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Hundreds
of former child laborers and school children participated in the
world's biggest lesson on education. Children themselves
imparted a lesson to the noted Bollywood personalities Actress
Mahima Chaudhry, Producer Tanuja Chandra, Jasbeer Jassi, the
singer and Amit Shyal; Members of Parliament and social
activists here today at the FICCI auditorium as part of the
Global Action Week led by the President of Global Campaign for
Education a worldwide movement demanding universal basic full
time quality education for all. The Action Week in India is
being jointly organised by National Coalition for Education (NCE),
Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), Global March Against Child Labor (GMACL),
CARE, OXFAM, World Vision and Save the Children Fund.
Children led a slate pencil march to the Parliament carrying
empty slates in their tiny hands questioning the law makers and
the government as to why more than 1/3 rd of India’s
population was illiterate. At least 60-70 million children are
still out of school. The child laborers constitute the largest
group of children excluded from education in the country. The
children demanded that right to education must be immediately
enacted to ensure slates, pencils and books in the hands of
children instead of work tools.
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“India is one of the fastest growing economies
in the world. Yet, it accounts for 34% of world's illiterate
population. Right to Education has been enshrined since 2001
but it is neither supported by any law nor is it
substantiated with adequate budget. Though India does well
in school enrollment rate with primary school enrollment of
82%, the drop-out rate is also very high at 39.8%. Quality
of education is low. School fee is still charged in many
states. A lot of money is also spent in the non-tuition fee
like uniform, syllabus, books, building cost etc.” alleged
the protestors.
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President of Global Campaign for Education (GCE),
Kailash Satyarthi said-“Today at least 6 million children
across 110 countries are going to set a world record of the
world's largest lesson on any issue in the history. This would
definitely be added to the Guinness Book of World Records under
the slogan – Quality education to end exclusion.”
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Children from BBA and its partners, Amarlal and
Sonia, imparted the world's biggest lesson to the other
children and the celebrities at the FICCI Auditorium. The
children also enacted a play- “ladki padhke kya karegi?”
(Why should a girl be educated?”) - depicting the need for
girls' education.
Bollywood star Mahima Chaudhry said- “I think nobody
should ignore the voice of these children. If their voice
goes unheard, I am willing to be their voice. Education
should be not just a fundamental right but should be made
into a law.”
The children sang along with Jassi to his popular tunes.
Notel film Producer Tanuja Chandra said “Education is our
right that can possibly ease problems especially in India.
Children are the most precious gifts and their education
should be country's obsession.” |
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R.C. Dabas of the AIPTF said – Teacher's unions
play an important role in education for all. Our main focus has
always been quality education and we will make concerted efforts to
ensure this to all children so that all children can earn an
education that equips them to get proper employment.
National Coalition for Education (NCE) is a conglomeration of
Parliamentary Forum on education, Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), All
India Primary Teachers Federation (AIPTF) and All India Federation
of Teacher's Organisations (AIFTO).
April 2008
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