MERIT LIST
A SCHOOL WORTH ITS SALT
Saltpan Workers Illiterate But Their Kids Write A Better Future ………Radha Sharma | TNN
In the midst of huge mounds of crystallised salt, Hema Ratreja, a class VI student of Kharaghoda village, shines a mirror at the homes of students who havent turned up at school. Mirrors are the usual mode of communication in these barren plains.
For, as far as you can see is desert. This is the Little Rann of Kutch, an inhospitable land where salt workers toil under the punishing glare of the sun. The harsher the sun, the better for salt making. Their children would have been doing the same, but for a silent revolution spreading across this 5,000 sq km expanse.
The best part of my day is spent at school. I get to play with my friends, learn to read and write, says Hema, who wants to become a teacher. Her elder sisters and brother are illiterate and work in the saltpans for eight months in a year to earn a living.
One man is trying to change the destiny of 10,000 children of salt workers Sukhdev Patel. For the last 10 years, this 51-year-old has been bringing education to their doorsteps. His team, Gantar, undertook the huge effort on its own before the Gujarat government granted them Rs 4.70 crore in 2006-07. This year, the amount has been raised to Rs 11.50 crore.
My dream is of an India where there is no child labour, where every child goes to school, says Patel. He studied in a municipal school, and after graduation, got into the business of running canteens at institutions in Anand and also started a printing press.
After 10 years of doing business, Patel and his friends formed Gantar. They conducted surveys and found that over 50% of children dropped out of school. The worst sufferers were children of migrant workers. Gantar set up base in Patdi taluka in Surendranagar district and started schools for salt workers, with semi-literate youth as volunteer teachers.
In 1996, about 100-odd students came to the first school. Next year, the number of schools rose to six. But the schools ran for just four months, as parents moved to the interior of the Rann for the remaining eight months to make salt. As students were absent for eight months, the district education administration did not promote them.
After a long struggle, the administration issued a circular that the children could take exams and get promoted. Patel ensured that the state government followed Supreme Court directives and improved the lot of the salt workers.
Over 10,000 children of migrants benefit from the project and the state funds over 50 schools and 50 hostels for migrant children.
Patel is now focussing on students who dropped out after failing in early classes. He has also introduced vocational courses in the hostels. Says Shilpa Sattar who failed in class 8 and then dropped out: Now, I am set to appear for my class X exams. Shilpa, whose brothers are salt workers, has taken up welding as a vocational course along with her SSC studies.
Education alone can bring selfreliance and remove inequality in society, says Patel.