Children’s Day barely means anything for underprivileged

Sumeer Singh

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, November 14

While Children’s Day was celebrated with great pomp and show across various schools in the city, it barely means anything for those studying at Government Primary School, Chandsar Basti, who were either orphaned at a tender age or raised by single parent.

Lovely (4) lost her parents when she was one-year-old. Since then, she has been living with her maternal grandfather at Kamla Nehru Colony. Now, she is studying in pre-nursery at Government Primary School.

Parambir Kaur (4), another student at the school, was raised by her handicapped mother. Parambir’s father abandoned his wife and daughter and married another woman two years ago.

Her mother’s legs are paralysed completely, that have rendered her bed-ridden. But responsibility of raising a child encouraged her to take up a job of sewing/stitching clothes.

Prince (4) was abandoned by his parents two years ago. He is being looked after by his maternal grandmother. Of 42 children in pre-nursery of the school, 15 are either orphaned at an early age or being raised by single parent/relatives.

One of the school teachers at the government school, on condition of anonymity, said, “The government launched the pre-nursery scheme in government schools across the state a year ago on Children’s Day. However, sheer neglect to provide even basic resources, including financial assistance to needy children, has resulted in no major results.”

Swarna Devi, a teacher at the school, said, “Unlike primary school students, children studying in pre-nursery are not being provided mid-day meal. Even uniforms are not provided to these students. There are no benches or other basic infrastructure in the school. During the rainy season, water accumulates inside the classroom. The school building has not been repaired for years. We have informed the Education Department and administration officials a number of times regarding the problems being faced by us, but nothing has been done till now. All these children come from downtrodden families and there is hardly any support from the government/administration to improve their plight.”