NATIONAL EDUCATION DAY
Event participation-short speech
On February 22, 1958, Jawaharlal Nehru went on air to announce “Aaj hamara Mir-e-Karavan Chala gaya (today we have lost the leader of our caravan ).”Nehru was referring to India’s first Education Minister Maulana Azad. A freedom fighter, renowned writer, poet, educationist, freedom fighter, and journalist Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was awarded Bharat Ratna in the year 1922. November 11 marks the birth anniversary of this great visionary. It is also observed as National Education Day. He had firm faith in the fact that every individual should have the right to an education that would enable him to develop his faculties and live a fully human life. On the birth anniversary of this great educationist who donned many hats in his more than four-decade-long public life and the one who has left behind a lasting legacy in the field of India’s education I would be speaking on the topic of poverty.
For me, the very thought of education brings
to my mind the idea of emancipation. It liberates our mind, helps to grow to
break the shackles of intolerance, removing darkness and poverty. To elaborate
upon this further I would like to share my own experience of my visit to Keonjhar.
Accessibility is directly linked with poverty-accessibility in terms of reach
to school and related resources. During my visit to Keonjhar, I met some
children cleaning plates near our picnic spot. When I tried to interact with
them to know about their school they answered that they do go. When I saw their
feeble body and frail hands I tried to peep inside the bamboo hut in the midst
of the forest. Both their parents had died long back. To sustain their life
they sell wine made from mohua to
visitors coming for a picnic. This is the picture of some of the tribal hamlets
in a state like Odisha. There are many such other examples. Maulana Abul Kalam
Azad realized that education could not only eradicate poverty and illiteracy
from the country but could also be used as an effective tool for social change
and economic growth.
Goal 1 and 2 of the United Nation’s
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) envision eradicating poverty and ending
hunger by 2030. Poverty is a multidimensional concept, which involves a reduction
in choices to pursue freedom. According to UNICEF, about 25% of children in
India has no access to education. Education and poverty are inextricably
linked. The World Bank estimates that 20% of the World’s poorest people are
disabled and tend to be regarded in their own communities as the most
disadvantaged. Poverty is one of the most important factors in whether girls can
access education according to the World Bank. Lack of education is a major
predictor of passing poverty from one generation to another. Increasing access
to education can improve overall health, prevent child marriages, save children
from malnutrition, decrease the infant mortality rate, and empower individuals to
create a just society where there is
equitable sharing of resources. As quoted by noted economist Amartya Sen
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