Human rights are moral principles or norms that describe certain standards of human behaviour also are regularly protected as natural, legal rights in municipal and international law. It is something which all human beings have irrespective of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status. Few of the human rights include the right to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to work and the fundamental right to education.
The right to education is one of the fundamental human rights given to the citizens of India.
The Constitution of India explicitly states that primary education should be free, i.e., education should be free to children till the age of 14. However, how many times have you seen little kids along the streets in torn, ragged clothes? How many times did you find girls washing clothes or cleaning utensils from the hand-pump at various slums? How many times have we seen boys slaving themselves? Countless is the only word that comes to our mind.
Even though the literacy rate in India has increased from 64.84 per cent in 2001 to 69.1 per cent in 2019, it’s still less compared to China (which has 96.8 per cent (2018) adult literacy rate), Sri Lanka (which has 91.90 per cent (2017) adult literacy rate ) and while the world average is 86.3 per cent.
In India, 53 per cent of the children between ages 5 to 9 are illiterate while less than half of the children between the ages 6 and 14 go to school. This is because, from selling little things at traffic signals to working in different houses, we have seen even small kids slaving just to meet their basic needs. They have the right to study, yet, they are the ones who are deprived of their fundamental right to education.
This happens mainly because of two things: poverty and the parents’ mindset, influenced yet again due to poverty. The children who are deprived of education come from a background where both the parents are working for a living.
Due to this shortage of money, children are forced to work so that their livelihood continues. They start working to support their parents, feed themselves and their siblings.
Along with poverty comes the parents’ mindset that their child should earn money to relieve them of their poor standard. Many of those parents think that if their children start earning from an earlier stage, then they will have better support, rather than allowing them to study and then earn properly.
It’s not entirely the fault of the parents as it’s the circumstances of their living that leads them to these hard decisions. Moreover, sometimes their poor living conditions lead to diseases and illness, which does not allow the children the energy or health to study.
Poverty, illness, illiteracy of parents, all of these factors compound to the risk of non-schooling for children. It does not come as a surprise to know that almost 32 million Indian children have never been to any school.
On the other hand, some people have all the money in the world and can receive the education they want, yet, they remain indifferent to the opportunities they get. They are least bothered about what’s right and what’s wrong. They take advantage of their rights, doing destruction activities which ultimately leads to the downfall of the nation as a whole. Instead of using their knowledge to spread awareness or doing productive activities such as helping those who are not as fortunate as themselves, they are doing just the opposite.
From terrorism to making the drug, from organ trafficking to murder; countless crimes are taking place around the world, and the most dishearting side is that all these heinous activities are lead by brains who acquired enough knowledge through their education
Do you think that its right? There are so many people who do not have the opportunity to receive the education they deserve and then there are people who take it for granted? Do you think it’s okay that the people who want to study are deprived of it while those who get to study don’t utilise it properly?
It’s nor fair to those who have dreams in their eyes and hopes in their mind, for who have a burning passion inside their body and a thirst to prove themselves. It’s not right for those who have their positive will and goodness inside of them with which they want to change the world.
Education should be treated as a fundamental human right, and like other human rights, it should never be taken for granted.
