A recent data shows alarming facts about the Indian education system – a whopping 8.4 crore children don’t go to school, and around 78 lakh children are put to work while attending schools. Despite myriad policy changes and new appointed review panels, elementary education in the country still remains a faraway dream.

Yes, the number of students working while attending schools is big, equally shocking is that most of them at some point drop out of the school eventually. The share of them working somewhere is reported to be only 19%, then what is the remaining 81% doing? �Many of them are responsible for doing household chores – from fetching water to cooking and looking after their younger siblings at home. Whatever is the reason, the number is sufficiently big!

VAAGDHARA is making every possible effort in shaping the future of children in tribal areas of Rajasthan, and providing a child friendly environment at village and school level to stop or at least minimize the drop outs. The organization is working for the development of children since over a decade, and realize that educational advancement cannot take place in isolation. It must be brought about through ensuring overall basic rights of children.

A major hurdle that we see in creating an enabling environment for education development is � no or delayed registration of birth in Banswara tribal region. A birth registration allows a child to have an identity, which makes them eligible for basic and advanced necessitates including elementary health and education services. Besides, flawed policies by the government bodies, lack of vision on the part of the responsible committees, and non-implementation of key recommendations, hinder the much needed evolution in the education field.

This year, from the initiation of the new academic term till date, VAAGDHARA has identified 32 children from Dungarpur and 36 children from Banswara, who were either drop outs, child labors or were never enrolled in schools.�We counseled these children along with their families and linked them with schools with proper tracking mechanism.

India has a rich history of Indian leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Maulana Azad, Nehru, Tilak, among others, who were educationists, and considering that we can expect from our leaders of today to look into the matter seriously. Not only pass the educational policies but also ensure its effective implementation, along with other recommendations for child�s overall growth. Worth mentioning again, improving the situation of birth registrations, without which our kids are vulnerable to left behind in the society, remain deprived of education, health, and other basic and advanced amenities.