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| Children from weaker sections of society unlikely to join schools again | | Many of them remained deprived of online education as their families couldn’t afford expensive gadgets | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Feb 28: The COVID-19 pandemic has spelled doom for the students of weaker sections of the society in Jammu and Kashmir. The worst hit children have been from the tribal communities. Many of them have opted out of the schools due to extreme poverty. A 15-year old Manzoor Ali of Kokernag who used to attend the school regularly before the pandemic hit J&K and all the activities came to a grinding halt has joined a mechanic to support his father and his family of six members.
There are many underprivileged children of Gujjar-Bakerwal community for whom online education remained an elusive dream. Both smartphones and the internet were inaccessible. This digital divide, coupled with the loss of jobs during the lockdown, forced many tribal families to send their children out to work, the daily wages they earned helping to support their households.
During the lockdown survival was the biggest challenge for these families as a poor man struggled to manage two square meals in a day.
According to the 2011 Census, Gujjar-Bakerwal women constitute 79.7% of all the Scheduled Tribe (ST) women of Jammu and Kashmir, but lag behind in education: 82.2% of them are illiterate. The education of these underprivileged women further deteriorated amid the pandemic as the gender gap in the community’s access to technology grew wider.
The decision of the Jammu and Kashmir administration to reopen schools in March two years after they closed has rekindled hope for a few children but many of them are likely to discontinue studies as they don’t want to back off from the responsibilities. |
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