Those missing their right to education overwhelmingly belong to Mushahar community settled next to the DEO. This comes to light amid school enrollment campaign. [break]
Of the 60 Mushahar households, Chandar Kumar Sada is the only boy enrolled in the local school. The rest, 123 -- all in their school-age -- are missing out to education.
The desperately poor community has no one studying beyond the fifth grade, according to Chalitar Sada, a local.
“I didn´t know that children right in front of our eyes are not going to school. Now that I am told, I will do everything I can to bring them to school,” District Education Officer Ambika Sah, said.
“We mostly stay at home doing babysitting when our parents go away for work,” ten-year-old Dharmendra Kumar Sada, said.
“Some 15 kids, including one Jugari Sada, had gone to Bal Mandir for a year but as they received no textbooks, they dropped out,” said Anuj Sada, a local.
School principals here say that as soon as children get enrolled through the enrollment campaign, they dropout. Siraha is not an isolated case, other adjoining districts have the same problem, they say.
Around 100 school-aged children in 55 households of Musahar community in Lalpur-1 and another 150 of a Mushahar settlement near a primary school in Aurahi-8, are also missing on their opportunity.
According to Dalit Jana Kalyan Youth Club, Lahan, there are just three percent of Mushahars with the functional literacy in the community, though the literacy rate for the entire district is 45 percent.
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