The importance of education can never be overstated, as it is one of the most valuable and powerful tools to bring about socio-economic progress in the country. Every child must be given an opportunity to get education, as it has become a basic necessity considering the dynamics of today’s world. However, not all the children are fortune enough to get this opportunity; this has also resulted in widespread inequality due to the vicious cycle of poverty that the underprivileged children get trapped in. While the privileged children are provided with international-quality education, most of the underprivileged kids are not provided with even the basic education. Education for underprivileged children is considered more of a luxury than a necessity.
The problems in providing education to underprivileged children are manifold and multi-dimensional, due to the fact that being privileged or unprivileged depends on many factors and aspects like economic status, gender, caste, regional background etc. Financial factor is one of the most significant barrier in most of the cases. Though efforts have been made to provide education for underprivileged children at low-cost or even for free, but as of now they have not been able to make the desired impact. Apart from economic ones, other factors like availability of schools in nearby areas, social status, community mentality etc. also play an important role, for being privileged does not merely mean being financially sound. Hence, education for underprivileged children is not a straightforward or unidimensional issue.
India is a country which is facing the issue of illiteracy and poor-quality education on a large scale, combined with glaring disparities. According to the National Census, 2011 the literacy rate of India is 74.04%. Along with that, the problem of poor implementation and execution has meant that many children are being enrolled and educated only on paper.
The problem does not end with education for underprivileged children. While it must be acknowledged that the goal of universalizing elementary education is still far from being achieved and that community factors affect the status of education among the children, even the adult illiteracy affects a variety of things apart from education. Studies show that illiterate parents have more malnourished children and also, they are less likely to send their children to school for education. As a result, the focus should not merely be on increasing number of children enrolled, but on the quality and level of education for the underprivileged children, with the purpose of achieving a progressive society as a whole.
Government has taken steps in this direction and has also succeeded in providing education for unprivileged children in many regions. Other than the government, various NGOs and CSR wings focus on providing quality and low-cost education for underprivileged children. They work with local communities at the grassroots level in order to increase awareness and encourage them to support these organizations in getting the underprivileged children educated.