Learning Must Continue: Support children from Manipur during lockdown

No matter which school we are in, children in schools are always struggling for some or the other reason.

My name is Santa Khurai. I am from Manipur and I am part of the Meitei indigenous community. I am a Nupi Maanbi, which can be translated as transgender woman in English. I am a writer, artist and gender rights activist. My activism has helped me connect with several communities, and has enabled me to understand that every issue affects all of us. I believe that everyone’s issue should be everyone’s problem.

Manipur’s literacy rate according to the 2011 census is just above the national average at 76.54%, and 23.46% of us still do not have access to education. In Manipur, people take pride in giving a good education to their children, and this is deeply rooted in our culture. Some parents eat just one meal a day so that they can afford quality education for their children.

I live in a place called Khurai Sajor Leikai, a constituency in Imphal East. In my locality, there are around 200 families. The parents have sent all their children to English medium primary schools, which include children ages 8 to 13, or from second to fifth standard. Since the imposition of the lockdown, all the schools are shut. And the teachers have started sending all home assignments through WhatsApp messages.

Some fortunate families have multiple smartphones, and can access these daily assignments. However, there are a few families run by widows, single parents or working class parents. These families do not have smartphones, and often have just one keypad phone for everyone in the family for basic communication. Many of them lost their source of livelihood because of the lockdown, and in the meantime their childrens’ learning has stopped since they cannot access assignments on WhatsApp.

Before, if accessing Right to Education was only to be able to send children to school, after the lockdown, it has brought us to engage Right to Education to an online education system, digital literacy, digitisation, affordability to buy a smartphone and so on. This pandemic has led us to acknowledge that these rights need agencies to access. I have a mobile phone and a laptop. Several of the mothers of children with no access to a smartphone, come to my house to use my smartphone. The assignments are sent daily and the mothers come everyday to my house without fail to note down assignments for their children. There are 15 families who do not have a gadget and two of my gadgets are not enough. They deserve more and better. We all do.

15 mothers of children across age groups come to me everyday. As the notes are sent daily, many are pending and piled up. This burdens the children and stops them from learning on time with others. If children have access to technology, they can accommodate themselves to the changing developments. They can also participate in many distance learning programs and alternative forms of education, initiatives taken up by various organizations. The initiative is not limited to access the home assignment but also planning to connect with the organizations which are working in this sector.

I asked these mothers and their children, what could be a possible solution to enable them to access their home assignments regularly. They have told me if they had a mobile phone with a large screen then it would definitely help. I am sure there are millions of children across the globe who face a similar struggle. There should be more global attention to poor children, especially in the time of crisis. However, I am trying to help the people connected to me, in a way that’s within my capacity. Your kind financial contribution would at least help bring up  good citizens in the coming years and we must realise that we need many good citizens for us to survive together.

BUDGET
9cm Samsung tab = Rs. 14,500 x 15 = Rs. 2,17,500
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