Karnal (Indri), September 7
z Rohit, a Class IV student of Government Primary School, Indri, suddenly stopped attending his classes in March this year. His teachers were clueless. When they visited the boy’s house to enquire about him, they were shocked to know that Rohit’s father Seb Lal, the sole breadwinner of the family, had died in March. The poor boy didn’t even have the time to mourn his father’s death as responsibility to feed his mother, four sisters and two younger brothers fell on him. So, his school bag gave way to a jute bag and the nine-year-old turned into a rag-picker to earn livelihood.

z Mona (10), a budding Class V student, is forced to ‘beg’ on streets after her elder brother and father Garib Das died last month. She has a mother and two younger siblings suffering from leprosy to take care of.

z Sanjay is just 10 but he is the sole bread-earner of his family. He had to leave school last year after his father passed away. He cannot go to back to school even if he wants to as he has a mother and two elder sisters to look after.

These are not isolated cases. The much-touted Right to Education Act has not done much to improve the state of child education in Haryana. The school dropout rate in the state was 0.15 per cent in 2010 when the RTE Act came into being. It climbed to whopping 6.3% in 2011.

The Act doesn’t have provisions for retention and rehabilitation of such families who are forced to take their wards off the school in distress.

The schemes like mid-day meal and incentives such as Rs 75 to boys belonging to the Below Poverty Line (BPL) families and backward classes (BC), Rs 100 to Schedule caste (SC) and Rs 150 to girls belonging to the BPL, SC and BC families have proved too little for these kids, who are staring into a dark future.

Social activists term it as a matter of serious concern. “The government must play a proactive role in rehabilitation of such children to help them continue their education,” said Pritpal Singh Pannu, president of NIFAA, an NGO.

“We will do our bit to help children and women in distress but the government support is absolutely vital. The scope of Red Cross fund should be widened to help such children and their families”, he added.

Prof VB Abrol, an educationist, said a few activists had started at least 18 makeshift schools - Jeevan Shalas - for school dropouts. “Evening classes were held for children who were also provided food, books and uniform. But due to paucity of funds and lack of support from the government, many of these Jeevan Shalas had to be closed,” Abrol said.

When asked about the plight of kids who have to leave school to support their families. DC Karnal, Renu S Phulia, said: “So far, no such case has come to our notice. If we come across any such case, we would render all possible help. There are facilities like Child Care Centres and orphanages but there is no provision for rehabilitation of such families.”