260 Million Literates In India Cannot Read: Survey

According to the Alternative Development Center (ADC) in Jaipur, after many years of experience in running four schools for slum children it is of the opinion that most of the older students in schools often drop out or discontinue their education as they are frequently forced by the parents to work in order to provide daily income to the family. ADC feels that for children to continue their studies they must offer their parents with some financial incentives.

If India pursues an efficient model that is followed in Brazil then besides better social services, employment for the adults in the family can be made possible by imparting vocational training based on skills and techniques. Such training would connect education and employment together which is the main concern of deprived families. Medical support to mother and child, hygienic conditions and psycho-social development of the marginalised children need to be combined with mainstream education. To some extent, this might be a means of abolishing child labour.

Further, the Right to Education Act guarantees free and compulsory education to all the children upto 14 years of age. But now, many civil society groups are demanding that the Right to Education Act be extended upto 19 years and vocational training should be an essential part of it as vocational training could fetch the children with a job in future.

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