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Musahars, too poor to go to school Last Updated : 2010-04-26 12:27 AM The Himalayan Times - Saved Articles(s) Rambabau Yadav SIRAHA: Despite government campaigns to increase enrolment rate in schools, children in this Musahar village in Siraha have always been deprived of education. The Musahar village in Siraha-9 is just next to the District Education Office, the government mechanism in the district responsible for leading the enrolment campaign. But still, nearly 123 children of school-going age from 60 families have never been to a school. According to Chalitar Sadaya, a local, there is no one in the entire village that has passed fifth grade. "Everyone who goes to the District Education Office can see this Musahar village, but no one has shown interest in educating children of this community," he said. Ten-year-old local Dharmendra Kumar Sadaya said he was never told by anyone about the school enrolment campaign. He said, "We spend the whole day guarding the house, looking after younger siblings and goats." Bouka Sada, another local, said though many people have asked him why he did not send his children to school, no one ever asked him about the problems he faces in sending the children to school. He said, "We are poor and cannot afford to buy books, copies and other necessary materials for school-going children." The Musahar community in the district headquarters is just an example. The government mechanism has also failed to bring children from other dalit communities in the district to school. In another Musahar village of Lalpur-1, too, more than 100 children have been deprived of education. And so is the case with more than 150 children in the Musahar village of Aurahi-8. Kapleshwor Sadaya of Rishikul Sadaya Kalyan Samaj said that almost all the people from Musahar community were landless and forced to labour for very little daily wages so they were unable to send their children to school. He said, "The government thinks that constructing a school in the local community is an all-time remedy, but it hardly assesses the capacity of locals to send their children to school." He also said that almost all the children from the 358 Musahar villages in the district are deprived of education. He claimed, "The government should take responsibility for educating children from the Musahar community, then only will its enrolment campaign succeed," According to a survey of Dalit Janakalyan Yuba Club, Lahan, only four per cent of the 75,000 Musahars in the district are literate. Only five persons from the Musahar community are college graduates. And, above all, 95 per cent of Musahar are landless in the district. Tularam Tamang, head teacher of Shramik Primary School, Asanpur, said that only five per cent of the children enrolled during the campaign were from the Musahar community and most of them quit before completing primary level. Amit Bishwokarma, a local dalit rights activist, demanded a new plan from the government level to include all dalit children in mainstream education.
