Denial of Primary Education: a Deprivation Unabated. The Role of Alternative Primary Education for Deprived Communities (A Case Study from Jalpaiguri District in West Bengal, India)

Primary education is the base for overall development of the individual and society. Hence it is a basic and fundamental right not only ensured by the Indian Constitution but it is also the second objective of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), which India has subscribed to, is the goal of Universalisation of the Primary/Elementary Education (UEE). Therefore, the Indian Government adopted primary education as a strategy to eradicate all forms of discrimination that exist between different socio-cultural groups within Indian society. To ensure this, the Indian government launched and implemented the National Schemes of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) in 2001, across the length and breadth of the country, to provide compulsory primary education to all. Further, to strengthen the SSA, Indian Parliament has enacted the Right to Education Act (RtE)-2009 to provide free and compulsory primary education for all children in the age group between 6-14 years and has made it obligatory for State governments to provide and fulfil this right to all its citizens, irrespective of their different class, caste, creed, race, religion and ethnicity. Everyone should get an opportunity to access, retain and complete quality primary education through joyful learning. This in-turn will bring selfdevelopment among the children and overall development of the society and nation. However, even with the implementation of such national and state schemes/programmes, they have failed to reach the children living in the geographically remotest and backward regions where it is seen that the major concentration of population belong to the Schedule Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs). It is these children who are getting denied access to free and compulsory basic quality primary education in India especially in West Bengal today. The State Government of West Bengal has launched an innovative and alternative scheme of primary education that is Sishu Shiksha Karmasuchi (SSK) in 1997-98 to meet the educational demand of the people residing in the backward regions and required that this programme be owned and managed by the community, so that the community could address the need of primary education for their children and fulfil it with the support of the government. However with the passage of time the SSK programme has been undertaken by the government bodies and run as a parallel scheme of SSA. Therefore, there are major constraints that the programme is facing. There have not been any changes in the policy framework of SSK that is why the government officials still consider it to be a community-owned and managed programme and pay less attention to it. Along with the takeover by the government, the community has lost its legitimate power to run the programme. As a result the programme is running but in a neglected manner. For which the net sufferers are the children residing in the remote areas (belonging to SCs, STs, and OBCs communities) who fail to receive basic quality primary education. My research paper will attempt to critically analyse the quality aspects of the existing primary education policy and its implementation mechanisms and processes in India and especially in West Bengal. I have done this through primary research in the backward regions of Metalli Block in Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal, India, using qualitative methods of interview with different stakeholders. I have also analysed the research problem with the existing concepts mentioned in the literature regarding primary education in developing and developed country contexts that I have reviewed.