Tuesday 29 October 2013

Just Dance it Out...

Just Dance it Out...

I enjoy dancing, though I am not a perfectionist neither very good at it but then if given a chance I can dance for hours to support one cause ‘Education for Women’ this the one cause for which I am always ready to support and do anything, till every women gets the right to education.
And recently I got a chance to do that, as I was part of the team that was supporting the cause ‘Education for Women’ on 23 October 2013 at the DID Indiblogger’s meet.   
                           


My reasons for supporting this cause come from a real life incident which is still as fresh as ever in my memory.
From January 1998 onwards me and my friend ‘Anju’ were super excited and began our count down to the end of school and beginning of our college. We both decided to join a professional college so that we could achieve economic independence to an extent that we would be self-sufficient in our life should any mishap did occur in our married life. Anju’s parents dashed all her hopes when they got her engaged to a middle-aged man more than twice her age. All her laments, pleas and string of tears did not mover her parents who nipped Anju’s dreams in the bud of becoming another Kalpana Chawla. The marriage was short lived, and in six months time ended in a divorce and subsequent suicide. I am reminded of this episode every time I hear of another girl deprived of education and forced into marriage, and it does send a shiver down my spine.
On the other hand after completing my education I did not become Kalpana Chawla, but have carved a niche for myself in the IT Professional world.
The sad part is that Anju was deprived of the basic right to education. The fault not only lies with her parents but the Government and the society at large.

Today when India is one of the fastest developing countries still there are few drawbacks, which are holding our progress. For example, women safety, female foeticide, dowry issues, child marriage, education for women, human trafficking are some of the critical areas of concern. However out of all this the one which is more threatening and alarming is illiteracy in females, which is a main root cause of all these curses and drawback of our society.
Indian may have clinched a name for itself in Information Technology the world over, yet in the hinterland of rural India majority of children, especially girls are deprived of the basic education. There are basically two areas that need to be addressed if India is to grow by leaps and bounds . First and foremost; total abolition of child labour needs to be ensured. The fear of the devil needs to be put in the minds of the parents who resort to denial of education to the children and especially girls.
Government has done its bit by giving guaranteed rural employment to the rural population and also made education free up to the middle level. Over and above this the Government has also introduced mid day meals to school going children so that nutritious and wholesome food is available to the children.
If even after this incentive children are made to earn a living by foregoing school the punishment should be exemplary. This will go a long way in educating rural children.
The second most crucial point that needs remedy is that the education standards in rural schools need to improve drastically. This can only be done by employing proper trained and qualified teachers who draw a decent salary so that they are motivated to improve the education standards of rural schools. The staff at local village level should closely monitor the functioning and results of the school on a regular basis. Once these two steps are taken care of, in a short span of just fifteen years the literate percentage will show a marked improvement. Education for all will have the desired effect, drug abuse; crime against women will drop drastically.
Education will ensure good job placements; this in turn will improve the living standard of the majority of the people. We are all aware that if we educate a girl child, we ensure that we educate her future generation after her marriage.
Unfortunately this aspect is not appreciated by the rural folk who may let the male child go to school but never the female child. From very early in life she is made to work at home and even help in bringing up her siblings. Today we do have schools if not in every village but in the vicinity. Non Governmental Organisations need to step in and educate the parents on the need to educate our children, both male and female, in the right earnest as greater awareness in the younger generation after education will ensure drop in crime again women. Besides it will slowly eradicate the evil system of dowry that is prevalent in India.
Today the nation needs the likes of Kalpana Chawalas, Kiran Bedis etc. and not Anjus. Let us dance till the nation wakes up the idea of women education. 




Below are the images of our groups act on the same issue #Education For Women #DanceItOut

Phase One of the Performance -

Pic. 1: Where parents forces the girl to drop out of school and work in the kitchen

Part 2: She is married to a man of parents choice who is also paid a hefty dowry(not able to get picture clicked)

Part 3: The girl is brutally burnt alive by her In laws.










Phase Two of the Performance -

Here we show what would have happened if she was educated? She could have educated the community.


This post is a part of #DanceItOut https://www.facebook.com/ZeeTvIndia

Last but not the least ‘Come join me’ and put on your dancing shoes and let India wake up to our slogan of ‘Education of Women.’

(The story in this post is a work of fiction inspired by real life incident I personally have come across).

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