Mohsina (name changed) has been attending an affordable private school ever since she started studying. So have been her siblings. The nearest government school is around 10 kms from their house. It is difficult to commute everyday as public transport is not available. The school they attend is the only one that they can attend. Even though the school charges a nominal fee, it becomes difficult for her father to pay. Being a small farmer, the family has a hand-to-mouth existence.

Every month, Mohsina’s father would literally beg for money to pay the school fees, promising to repay in a few months. People have also been kind enough to help him. He has always stood by his words and has been diligently returning the money every year.

To add to their woes, the water level in their village has gone down. Agriculture has become all the more difficult and non-remunerative. The produce is barely enough for their own subsistence. Lack of irrigation facilities forces the family to keep the land vacant for a few months in a year. There is hardly any source of income during those months. The only work that Mohsina's father gets is when the village Panchayat undertakes some work under MNREGA.

Many a time, he is unable to get work under MNREGA too. Sometimes, it coincides with the harvest season. Often the panchayat announces MNREGA towards the end of March and it continues even in April when most of the farmers are busy harvesting wheat.

After digging earth for the whole day, he gets something like Rs. 120. Many would ask, why only Rs. 120? Isn't the wage rate Rs. 240? Well, lack of water has made the soil so hard that digging the earth for the desired area is almost impossible? After toiling so hard, he is not able to get his dues, simply because the work assigned cannot be done in a day!  

In case a family member falls ill, it becomes a Herculean task for him to manage the medical expenses. The local PHC hardly has a doctor. They have to rush to the district hospital, which is around 70 kms away from their house. He would ask for help from the sarpanch or his neighbours for commuting that far. The private doctors charge a lot of money. Needless to say, he has no option but to skip work during the days spent at the hospital! Clearly, the family has to survive almost a quarter of the year without any income. The MNREGA work is also given for only 100 days per household. Only one person from one family can get the work.

The school authorities have been helping him in availing of the scholarships announced by the Ministry of Minority Affairs. That is how he manages to return the money every year to the people. In their village, it is common to find girls sitting at home as soon as they attain puberty. Many are married off at an early age. Yet, there are a few exceptions, including Mohsina, who continued her education, despite the pressure the family faced from the relatives and other villagers. Her father wants his children to study well and find remunerative jobs so that they can come out of poverty.

Like Mohsina and her siblings, since 2014-15, around 5.20 crore students benefited from the scholarship scheme. This included 3.36 crore Muslims, 53.9 lakh Christians, 35 lakh Sikhs and 12 lakh Buddhists. Typically, a day scholar would get Rs. 225 and Rs. 525 in the case of hostellers on a monthly basis. Besides this, they also got Rs 750 and Rs. 1000 respectively for buying textbooks. The central and state governments have spent Rs. 9,057 crore till last year in a 3:1 ratio.

Now imagine, if Mohsina’s family does not get any financial support for education, will the children be able to continue their education? Will the dreams of Mohsina’s father come true? Will the family ever be able to come out of poverty? The answer is a big NO.

They don’t have the means to pay fees to the private school nor the wherewithal to arrange transport to the government school!

Unfortunately, the worst has come true. Last week, the government announced a death knell to the pre-matric scholarships offered to children from low socio-economic backgrounds and minority communities. Many would say, the scholarships are now allowed from Class IX onwards. Yes, that’s true.

But how many such students will be able to even complete Class VIII, especially at a time when many schools have been closed as per data shown in the recently released UDISE report?

The Right to Education Act does provide for free education till Class VIII but only for students studying in the government schools. Private schools too have reserved at least 25 percent seats for the economically weaker sections (EWS). However, it is an uphill task to get a seat under the EWS quota.

Many public and private schools have been closed as a result of the pandemic. The number of schools has dropped from 15.09 lakh in 2020-21 to 14.89 lakh in 2021-22. This is official information. Among the schools that have been shut down, 48 percent are government schools, 24 percent are private schools while the remaining are government-aided ones! Of course, some schools might have been merged. However, the report is silent on such mergers.

Not only this, 2.8 lakh teachers have lost their jobs. Until 2020-21, there were 97.87 lakh teachers across the country. The number fell to 95.07 lakh in 2021-22.

Will the government be able to bridge this gap caused due to closure of schools? Will a lesser number of teachers not impact the quality of education imparted in schools, be it private or government? 

Without giving any sort of a notice to the parents, the government has asked the nodal officers at the state and district level to reject the pre-matric scholarship applications of students till Class VIII.

Will Mohsina’s father be able to pay his dues this year as he won’t get any money from the government for scholarships? How will he pay the fees for his children in the coming years? Will he be able to move his children to a government school without any means of transport? It is pertinent to mention that the scholarship was available only to those children whose parents’ annual income was not more than Rs. 2.5 lakh. Unlike the new definition of Economically Weaker sections, which allows people with an annual income of Rs.  8 Lakhs to get reservations in jobs and higher education!

There are crores of students like Mohsina who are dependent on such schemes for their education. The government’s move of restricting scholarships to those studying in Class IX and above will have a ripple effect on the students, who will be forced to drop out. The cases of child labour and child marriage may increase in the coming years.

It is an attempt to curtail child rights and their fundamental right to education. The government must introspect and review its decision. A country like ours cannot progress with uneducated youth. India cannot become a $5 trillion economy if its demographic dividend is forced to become a liability due to lack of financial support for education of its children from the marginalised communities. It will undo the work the government has done, over the decades, under various schemes, be it Sarva Siksha Abhiyan or the Right to Education Act.

(The writer, a company secretary, can be reached at jassi.rai@gmail.com)