Time for government/society to think of girl babies

The Indian budget for 2011-12 runs into several trillion rupees where as the scams in India equally compete with the budget numbers. There are many rich people in India and we have many poor people as well. We are at the 21st century and the whole world looks at India as an amazingly developing country. Unfortunately we have so many issues which the poor people are facing in our country are not being properly addressed by the government/society. I would like to bring your attention to a recent incident in Karnataka where in a baby girl of few days old was killed by her mom. The reason was that she was the 2nd baby girl and her husband is a drunkard. The mother found it difficult to manage two baby girls with their earnings and decided to kill the innocent infant.

It is not just the ONLY case but I am sure we all have heard/come across many such cases. The reasons could be many but the truth remains that the lots poor Indian parents still think that giving birth to baby girl is a SIN.

My question is can our 21st century India still live with this cruel act?

We know that there is already a significant decline in the ratio of boys to girls. We know the result of this and the social imbalance it can create. The governments are putting lots of effort where in they have introduced several programs for child development. Details on programs can be found at below website maintained by Department of Women and Child development, Karnataka govt.

http://dwcdkar.gov.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49&Itemid=114&lang=en

But I am not sure how far the government officials are able to reach to common man with these programs. The only way we can eradicate this social menace is through proper education and bringing the awareness among the common man. With this in mind, I am planning to write a letter to Department of Women and Child development to implement the following;

When a mother gives birth to a baby girl, the government officials should visit the parents of the baby and explain them the various programs which the government has undertaken for girl child development. Properly counsel them and explain that with the given facilities provided by govt, it is now easy to up bring the baby girls and they shouldn’t worry about their future. If the parents are still hesitant to keep the baby then the government can adopt the baby or join the baby to an orphanage run by many NGO’s. I believe, this to an extent can save several infant baby girls.

For the better future of India, it is important to have a social balance and hence it is important save the lives of baby girls.

If you have any better suggestions, please write them in the comment section and I will consolidate and send across to the department of Women and Child Development.

Can our government school students compete with the private school students?

Just to give you some data; according to current estimates, 80% of all schools are government schools making the government the major provider of education. However, because of poor quality of public education, 27% of Indian children are privately educated.

If we start questioning; why is quality of teaching that bad in government schools? I see following reasons:

1. Number of students too high

2. Poor level of teacher training

3. Not so committed teaching faculty (doesn’t apply to all the teachers)

4. For many schools; no proper infrastructure to run the schools

When the student population is too high, teachers can only spend their time to just control them. When I was in the primary school, we had only 4 class rooms and 5 teachers. 1st and 2nd standard students were combined and similarly 3rd and 4th. For each class there were at least 70-80 students and imagine how can a teacher deliver his duty? Though government has spent enough money to build extra class rooms and to hire new faculty the substantial increase in the number of students has kept the quality of education at the same level.

On the other side; there is a scarcity for quality teachers. This is due to the fact teachers training is not up to the mark and also the dedication and commitment of many teachers is questionable when it comes to learning new things to enhance their teaching ability.

The other important aspect is; in most of the government schools, given the cultural and linguistic diversity of India, students are taught in their regional language (some central govt run schools like Navodaya.. teach in English but it is an exception) and this is the differentiating factor while getting high profile jobs.

Contrary to this; private schools have better infrastructure, good teaching faculty and most of the private schools teach in English language and offer CBSE and ICSE syllabus. It has been pointed out that private schools cover the entire curriculum and offer extra-curricular activities. This basically makes the private school students competent enough.
 
One can argue that we had seen many people in India who have studied in the government schools and attained highest job. But the fact is that the % is too low and maybe it was fine in the past where in there were not many private schools and the quality of education was almost same for all.

I have no idea how we can bridge this gap in future!