Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan-II

At one of the villages, we asked the routine question:
"Are the children enrolled in schools?"
One of the women said:
"They are refusing to admission to my daughter. They are saying that she should be 10 years of age before they admit her."
"In the primary school?"
"Yes. I took her to the school but the principal refuses to admit her. He says she is not old enough. But two years back they admitted her sister."
"Is there an aanganwadi?"
"Yes."
"Then they have absolutely no reason to refuse. You can enroll your child in aanganwadi at the age of 3 and the child will continue in the school till primary education is finished. Even other wise, the principal has no reason to refuse admission. A child who is 6 years old is admitted."
The principal and the assistant teacher both are upper-caste men. They do not want the lower-caste, especially the Mushaar community, in their school.
Every time I visit UP, I stuck afresh by the caste politics. There are layers within layers within layers.
In this case, we finally asked Visvesh Bhai to have a chat with the principal and ensure that the children are admitted to the school.
Even as the government is trying to do its bit, the villagers themselves prefer to send their children to the private school if money is available.
In another village this was so evident. This was an SC community. The children were much neater, wore clean clothes, and were attending private school.
It is completely another matter that neither the government school nor the private school teach much.