Dropout rate of school students still 77 % in Bihar : Mishra

Law Kumar Mishra

Patna: Former chief minister Jagannath Mishra on Saturday claimed dropout rate of the students in primary to secondary schools in the state was 77 % though Nitish Kumar led government had taken several steps for enrolment of the children of underprivileged classes.
Inaugurating a two-day state workshop on social security for the workers in unorganised sector at Bihar Industries Association (BIA) hall here, Mishra said no follow up measure was being taken to enable students continue their studies.Free cycles ,free uniforms and free text-books attract poor children to get themselves enrolled in  schools,but still 77% of them drop out of the schools.
Mishra said these children were from the “social justice” category , children of farm labourers, brick klins and those engaged in digging earth for roads. Champions of social justice ignore them and do not ensure the children continue in the schools.”Is there any child of MLAs or MPs dropping out of the schools,”Mishra commented.
Mishra feared more youths would be attracted towards Maoism, if they remain neglected . They are pickip up guns and joining Naxalism as they see the governments funds were being misused and funds weere being denied to the beneficiaries.The Unorganised sector labourers social security Act 2008, the Inter-state migratory labour Act 1979, all are on paper only.
The former chief minister said the World Bank and IMF were putting pressure on the government to enforce legislations which were pro-industrialists and deprived workers of their genuine rights. He regretted the governent had collected Rs 6,000 crore as labour cess in 2012, but only Rs 965 crore have been disbursed among the workers.In Bihar, Rs 358 crore  was collected for Building workers welfare fund but only 5% was spent on the welfare of the workers.
Vijay Prakash, Principal Secretary, Labour resources, in his key note address, said the unorganised sector was losing its bargaining power.They deserved to be skilled. DroFarm workers need to be trained in post-harvest technology to  prevent damage to harvested crops.