Under the Right to Education Act, free and compulsory education is a right of every student. The Act provides for free textbooks, money for uniform and free lunch under the midday meal scheme in all government schools up to Class 8, but despite the provisions, there are children who do not go to school and many who also drop out in between as they do not have the resources to get education.
In order to bring down these numbers, many organisations are doing their bit by coming together and collecting books, stationery and other material that might act as an incentive for students to go to school.
An NGO, headed by Pramod Sharma, has a ‘Kitab Ghar’ in Bapu Dham Colony, Chandigarh, which was established in 2008. Students can borrow or even issue books as per their needs from this library. Volunteers donate books and even promote reading campaigns, storytelling sessions and organise birthday parties for 500 marginalised children.
Such programmes can be replicated in elsewhere too. Why everything should be left tot he government?
Read more of this Chandigrah effort in a report by Akanksha Budhiraja published in The Indian Express....
