* Gulbarga has half of out-of-school children in State* http://www.hindu.com/2007/07/14/stories/2007071458830100.htm
------------------------------ * 80,863 children in 7-14 age group are out of school NGOs say this figure could be 10 times more * ------------------------------ Bangalore: Just five out of 27 districts of Karnataka account for over 50 per cent of out-of-school children in the State. The provisional statistics emerging from Child Census 2007 show that of 80,863 out-of-school children in the State in the age group of 7 to 14 in the State, 44,663 (55.23 per cent) are from Gulbarga zone alone. There are 75,75,220 children in this age group. This is no surprise considering that districts in Hyderabad Karnataka routinely figure at the bottom of human development indices. Poverty, illiteracy, lack of infrastructure and large-scale migration as a fallout of a severe agrarian crisis has led to children from the zone remaining out of school, says Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan State Project Director L.K. Atheeq. What is surprising, however, is that Bangalore zone has the second highest number among the four zones, with 15,808 children out of school, as against Belgaum (12,715) and Mysore (7,680). Mr. Atheeq says this trend too is a result of migration, with a chunk of out-of-school children in a city like Bangalore coming from families which have moved out of villages. SSA is yet to analyse the data for patterns on the lines of caste and religion. "Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Muslim children accounted for a large number of out-of-school children in the last census. We do not expect a major change in the pattern," says Mr. Atheeq. SSA plans to take up many special programmes, especially in Gulbarga zone, to bring more children to school. The most important is the Asha Kirana programme which provides hostel and other basic facilities to disadvantaged children. Dispute on numbers The Government statistics on out-of-school children has been disputed with the non-governmental organisations working on child right issues contesting the figures. As on March 31, 2003, out-of-school children in Karnataka stood at 10.54lakh. It is said to have come down to 1.61 lakh in March 2006. According to the latest census figures, 1.07 per cent of children in Karnataka are out of school. NGOs working with child rights issues say the figures are about 10 times more. "This is not a realistic number," says Niranjan Aradhya of the Centre for Child Law. "We did a re-census at Bannikuppe Panchayat in Ramanagaram in March. While the SSA census showed 4 out-of-school children, we came up with 24." Mr. Atheeq says the actual numbers may be higher than the census figures indicate. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Ours is a battle not for wealth or for power. It is a battle for freedom. It is a battle for the reclamation of human personality." - Dr BR Ambedkar ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ greenyouth mailinglist is the activist support mailinglist for kerala To post to this group, send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
