Another set of college exams had just got over and I was completely drained after an extensive week of reading, cramming, and writing out supplementary after supplementary of stuff I saw no meaning in. I was fed up of the rote-learning that is ingrained into the Indian education system, and felt that it had robbed me of my natural zest for learning and knowledge.
And then I met Rosy, the twelve-year-old who worked as domestic help in my neighbourhood. My mother called her over one day to sweep the bungalow's compound when our regular maid went AWOL, and upon realizing that she was child laborer, I was shocked to say the least. I didn't know to react, for although I was aware of the existence of child labour, I had never witnessed it firsthand before.
Needless to say, I was aghast and told my mother to let Rosy go for she needed to be in school rather than at a housing society, sweeping and mopping and washing with her delicate little hands. But my mum explained that the child's family would never send her to school, and it was better she work and earn for herself rather than sit and home and do nothing. I was not convinced at all, and never will be.
It immensely disturbs and horrifies me that there are millions and millions of young children out there, in India and elsewhere, who work rather than play and are almost always exploited beyond what we can imagine possible. Rosy at least had a good environment to work in and got paid at par with other domestic workers, though I certainly don't think their average wage is an adequate compensation for all the hard work they do. The amount of cheap, overexploited, downtrodden, ignorant, and helpless labour we have in this country perhaps constitutes one of our most despicable societal problems. Children should not work. Period.
But how is this related to my hating the Indian education system, as I mentioned at the start of this post?
Well, it is because young Rosy made me realize that the passion for knowledge and studies is not governed by extraneous factors like the education system or the demands of examinations, but rather from an intrinsic desire to learn and grow.
With bright, intelligent eyes, and a curious, witty demeanour, Rosy asked me innumerable questions about school and college while she went about her work. I told her all that I could about the various different subjects and how exams are taken and all, and she listened most attentively, visibly fascinated at getting a peak into the world of academia that she knew she would never belong to.
Talking to her, I began to appreciate the obvious reality of how very fortunate I am to have attended school at all, and moreover, to have made it all the way to college. I used to spend so much time complaining about not having gone to the foreign university of my choice that I'd forgotten how at the end of the day, its education that matters rather than institution. Immediately, I began focusing more on knowledge rather than 'the system', and regained my love for learning.
Then one day, Rosy asked me whether I would teach her English. I was taken aback and caught off guard. I knew nothing about teaching, and certainly didn't have the patience to make someone learn this super complex language which I happen to be good at. Not wanting to dishearten her, I said I would try as soon as I 'found some time' from my own studies and work.
Unfortunately, that 'time' never came forth. I don't know whether I was indeed busy or I unconsciously on purpose steered clear of the whole challenge that the little girl had thrown my way. She stopped coming to work after a few months, and I fear that her fate was much the same as millions of other young, underprivileged girls in our country - she was probably married off to the first available boy that her parents could find, and could well be pregnant with her own child now. It's disturbing, unsettling, maddening.
And what makes it worse is this terrible guilt I feel for not fulfilling the simple hope she had entrusted in me. I could have at least TRIED to teach her English rather than avoid the entire endeavour. I had a little bit of experience of handling kids from my brief stint in the National Social Service at college and could have used my brain to come up with an effective way of imparting to her at least a little bit of what I know of this language. Yet I didn't on the lame pretext that I didn't have 'time'. I had all the time to be online every night, chatting to my friends, or going to movies on weekends, or just plain relaxing in front of the T.V. but I couldn't find so much as an hour every week to devote to a talented young girl who was capable and willing to LEARN.
Wherever she is today, my prayers are with her, but prayers are not enough. I have to DO something, I have to WAKE UP, I have to 'be the change I wish to see'.
And this change is education. I want to share my knowledge, help the children of my country learn all that they really need to so that they can grow to be self-sufficient and bring about much-needed societal change. It is only with education that we can get rid of unnecessary orthodox rituals and customs and traditions that create problems in the lives of the poor and 'backward'.
Child marriages, dowry deaths, female foeticide and infanticide: grave issues like these will only be resolved through education in the true sense of the word.
And the only step towards 'doing' something for change is to simply 'make' time rather than merely keep trying to 'find' it.
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