Realization of Right to Education at grass root: Pedagogy of oppressed
Ms. Shruti Nagvanshi and Ms. Shabana Khan
The dream of marginalized people in Belwa village of Varanasi, India toeducate their children was fulfilled with the inauguration of school by theElementary education officer (BSA) Mr. Pradeep Kumar Pandey on 7
th
August, 2009 at 11:30 AM and with the exceptional contribution of Mrs.Reshma Devi, local resident of Belwa village. She donates her own landand JMN/PVCHR born the expense of the registry of the land. Theinaugural session was witnessed with the key staff of PVCHR, Ms.
Loreine B. dela Cruz
(Lou), Chairperson of Balay, Philippines and Ms.Frauke Bergmann, interns from Germany and many teachers fromnearby Government school and respected people of the village.
Representative of Bal Panchayat giving view
Before this Government school, as a go-stop activity Jan MitraNyas/Peoples’ Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR) establishautonomous centre known as “Sant Kabir Jan Mitra Kendra” on 27
th
July, 1997 to educate 200 children of the Karkha, Barepur, Hatiya andNatan and 116 boys and 101 girls starts getting the education. Thecentre was financially supported by Child Right and You (CRY), Sir
Dorabji Tata Trust (SDTT), Raj Dulari Foundation, Sweden and library with the support of ASHA as direct support to children. At the same time,PVCHR organized the peoples’ centric advocacy and campaign for right of education at grass root level which is supported by VOP and AHRC.On 3
rd
September, 2002 villagers demands with the administration toopen one primary school. The Assistant Elementary education officer inthe letter no/71-72/2002-2003 dated 6 May 2002 and dated 24February 03 on duty S.D.I. and on 21 March 2003 BRC co-ordinator visitthe area. In the report he stated 211 children were present in the schooland this ghetto was marginalized with the education due to the politicallybiased enmity.
Inaugural monument
Children organized child parliament in front of the district head quarteron 8
th
August, 2003 and demands for school in their area. On 26
th
August, 2003 tehsil diwas (day) 250 children walk 5 km from the SantKabir Jan Mitra Kendra to the Pindra tehsil and report their demand toSDM Pindra. SDM misbehaved with the children and ordered lathicharge on the children and the villagers. Dr. Lenin Raghuvanshiconvener of the PVCHR was detained under section 151and he wasrelease after 4 hours. Three others activist were charged under 107/16for the legal proceeding. The Children of the Belwa village are uncensoring themselves throughthe children assembly (Bal Panchayat) known as “Sant Kabir Child“through the street play, child magazine Bachho Ki Duniya and penfriendship with the children of the Gottengen High School, Remscheid
Germany with the help of Ms. Helma Ritscher, Chairperson Indo-GermanSociety of Remscheid, Germany.Mr. Rajendra Tiwari, present village head of Belwa village does not covetto open the school, as he used to engage Mushars people as a bondedlabour in the his brick kiln factory. Mr. Gehru Musahar and Mr. BothuMusahar were released from bonded labour with the support of thePVCHR; in this case Mr. Tripathi was sentenced to pay fine for resortingto bonded labour in his brick kilns under section 374 of IPC crime no. 1April 2002. The struggle for the Rights in the Belwa village was sturdy. Several timesPVCHR activist received threatening phone calls to stop human rights work
“if you raise the issue of starvation and hunger death then you must be killed”,
and that the staff of PVCHR would be charged withfalse accusations in order to discredit the organisation and force it toclose down.PVCHR had initiated several activities in Belwa village and several othervillages within Uttar Pradesh, with an intention to empower the lowercaste communities to make better use of the recent change in the stateadministration favouring the lower caste communities in the state and inIndia. The PVCHR, along with the AHRC and other national and local humanrights organisations, organised folk-schools in these villages, startingfrom Belwa. The PVCHR also invited the district administration as wellas officials from the Uttar Pradesh State Commission for ScheduledCaste and Scheduled Tribe to participate in these sessions. The memberof the Commission Mr. Rajbahadur Yadav participated in one of thesesessions held at Belwa on 21 May 2007.In the meanwhile the PVCHR also promoted establishment of communitycenters in these villages, of which the community centre in Belwa wasinaugurated by the then DM Mr. Nithin Gokarnan,which is used formeeting of community as well as ICDS center at Musahar ghetto andPPC center of SDTT-JMN at Patel ghetto. Through our services, grass root campaign and peoples’ advocacy atlocal-global level, the Belwa village is the model village as the child rightcentric, vibrant democratic society against torture and organizedviolence, which started sustain initiative for the fulfillment of the justice,fraternity and the rule of law. Its influenced the marginalized at theblocks and tehsil to uncensor and fight for their rights same as a stone isthrown in the pond it shows the ripple effect. We remembered the quote
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Realization of Right to Education at grass root: Pedagogy of oppressed
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