members.

We called 16% of parents ‘the encouragers’ as they reminded children about homework, woke them up early or dropped them to schools. Also, we believe these categories are not water-tight and the role of parents in after-school learning can be a combination of all three roles.

According to intuitive estimates of a few teachers and principals, the attendance of parents has increased over the last three meetings. It’s surely challenged the perceptions that parents from disadvantageous communities cannot be engaged in academic activities. There are parents like Reena, who came prepared with the specific agenda of delayed distribution of computer textbooks. There were parents like Shakuntla, an immigrant from UP working as a domestic help, who came with a little helplessness and lots of openness, claiming that she will do whatever the teacher recommends for her child. Mid-sized hoardings of SMC members displaying their contact details encouraging parents to reach out for help, indicates that there are parents who are willing to support other parents as well.

Celebrating the massive success of Mega PTM is important, but planning further can not be procrastinated. Policy makers, government bodies, educationists, and citizens now need to put their brains and hearts into ensuring that parents become partners in our mission to revamp public education.

The post Why Delhi Govt’s Mega Parent-Teacher Meeting Was Its Best Idea Till Date appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

By Anindita Chakraborty:

One look at Mohd Hasan, and he comes across as a regular teenager studying in school. But spend some time with him and you will realize that this little boy possesses an extraordinarily sharp brain. He is happy working on science models and is a scientist in the making.

Hasan is the youngest in a family of five. His parents are waste pickers, living in a slum cluster near the Bhalaswa Landfill, in North Delhi. At a very young age, he started accompanying his parents to the landfill for waste picking. But he was more interested in making toys out of the waste materials than adding to the family income. Presently, he is studying in Class 9 in the nearby government school at Libaspur. His progress in school had not been smooth and he was finding it difficult to cope with formal schooling. He failed a few times and in 2015, got enrolled in the Chintan Learning Centre, Bhalaswa, to seek help with his studies.

The senior trainees at the centre identified his latent talent during a Science Fest in 2016, where he astonished everyone with his talent and his grasp of the difficult concepts of gravity, motions, energy etc at such a young age. He was motivated enough to make basic science models, using common materials available around him. He designed static cars, ships etc. But this was just the beginning and he wished to make something more substantial. With encouragement from the facilitators at the Learning Centre, he grew in confidence and started helping his friends with their science projects. Very soon, Hasan, who had been dubbed a failure by his parents, peers, neighbours and teachers, became their favourite.

In the summer of 2017, he asked his father to get a room cooler. But due to their financial constraints, his father could not provide him with the same. He decided to design a small experimental cooler for himself. With the help of his facilitators at the centre, he started to collect basic parts like motor, pipes, fans, electric switches from the waste material. He carefully observed the concept at one of the local cooler shops for many days and after a period of one month, through trials and failures, he eventually came out triumphant. He successfully designed a portable room cooler. You can see him explain his working model of a cooler here –

Science classes at the Chintan Learning Centre, sponsored by Oracle, opened up a whole new world to Hasan and turned him into a winner. It was sheer dedication and perseverance which helped him stay focused and achieve his target. This story reiterates the fact that every child is special in his or her own way and has to be encouraged to pursue their dreams fearlessly.

In the words of Hasan – “This is just the beginning of my journey. I want to become a mechanical engineer.” For him, impossible is nothing. Here’s wishing him all the success in life.

The post How This Teenager From The Bhalaswa Slum Became A Badass Inventor appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

“Beta tum toh ache student ho, fir arts kyu le rhe ho (You are a very good student. So, why are you taking up humanities?)”
“Arts field me koi career nahi hai (There is no career option in the arts field)”
“ Ache students ke liye science stream hi sahi hai (Good students take up science)”
“ Mann lagakar padhai karo, wrna arts lena pdega (Study hard or you’ll need to take up humanities)”
“Itne ache number lane par agar arts loge toh log kya kahenge? (What will people say if you take up arts, despite scoring so well)?”

These are not famous quotes from the yellow pages of wise philosophers, but they are very profoundly quoted by those who claim to be so. It is a given that if a student is bright, they must study science. If the student is weak, the humanities stream would serve them best. If the bright student is a girl, she will have to deal with biology and if that bright student happens to be a boy, he cannot insult his intelligence. Thus, he must not take up anything else besides technology and engineering These are not my words, but the common understanding of the society in general or rather should I say, the stereotypes attached to the division of subjects where the interest of student does not matter, the ambition of students has to be monetary profits and the aptitude required for a particular subject is all about higher marks.

And if somehow neglecting (this is not quite possible), accepting or confronting these labels, a student sticks to their guns and studies humanities, they are always reminded of their apparent inferior position. Their dignity is often attacked because of their own choices of subjects, or rather, what enrages me is the whole perception on which these nonsense notions are made. How can two subjects be compared when the entire method of approaching them is different? Why is your choice of a subject used to judge your intelligence quotient, instead of showcasing your interest and aptitude?

In India, it’s a common belief that pursuing humanities limits careers options and is not monetarily beneficial. And if this is true in the current scenario, why should they pursue a passion for classics even if it might not guarantee returns in the job market? After all, one does not want to be doing what they love and be homeless!

India has numerous languages, a rich historical, ethnic and cultural background, so there are opportunities for various courses in humanities to Indians as well as foreign students. But this is not happening as the subject is not being encouraged the way it needs to be. Every day we come to know about new IITs, IIMs and AIIMSs being founded but how many of us actually know about the best humanities institutes in India? It seems that even the government is oblivious to the importance of studying humanities and so it promotes only science and technology related subjects.

Through humanities, we learn how to think creatively and critically, to reason, and to ask questions. In science, mathematics and engineering classes, one is given facts, answers, knowledge, and truth. The professors say,“This is how things are.” They give you certainty. Studying humanities gives you uncertainty, doubt and scepticism. The humanities stream is subversive. It undermines and questions authorities whether political, religious or scientific. It provides you multiple lenses to see the world through.

Humanities makes you question absolutely anything, even science. I’m not saying that science is less important or that humanities is more constructive. But I am arguing against the mindset that categorizes humanities (or any subject for that matter) as easy. If calculating electromagnetic induction is strenuous, then researching on the complexity of social relationships is also no cakewalk. But many students realize this baseless ground of differentiation so late in their lives that they end up dwindling in science classes even if they had skill and ability for music, sports, arts or anything non-technical

The problem lies in the way we view education. We do not look at subjects from a perspective of gaining knowledge. Rather, we look at them as a stock market where we invest our credentials to earn profits. But at the same time, we fail to realise that the market is changing every day. If ratings are to be done, the scales of measurement could reverse anytime soon. But I’m not hoping nor do I want humanities to become superior (that would be flawed again) but all but all the subjects to be respected for what they have to offer and honor the education altogether.

Picture Credit: Robert Neubecker

The post Studying Humanities Is As Hard As Science, Then Why The Bias? appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

If you are a political party running a government in a ‘free’ and ‘democratic’ country but interested in staying in power forever (some call this aspiration ‘fascist’ while others mild it down to ‘authoritarianism’ – but it is quite likely that this is driven by a higher-order nationalist feeling of saving a poor country like ours from expensive elections), you have to do several things. Key amongst them is neutering democracy’s watchdog. Oh, I don’t mean the press. Most news shops, as we know, are happy to ‘self-castrate’ themselves with memos which their corporate bosses dole out. The few ‘free thinkers’ still holding on to journalistic ideals can be character assassinated. Or, well, be assassinated.

But then, what does one do with the damn social media which, despite being owned by corporations, allows people (yes, I know – only on the ‘right side’ of the digital divide) to show the middle finger to traditional media, create their own freaking media and speak their minds? Sure, you can troll them down to pure hell and misery. But that is not without its costs and consequences. Have you seen the number of sites dedicated to busting fake news? Gosh, they are menacing and such spoilsports!

Now, if you are a political party living on the past glory of fighting for sovereign independence and past electoral conquests – with no claws to bare, currently, but only tainted fangs – you are doomed. But, if you are the ‘neo bloke’ on the block led by ‘Broad Chest Alpha’ – who doesn’t flinch while lying, and has ‘full-grown men’ falling over each other to please you and take forward your mantra – then we are talking.

These full-grown men come with ideas that the ‘lib-sec’ write-off with an arrogant chuckle (and in that lies their defeat) – but which, in fact, are pure genius. Check out the latest one from Gujarat – it’s a pamphlet. A crappy single-colour, badly-designed piece of art that people and schools all over Gujarat have received – followed up by phone calls from the Department of Education urging managers and principals to get their students to fill and return them.

What does it say? Ah, now you ask!

It’s a pledge form by one Madadgaar Parivar (translates to Helper Family, so sweet!), evidently run by a ‘full-grown man’ called Prakash Gurjar. The man’s not fake, I checked! According to his blogspot, he is ‘a young dynamic and vibrant karyakarta of BJP from Karnavati, Gujarat, with a profound penchant for patriotism and philanthropy’. For those who are thinking ‘what the cow’ is Karnavati, it’s the Hindu way of honouring Ahmedabad. Gurjar was the vice-president of the Gujarat Youth Congress until 2012, and abandoned it when the previously-mentioned ‘tainted-fangs party’ did not give him a ticket to contest elections.

I checked up on Madadgaar Parivar too. The first couple of searches led me to a Madadgaar, an NGO based in Karachi, Pakistan! Of course I froze on my trackpad – I wasn’t in the mood to be slapped with sedition charges!

Back to the pledge form. So, it says:

Resolution for Achievement.

India Home.

My Country is My Home.

32,86,237 square kilometres.

Resolution/Pledge Letter

1. I will, from today, believe that the whole of Bharat, that is 32,86,237 square kilometres, is my home.

2. Within the 32,86,237 square kilometres, I will only throw trash in garbage bins, I will not dirty it, nor will I let anyone do so.

3. I will not prejudicially criticise (blame/disparage/dispraise) the administration that is formed of the people, by the people and for the people.

Yes, I am Madadgaar (helper). Pledger (sign).

Place: Gujarat, Bharat. Date: 16-9-2017

Madadgaar. Name:, Mobile:, Address

Come let us together create a new Bharat.

(Photo) Prakash Gurjar. Madadgaar Parivar (Helper Family)

How is this a piece of genius? Check out point 3. Look at the clever way of redefining the very core essence of democracy itself. Now, childhood readings of basic civics lessons may still remind some of you ‘lib-secs’ that ‘in a democracy the government is formed of the people, by the people and for the people’. In fact, this ‘of, by and for’ has become such a freaking cliched weapon.

Look how cleverly this pamphlet ‘de-teaches’ democracy by not even saying the word. And the ‘will not prejudicially criticise’ portion is a surgical strike at the very jugular of the overrated democracy.

Remember how we were taught in schools about the six basic elements of democracy? The first one about ‘elected representatives’ is still cool because it allows for the majority to rule the roost. The rest are such a drag:

2. elections,

3. civil liberties (yikes!),

4. rule of law (this one is cool as long as the law enforcers wear the same chaddi),

5. independent judiciary,

and the horrible

6. organised opposition.

This last one is a hornet’s nest because it taught us that the opposition keeps an eye on the policies and working of the government. By criticising the wrong policies of the government, it forces the government to make laws and frame policies for the welfare of the people. It prevents the government from being dictatorial. Look at those harsh words – like ‘forces’ and ‘prevents’. ‘Why the cow’ should a democracy allow anyone to ‘force’ or ‘prevent’ a government made ‘by the people’, right?

Now, so far as ‘organised opposition’ is limited to mean ‘other political parties’, it’s a cakewalk considering the fact that all of them are pretty toothless, currently. But, when you have a situation where every goddamn ‘lib-sec’ thinks that they are the ‘opposition’ and starts to criticise the government for its wheeling and dealing, high-handedness and crony capitalism, things get out of hand. Not to mention their outrage on street violence and killings (pathetic, right?). And these ‘sickulars’ then circumvent the TRP-overdosed media and take to Twitter and Facebook. Damn!

So, how do you beat them? Read the pamphlet again and discover the genius. You take some toilet paper (young minds and their ignoramus teachers are not worthy of more than that, in any case), print this crap, call the schools up, squeeze their ‘aid balls’ and instruct them to get their students to sign. Now, when students read, “I will not prejudicially criticise the administration” right beside the ‘of, for and by’ cliche, they will surely take this to be the updated ‘democracy mantra’ doled out by ‘His Highness The Broad Chest’, because his photo is on the top left corner. Clearly, you don’t expect the cowardly teachers to interpret this work of art as a blasphemy of true democracy! So, the students sign the pledge – and then five years later, they join the ‘neo-bhakti’ movement. Bang! Score!

Now, for the final stroke of masterful genius – did you notice the date on the pamphlet? Yes, it’s post-dated. Why September 16? Google ‘Modi birthday’ and you will see the magic reveal itself. Yes, it’s the day before his birthday. Even toilet paper must be gift-wrapped!

Now you know why even the RSS is envious of the right-wingers in Gujarat. They are a class apart. Accept it.

Full disclosure: This was written after consuming one full glass of sweet fresh lime soda, and two plates of beef – chilly fried. No animals were harmed in the course of writing this. Some may get hurt now.

A version of this post first appeared on the author’s blog.

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Featured image used for representative purposes only.

Featured image source: Sonu Mehta/Hindustan Times via Getty Images

The post Lessons In Democracy (Read Dictatorship), As Per A BJP Worker In Gujarat appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

By Jogya Chakravorty:

Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) has evolved from sex education to sexuality education, and finally into its present form. Like we have said before, CSE covers a vast array of issues and topics concerning sexual and reproductive health.

Across the world, however, there is a considerable push to limit the scope of CSE and omit certain ‘controversial’ issues. The problem is, different countries find different topics controversial – some consider abortion contentious, while others have a problem with the word ‘sex’ itself! This selective acceptance of sexuality education must be resisted since it is these uncomfortable, debatable and differentially-interpreted topics that most adversely affect our sexual and reproductive lives and health.

With this in mind, we put together a helpful glossary of terms that must be a part of any sexuality education curriculum for it to be comprehensive.

The Spectrum Of The Anatomy Of Sex

Our biology textbooks tell us that there are only two sets of sexual and reproductive organs – male and female. Everything that does not fit into these categories is treated as ‘abnormal’. But these organs are often more complex than we acknowledge them to be. Our reproductive organs and their various parts have a variety of sizes, shapes and combinations.

One way by which we can break the strong link between ‘variation’ and ‘abnormality’ is by removing the categories of ‘male’ and ‘female’ altogether, when defining reproductive organs. So without further ado, here is that list:

• Vulva refers to a set of external genitals that typically comprise the labia, mons pubis, clitoris and the vaginal opening.
• The labia make up a majority of the externally-visible portion of the vulva. They surround and protect the clitoris, urethral opening and vaginal opening. It’s commonly differentiated into the labia majora (outer lip) and labia minora (inner lip), both of which show significant variation in color, shape and size.
• The clitoris is a sensitive erogenous zone and its sole function is to provide sexual pleasure. It’s located at the top of the vulva just above the urethra. It varies in shape, size and sensitivity.
• A small hollow muscular organ, the uterus holds and nourishes the foetus from conception to birth.
• The canal that forms the passage from the uterus to outside the body is called the vagina.
• The penis is an outer sex organ that’s made up of spongy tissues and blood vessels. It contains a tube called urethra that lets urine and semen (the latter during sexual excitement) pass through and exit the body.
• The ovaries are two glands that contain thousands of immature eggs.
• Testes are two ball-like glands that are contained in the scrotum, which is a sac-like structure. The main function of testes is to produce sperm and testosterone (which is a hormone). Sperm are the cells that contain sex chromosomes.
• Fallopian tubes carry the egg from the ovaries to the uterus.
• The hymen is a tissue membrane that partially covers the vaginal opening to protect it during developing years. It may or may not exist in everyone who has a vagina – and its presence or absence does not share a necessary relationship with virginity. Hymens vary widely in elasticity and presentation.
• The epididymus stores the sperm until they mature. From the epididymis, the sperm then pass through a tube called the vas deferens – first to the seminal vesicles and then to the prostate gland – both of which nourish and lubricate the sperm. The sperm, along with the lubricating and nourishing fluids, is called semen, which is a whitish fluid.

The process of the development of these sexual and reproductive organs is called puberty, which usually marks the onset of adolescence. This period of physical, psychological and social change and development continues till the onset of adulthood.

• Around puberty, sometimes semen comes out of the penis at night, during sleep. This is called nocturnal emission, night fall or wet dreams. Nocturnal emission is not necessarily accompanied by sexual feelings or sexual dreams. This is a common occurrence, as semen cannot be stored by the body at the rate at which it’s produced.
• Menstruation, (also known as periods, and by many different names colloquially) is the process by which blood, mucosal tissue (from the lining of the uterus) and the unfertilised ova come out of the vagina every month for a few days. Menstruation usually begins during puberty and ends with menopause. One does not menstruate during pregnancy, as the lining provides nourishment to the foetus.
• Conception refers to the process by which the sperm fertilises the ova. The zygote formed from their fusion then implants itself in the uterus. This leads to pregnancy.
• To prevent pregnancy, certain artificial methods are used which are collectively called contraceptives. There are several kinds of contraceptives like condoms, birth-control pills, emergency contraceptive pills, intrauterine devices (IUDs), diaphragms, etc.
• The process of terminating a pregnancy is called abortion. There are multiple methods of abortion depending on the length of the pregnancy. They include medical abortions (in which one has to take medicines) and surgical abortions (differs in different countries based on the law). Abortion is a highly-politicised issue – which is why there are many laws about it in each country, some of which criminalise abortion.
• Sexually transmitted infections (STI) are infections that are transmitted through sexual contact (exchange of sex fluid or even blood). Reproductive tract infections (RTI) are another type of infection, which refer to those that affect the reproductive tract. Although they are two different things, they often overlap (some STIs can be RTIs, and vice versa). RTIs can either be caused by an overgrowth of organisms already present in the tract or by the introduction of certain microorganisms into the tract during sexual contact or medical procedures.

All Things Sex-y

‘Sex’ refers to two things:

1. The activities we engage in (either alone or with other people) for sexual pleasure (and occasionally reproduction), like these –

• Intercourse refers to the penetration of the vagina or the anus by the penis or any other object.
• Outercourse expands the meaning of sexual activity to include everything that is done for sexual pleasure (other than penetration).
• All acts that we do to sexually pleasure ourselves are known as masturbation. One way this is done is through exploring one’s body – usually by touching or rubbing our own genitals.
• The peak or climax of sexual excitement is called an orgasm. It is an intensely pleasurable feeling usually centered around our genitals, and may or may not be accompanied by release of sexual fluids from the body.

In any discussion about sex, consent has to take the centre-stage! Simply put, giving consent means to actively, enthusiastically, and explicitly agree to something with full understanding of the situation and without pressure of any kind.

But ‘sex’ also refers to:

2. The physiological and chromosomal makeup of a person at birth that results in categories being assigned to them:

• A person is generally assigned male at birth on the basis of the presence of a commonly-occurring combination of external genitalia – the penis and the scrotum.
• If a person’s genitalia at birth appears to be a vulva, they are assigned female at birth.
• Intersex is a term assigned to persons who have an atypical composition or combination of genitals, hormones, chromosomes, etc. Intersex is not a defined category – and there is no consensus on the characteristics that help decide whether to place people in this category. It tends to be decided by doctors during the person’s birth. Their opinions vary considerably.

Also read: As A Student Myself, Why I Think Sexuality Education Is A Must In Schools

The Gender Spectrum

Gender is a social construct that consists of specific traits, roles and expectations that society attaches to males and females. There are two distinct prototypes that defines ‘men’ and ‘women’ and what their lives and behaviour should ideally be like.

But these prototypes perfectly fit only a small percentage of people. Most of us are a combination of both. Thus, it makes sense to see gender as a ‘fluid spectrum’ (instead of just one or the other), where several different experiences, identities and expressions exist and are accepted.

The constant interaction between how society sees you, how you experience yourself in relation to society and how you choose to define yourself make up your gender. This is not fixed and can change multiple times over the course of your lifetime, depending on what identity you are comfortable aligning yourself with. There are more identities that we can define – but here are some of them:

• A cisgendered person is one whose gender identity reflects the sex assigned to them at birth.
• Trans is an umbrella term that houses many different identities that describe someone who doesn’t relate or identify with the gender they were assigned at birth. These are very diverse and include identities like trans man or woman, transvestite, bigender, gender fluid, pangender, agender, gender non binary, gender neutral and gender two-spirit, among others.

Trans identities can be independent of one’s anatomical/physiological sex. It is also separate from one’s sexual orientation and identity, which is understood from our experience of sexual, romantic attraction and towards whom we direct these feelings.

Like gender, sexual orientations are fluid, can change over time, and have many different labels, some of which are:

• Heterosexual – being sexually or romantically attracted to the opposite sex/gender.
• Homosexual – being sexually or romantically attracted to the same sex/gender. Other terms include ‘gay’ and ‘lesbian’.
• Bisexual – When an individual is attracted to male and female sexes/genders.
• Asexual – When one doesn’t experience sexual desire or attraction.
• Pansexual – Persons who are sexually attracted to another of any sex or gender.
• Demisexual – being sexually attracted to individuals that one has formed an emotional connection with.

The word ‘queer’ also falls within this category and in the gender spectrum. While it was initially used as a pejorative term for homosexual individuals, it has since been reclaimed by many people as a term that’s broader and more ambiguous in its scope than LGBTQI+ labels.

Sexuality encompasses everything we’ve talked about so far. As a concept, it is one that’s constantly evolving and changing. Sexuality can be experienced and expressed in thoughts, desires, values, behaviours, roles and relationships. It is also influenced by the interaction of biological, psychological, social, economic, political and cultural factors.

The YP Foundation’s KYBKYR (2.0) campaign is a continuation of the Know Your Body, Know Your Rights campaign that we ran in 2010–2011. KYBKYR 2.o focuses on increasing awareness on the need for young people to have access to SRHR information that is fact-checked, evidence based, and sex-positive. The campaign provides resources that assist young people to advocate for access to comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) with the decision-makers and authority figures in their lives, including family members, teachers, and administrators in educational institutions. The campaign also reaches out to these individuals directly to support young people’s demand for access to CSE.

This post was originally published on www.theypfoundation.org.

The author is a third year undergraduate at Jesus & Mary College, and is a TYPF Fellow 2016-17.

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Featured image used for representative purposes only.

Featured image source: Vintage Animations/YouTube

The post This List Clears Every Single Doubt You May Have About Gender, Sex And Sexuality appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

राजस्थान की सरकार ने विद्यालयी शिक्षा की गुणवत्ता को सुधारने के लिए पी.पी.पी. (पब्लिक-प्राइवेट पार्टनरशिप) का रास्ता चुना है। सरकार का मानना है कि इस मॉडल से ‘नाॅन-परफाॅर्मिंग’ विद्यालयों में पढ़ने-पढ़ाने की संस्कृति में सुधार किया जा सकता है। नाॅन-परफाॅर्मिंग विद्यालय से सरकार का क्या मतलब है, इसे तीन चीज़ों से समझा जा सकता है। पहला, जिनके परीक्षा परिणाम खराब हैं। दूसरा, इनमें से अधिकांश ग्रामीण इलाकों में हैं। तीसरा, ये सभी विद्यालय सरकार द्वारा संचालित है।

इस तरह से यह योजना निजी विद्यालयों की गुणवत्ता* को पूरी तरह से क्लीन चिट देती है और समस्याग्रस्त विद्यालयों की मौजूदगी को दूर-दराज के क्षेत्रों में स्वीकारती है, जहां सरकारी विद्यालय ही समाज के वंचित वर्ग के लिए औपचारिक शिक्षा का एकमात्र माध्यम है।

यह भी उल्लेखनीय है कि कुछ महीने पहले केन्द्र सरकार ने भी इसी तरह कुछ विश्वविद्यालयों को नाॅन-परफाॅरर्मिंग घोषित कर दिया था। जान पड़ता है कि सरकारें आजकल ‘परफारर्मेंंस’ को लेकर काफी संजीदा हैं। लेकिन इस संजीदगी में झोल यह है कि ‘परफारर्मेंंस’ को वो सज़ा देकर सुधारना चाहती हैं। जैसे विश्वविद्यालयों के संदर्भ में अनुदान आदि की कटौती या जो नाॅन-परफाॅरर्मिंग है उससे पल्ला झाड़ लेने की नीति अपना रही है। राजस्थान में इन नाॅन-परफाॅरर्मिंग विद्यालयों को निजी हाथों में सौंपने का फैसला कुछ इसी तरह का कदम लगता है। इस तरह की योजनाओं में नवउदारवाद* के लक्षण पूरी तरह से हावी हैं। यहां कुछ बातें हैं जिनसे इस तरह की सरकारी सोच को समझा जा सकता है-

1)- सरकार निजी क्षेत्र को एक भरोसेमंद साझेदार मान रही है, जिसका राज्य के उद्देश्यों से कोई भेद नहीं है।

2)- सरकार का बाज़ार पर भरोसा है कि बाज़ार की प्रक्रियाएं और प्रकृति, उत्पाद* (जो कि यहां शिक्षा है) की गुणवत्ता, प्रबंधन* और प्रदर्शन को बनाए रखेगी।

3)- लोक वस्तुओं* और सार्वजनिक सेवाओं पर सरकार के द्वारा किए जा रहे व्यय में कटौती होगी जिससे सरकार का वित्तीय बोझ कम होगा।

4)- सरकार के पास कानून के द्वारा नियंत्रण करने का अधिकार है, जिससे निजी क्षेत्र अनाधिकार* की चेष्टा* नहीं कर सकते हैं।

अब सवाल है कि शिक्षा जैसी अतिआवश्यक लोकवस्तु के संदर्भ में यह माॅडल कितना कारगर होगा?

सरकार द्वारा प्रस्तुत पी.पी.पी. मसौदे के अनुसार निजी क्षेत्र से जो भागीदार इन सरकारी विद्यालयों के उद्धार का जिम्मा उठाना चाहते हैं, वे सरकार को 75 लाख रूपए प्रति विद्यालय का भुगतान करेंगे। सरकार 16 लाख रूपए प्रतिवर्ष की दर से 7 साल में इस राशी को प्राप्त करेगी। इस धन का प्रयोग आधारभूत संसाधनों* के विकास हेतु किया जाएगा। इस तरह से सरकार पर आर्थिक बोझ कम पड़ेगा।

इस गुलाबी तर्क के बरक्स पहला सवाल यह है कि एक विद्यालय के संचालन के लिए इतनी बड़ी धनराशि का भुगतान कौन करेगा? अधिकांश गैर लाभकारी संगठन किसी औद्योगिक घराने की तरह ना तो आर्थिक दृष्टि से सुदृढ़ हैं, ना ही वे बैंक या किसी अन्य माध्यम से उधार लेकर इतना बड़ा जोखिम उठाना चाहेंगे। स्वाभाविक है कि जो निजी निवेशक* इस निवेश के लिए आकर्षित होगें वे बड़े औद्योगिक घराने होंगे। किसी बड़े लाभ के अभाव में वे इतना बड़ा निवेश क्यों करेंगे, जबकि ऐसा करने के बावजूद विद्यालय का मालिकाना हक सरकार के पास ही होगा?

मान लीजिए वे परोपकार (फिलान्थ्रोपी) के नाम पर जोखिम उठा भी लेते हैं तो इस तरह के प्रबंधन द्वारा विद्यालय के संचालन में ना दिखने वाले प्रभावों और संदेशों को संज्ञान में लेने की ज़रूरत है। इस माॅडल में जब विद्यार्थी हमेशा इन पूंजीपतियों का महिमामंडन* देखेगा तो इसका अर्थ होगा कि उद्योग ही तरक्की का एकमात्र विकल्प हैं। चूंकि अधिकांश विद्यालय ग्रामीण अंचलों में हैं तो उद्योग के विकास की कीमत कृषि और भूमि जैसे अन्य संसाधनों द्वारा चुकाने के लिए भी वे मानसिक रूप से तैयार हो जाएगें।

अब संसाधन और सीखने के संबंध को केन्द्र में रखकर समस्या का विश्लेषण कीजिए। वित्त के अभाव में विद्यालय को निजी हाथों में सौंपना यह स्थापित करेगा कि नवाचार कीमती प्रयोग होते हैं, जिसके लिए वित्त की उपलब्धता सार्वजनिक निकायों के पास नहीं हैं। चूंकि पी.पी.पी. माॅडल में विद्यालय बिजनस का हिस्सा होंगे जिसे अप्रत्यक्ष रूप से सरकार खरीद रही होगी। अतः लाभ के साधारण फाॅर्मूले के अनुसार विद्यालय प्रबंधन लागतों को कम करने की कोशिश करेगा, लेकिन क्रेता के सम्मुख उसे अधिक बनाकर पेश करेंगे। यहां से वह श्रमशक्ति तैयार होगी जो बाज़ार के नियमों को मानव मूल्यों पर श्रेष्ठ समझेगी।

इन विद्यालयों में पढ़ने वाले बच्चे कम से कम 12 वर्ष में इतना तो सीख ही जाएगें कि कार्य का आंकलन और तुरंत दुष्परिणाम से बचने का भाव ही काम की अभिप्रेरणा है और वही काम महत्वपूर्ण है जिसका बाजार में मूल्य होता है। कहने का अभिप्राय यह है कि मानव पूंजी तो तैयार कर ली जाएगी, लेकिन क्या मानव मन तैयार हो पाएगा?

सरकार- विद्यालयी शिक्षा की गुणवत्ता को सुनिश्चित करने के लिए विद्यालयों पर किसका मालिकाना हक है? कौन वित्त दे रहा है? कौन प्रबंध कर रहा है? जैसे सवालों के उत्तर खोज रही है, जबकि किसे, क्या, कौन और कैसे पढ़ा रहा है? जैसे औचित्यपूर्ण सवाल नहीं पूछे जा रहे हैं। वास्तव में ये प्रक्रियागत सवाल ही शिक्षा की गुणवत्ता का निर्धारण करते हैं। सरकार ‘बच्चे पढ़ते नहीं’, ‘शिक्षक आते नहीं’, ‘यदि आते हैं तो पढ़ाते नहीं’ जैसे आधारहीन तर्कों के सहारे पी.पी.पी. माॅडल को रामबाण इलाज मान रही है। आखिर निजी क्षेत्र ऐसा क्या करेगा कि बच्चे पढ़ने के लिए प्रेरित हो जाएं या शिक्षक आएं और पढ़ाएं?

यह तो एक ही दशा में संभव है ‘भय बिन होए न प्रीति।’ अब बस एक व्यवस्था बाकी है कि विद्यालयों में भी ‘एचआर’ की नियुक्ति हो जो ‘एम्प्लायी आॅफ द मंथ’ को चुने और ‘इन्सेंटिव’ व ‘फायर’ आदि के लिए आवश्यक निगरानी करे। इसके विपरीत शिक्षा का अधिकार कानून. विद्यालय प्रबंधन का एक लोकतांत्रिक माॅडल सुझाता है जो है- ‘विद्यालय प्रबंध समिति द्वारा विद्यालय का प्रबंधन।’

दिल्ली के सरकारी विद्यालयों के प्रबंधन में इस माॅडल की सफलता आजकल सुर्खियां बटोर रही है। इसी तरह राजनीतिक इच्छाशक्ति और नीतियों के व्यवस्थित निष्पादन* का एक अन्य उदाहरण रवाण्डा जैसे छोटे अफ्रीकी देश से आता है, जहां सरकारी विद्यालयों की गुणवत्ता के कारण निजी विद्यालय बंद होने के कगार पर आ चुके हैं। अपने यहां भी कुछ अन्य पहलें हुयी हैं। जैसे कि उत्तर प्रदेश के उच्च न्यायालय ने राज्य सरकार के अधिकारियों को आदेश दिया था कि वे अपने पाल्यों का प्रवेश ‘पड़ोस के सरकारी विद्यालय’ में कराएं।

कुछ इसी तरह उत्तराखंड उच्च न्यायालय ने राज्य सरकार को आदेश दिया था कि जब तक राज्य के प्रत्येक प्राथमिक विद्यालय में शिक्षण के न्यूनतम संसाधनों का बंदोबस्त नहीं हो जाता, राज्य सरकार द्वारा लोकवित्त के प्रयोग से किसी भी तरह आरामदायक वस्तु (लक्ज़री गुड) ना खरीदी जाए। ज़ाहिर सि बात है कि शिक्षा जैसी लोकवस्तु की सेवा आम जनता को उपलब्ध हो, यह सुनिश्चित करना सरकार का दायित्व है।

‘असफल विद्यालय’ का तर्क देकर सरकार अपने दायित्व से पीछा छुड़ा रही है। विद्यालयों की स्वायत्तता* के झुनझुने को निजी हाथों में सौंपने से पहले अपनी विरासत को याद कीजिए जहां राष्ट्रपिता महात्मा गांधी एक आत्मनिर्भर और स्वायत्त विद्यालय की परिकल्पना करते हैं। जिसका प्रबंधन स्थानीय समुदाय द्वारा किया जाता है और जो पाठ्यचर्या और शिक्षण पद्धति के स्थानीयकरण से हाथ, हृदय और मस्तिष्क के संयोजन पर बल देता है वह भी ‘वैज्ञानिक ज्ञान’ से समझौता किए बिना।

1- गुणवत्ता- Quality  2- नवउदारवाद- Neoliberalism  3- उत्पाद- Product  4- प्रबंधन- Management
5- लोक वस्तुओं- Public Goods 6- अनाधिकार- Unauthorized  7- चेष्टा- Attempt  8- संसाधनों- Resources
9- निवेशक- Investors  10- महिमामंडन- Glorification  11- निष्पादन- Implementation  12- स्वायत्तता- Autonomy

फोटो आभार: flickr 

The post प्राइवेट होते ही कैसे सफल हो जाएंगे राजस्थान के ‘असफल सरकारी स्कूल’ appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

By: Rishita Nandagiri

At 13, I could (correctly) explain the reproductive system of a plant. I’d been rather intimate with the anatomy of a flower, drawing awful nudes of stamens and filaments and anthers. I used to think I’d get extra marks for effort – the shading took a while to get just right.

I’ve never needed nor used that information in the years since.

That same year, my classmates and I spent an entire Biology lesson on ‘not learning’ about the human reproductive system. Our teacher glumly informed us that we needed to tear pages X through to Y out of our textbooks or use markers to strike through the pages to show that we’d be skipping a chapter. The Ministry of Education had instructed schools not to teach the human reproductive system that year. The human body wasn’t a discussion that 13-year-olds needed to be a part of.

It wasn’t some cruel jape, where they wouldn’t teach us the concepts but test us on it at the end of the year anyway. It wasn’t that the texts were incorrect. It was quite simply that we didn’t need to talk about reproduction, sex, or any of the other related concepts because we were too young to have that information, our minds too innocent to be polluted by these ‘ideas’.

Nearly 16 years later, I’m still unsure of what they meant by that; what they’d hoped to achieve other than ensuring huge gaps of essential knowledge in the minds of an entire set of 13-year-olds (they did sort-of rectify their strange rule and rush through the reproductive system the next year).

Studying the human reproductive system in a biology class is not Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE), it doesn’t even come anywhere near it. Yet, it was the only opportunity for a potentially positive discussion (even so specific to biology) about one’s body – I did not have any other avenues or spaces to have that conversation, or to even spark the thought of needing to.

The silencing of these conversations only adds to the echo chamber of misinformation and myths that frame our knowledge of our bodies and of our selves. The silencing only allows incorrect and inaccurate information to run rife without any checks or counter-knowledge, and affects the choices that we make – the choices we think are all that we have.

My first understanding of consent was not in relation to my body but in relation to what it means to sign a document. I did not know how to apply consent to my own body. I did not know that consent was more than just a simple ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ – that neither of these is a simple answer.

There was never a conversation about safe sexual activity because abstinence was the default expectation. We never had a conversation about sexually transmitted infections (STIs) because that too was outside the realm of possibility. Condoms were not easily accessible. You would see them at busy pharmacies behind a locked glass door, with the price tag too far away to see. And even if you did manage to get some, you wouldn’t really have the first clue of what to do with them.

Heterosexuality was the only sexuality, there were no others – nothing to see or read or experience. There was no queering here.

This was all the information I needed to know. This was all the knowledge I should have been shading into my own world, into my own identities.

It disappoints me that all these years later, the same patterns continue, that we walk the same grooves that we’ve etched into the world, that young people continue to be deprived of crucial, necessary information under the (ironic) guise of protection, that misinformation and myths and inaccuracies fester unchecked, that autonomies and identities and selves remain suppressed and unquestioned with no avenue for exploration.

But, is it enough to champion CSE alone? Will knowing change everything – will it clear the slate and let you draw new designs, explore new patterns?

I, perhaps naively, used to think it was enough – that knowledge was power, that it would cause tectonic shifts by the mere virtue of knowing. And perhaps it can, but I cannot ignore the thought that knowing something does not automatically translate into doing something or being able to do something. CSE, as with everything else, doesn’t work in a vacuum.

When I was a little bit older – nearly nineteen – I waited anxiously for my period and roundly berated myself. I should not be in this position, I knew better. And I did know better than to risk pregnancy or an STI – I’d learnt how to use a condom by then – and yet, there I was.

I was too afraid, too shy, too overcome to march into a pharmacy and ask for condoms – no matter how many ‘chattri hai?’  advertisements (Condom ads using a chattri, an umbrella, as a symbol of protection) I’d watched on television. Despite every mental argument I had with myself about how I wasn’t doing anything wrong, that I needed to protect myself, that I was young and liberated – I was too afraid of being found out, of being asked questions, of being judged, of getting into trouble, of being called names, of family and friends finding out and thinking of me differently.

My fear was inarticulate and probably without any basis in fact, but it was vast and it was overwhelming and I was consumed by it. The guilt, the constant on-edge, the secrecy, and the relief of my period finally showing up – none of that is how it should be.

Because no matter all my knowledge, I still couldn’t act on it.

A lot of this walk down memory lane is filtered through (class, caste, able-bodied, and passing) privilege – a lot of access to spaces and knowledge and books and people and power. This privilege both coddles and protects me but is not afforded to many people for any number of reasons.. And that needs to be understood within our CSE curriculum too, in our efforts at addressing the larger contexts as well.

The more I advocate for CSE programmes, and CSE language in policy documents and guidelines, the more I have to remind myself that it isn’t a magic bullet, it isn’t the one-shot answer. It forms a cornerstone, certainly, but our efforts to facilitate the choices we talk about need to align. CSE is not a blanket solution but needs to be localised and constructed to address local spaces, local needs and local realities.

As we work on ensuring access to CSE for all young people – disabled, LGBTQI, in low-resource settings – we need to also ensure that our efforts target attitudes, ensure access to services, and dismantle legal, social, cultural, economic barriers.

CSE alone is not going to dismantle the gates, turn gatekeepers into allies, or strike down discriminatory laws that contribute to an unsafe environment. CSE needs to work in an enabling environment: in one that shifts rights language from something just talked about to something one can exercise, grasp, understand, engage with and know. We need to build those enabling environments simultaneously and make sure that all that knowledge is translated into action.

This article was originally published here in the February 15, 2015 edition of In Plainspeak, an e-magazine on issues of sexual and reproductive health in the Global South.

Picture Credit: Awaiting Bloom

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