PANDEMIC, DROP-OUTS AND THE NEAR FUTURE.

-Sohini Dhar

India, diversity and growth

A change is inevitable in a world where the generation itself passes on from the Greatest Generation to Millennials and Generation Z. However, certain parts of societal behavior, psychological nuances and socio-economic stigma, take long to change.

India, carrying a vastly heterogenous box of caste, creed, language, indeed has its own ups and downs when it has to move towards a change for this diverse population homed by it. Few of those factors that call for a room for change are, gender inequality and child labor. India, with its own battle to being a more liberal, discrimination-free, inequality-free country did indeed reach a certain level of success with not just gender-responsive measures but also overall well-being of a child.

Gross enrollment ratio went from 9.694% in 2002 to 28.57% in 2019. Female school enrollment went from 7.845% in 2001 to 30.218%. Literacy Rate for female (15 and above) went from 61.015% in 2001 to 74.373% in 2018. The Indian economy was on its way to bring about a change, when the pandemic hit it.

The much pervasive mindset

Having long passed is the orthodox of having women stay at home doing their chores, look after children and basically give into all that falls in domestic household activities. The repercussion of which consists of, unequal distribution of education expenditure (boys and girls), shifting over the apparent burden of having a girl child by getting her married, in return for which can a typical rural household suffice for its craving for financial stability by getting ‘bride price’ or ‘bride token’ and also sometimes to get over the fear of having an unmarried daughter.

The financial impotence of overburdened families in rural India, force the family heads to fulfill their needs by sending their children into labor activities, getting a child to be devoid of education. This helplessness also brings about the lack of adaptation to digitization in a world where the proliferation of digital technology and digital services have made digital skills a prerequisite for full participation in society.

Further add-on is the changing times where foundational education is not always considered as a basic need in a world where Einstein, Bill Gates, Walt Disney, Sachin Tendulkar, Mukesh Ambani (notable people who have dropped out) etc. are a true inspiration, quite literally. This too leads to a youth consciously backing out of attending schools, searching for what matches with their cognitive style, choice of a literal workspace etc., hence somehow adding up to a new workforce.

In toto, all the socio-economic, financial and technological backwards boils down to mental backwardness and financial instability, the indicators of which are; the sectoral share to GDP, Population living BPL etc.

Covid-19 and the thereafter shaken world

Covid-19 has shaken every aspect of this dynamic economy, be it, human capital formation, mortality rate, literacy rate or any other human development indicator that reflects the overall well-being of a nation, hence adding to the already halted the growth of the nation. The already mentioned complications and the measures taken corresponding to them, have had a setback with respect to a child’s growth and his attainment of foundational education. The nerve-racking pandemic in response to an alarmingly rising cases of Covid-19 has taken a toil on child rights, child labour practices, human trafficking and many other forms of exploitation of human resource and humanitarian practices inculcated by social groups like RTE,Yuva etc.

With classrooms being shut and parents losing out on their jobs in the pandemic, thousands of families are putting their children to work to suffice for their financial needs. India accounts for close to 7.3% of 152 million children(worldwide) into child labor. According to a survey conducted out of 818 children, child labor has risen from 28.2% to 79.6%07. It was further found out that 18.6% of the children often faced physical, mental and verbal abuse from their employers. A small percentage of children said that they started to work in order to buysmartphones.

Learning loss, which refers to any specific or general loss of knowledge and skills or any other reversals in academic progress, most commonly due to extended gaps or discontinuities in a student’s education, has also gotten exacerbated, which is attributable to lack of classroom environment needed for holistic and multidisciplinary education, online learning, formative assessments and finally the lack of technological advancements (especially for females), disincentivizing one to go on with school education and hence dropping out just so that one could explore other opportunities. Apart from the burden of supplementing to family income, conscious decisions of the Generation-Z also account for this rising new workforce.

With mass poverty back in India, financial instability, which was already a rising concern in the backward rural India, is just giving families the impetus to take back their daughters from education and somehow reduce their household expenditure. A pandemic that has forced mankind to raise their income and set of assets(skillset, education) from home, has over-burdened our youth because of regressive norms arising out of the inherited societal behavior and mindset. The gender gap with respect to mobile internet users in India between men and women has also unnerved the female youth. Over-burdened families have been trying to get rid of educating their own child and instead sending them off to places, wherefrom they can earn money for their families, anyhow. A staggering number of children are being victims of physical exploitation in a country where 1.2 million children are involved in prostitution. According to a report, 9 million additional children are at a risk of being pushed into child labor by the end of 2022 globally.

What needs to be done?

All in all, all the measures taken forward to bring a progress in female education, child labor and making a better space by mitigating the effects of our stereotypical and backward sect of our Indian economy have been impeded by the pandemic, leading to the already prevalent complications to aggravate.

The biological effects of this potential virus might taper off, but decelerating the rates of this virulent exploitation will take longer than ever anticipated in the long run.

Having reversed the progress made on right to education and child rights, what is now required is a huge inflow of social, political and fiscal measures. Stimulus packages directed towards the betterment of these children should now be a bigger stakeholder in the Government Budget.

Even after ratifying one of the relevant instruments of ILO like The Minimum Age Convention,1973, not only the employment age limit of 15years, but also the lower bound of 18 years for hazardous works, gets crossed time and again in rural areas. This needs to be addressed post-pandemic, since maybe the rate of children going into child labor will mitigate with time, but pathetically, coming out of this loop of child labor is not assured because it sis not just a never-ending trap, but also a potential loss in the very essential and the most holistic phase of life i.e the school education.