New sense of class for the poor

New Delhi: Neelamdevi Thakur lives in a working-class slum and earns a living washing dishes in middle-class homes twice a day. In the past year, two of her five children, who attend an affluent private school, have returned home speaking words that she had never heard from her other children, who study in government schools.

They have begun speaking English.

They point to the vegetables in their meal and say "turnip," "cauliflower" and "radish" in English, a language that for many Indians denotes social status and opportunity. They sing nursery rhymes in English and refuse to take the tortilla-like Indian bread called roti to school for lunch, instead demanding sandwiches and noodles. The children, ages 5 and 7, now want to cut a cake on their birthday, like the other children in their classes.

Court decision

"I don't understand what they say, but my chest swells with pride every time they speak English. Their life will be far superior to mine," Thakur said, wiping her moist eyes with the edge of her blue floral sari. She compares the two with her 12-year-old son, who attends a government-run school in the neighbourhood. "He comes home with bruises, scars and broken teeth. His teachers are either absent or sit in class knitting sweaters," she said.

Thakur's family is one of thousands in the capital that have benefited from a three-year-old school integration drive stemming from a court decision. The court ruled that the city's expensive private schools, which were granted land at relatively low rates, were required by law to set aside 20 per cent of their admissions for poor students.

In a city where scores of slum communities exist alongside plush neighbourhoods with a booming lifestyle of conspicuous consumption, the school initiative was aimed at bridging both the education gap and the social divisions.

"The private schools are run like businesses, demanding cash under the table for admission and charging exorbitant fees. They have a social responsibility," said Ashok Agarwal, the lawyer who filed the court petition in 2002. "Even after the ruling, they kept saying that it was not a good idea to mix the poor children with the affluent ones in the classrooms."

Several schools continue to be locked in court battles over the issue. Others comply reluctantly, even after the court brought the admissions set-aside down to 15 per cent. Two years ago, when Thakur took her younger children to the neighbourhood private school, she was shooed away by the clerk.

Unlike private schools, government schools charge no fee, do not screen students before admission and subsidise textbooks and uniforms.

Creating challenges

The private school experience of Thakur's children is not only changing their aspirations but also creating challenges for her. She has to wash and iron their uniforms every day despite erratic electricity and a poor water supply, because the private school insists on it. She pays for the textbooks, uniform and the rickshaw they use to ride to school.

In school, the children from poor families are usually the first ones to be blamed when something is stolen. "These children are misfits in school and at home. They develop a feeling of inferiority among their classmates, and feel superior to their family," said Sheela Sharma, 40, a middle-class parent of two boys who go to an affluent private school. She argues that the government schools should be improved instead.

To get around the challenge of total integration, many schools have resorted to running parallel, separate-but-equal classrooms for the slum children.

"The pride that the slum children feel in attending good schools is immeasurable. It offers them the possibility of another life," said Shyama Chona, principal of a private school that runs separate classrooms for poor children.