Gurgaon (Haryana),
Jan 18
Helping "educate each and every Indian child", Britain will give 200
million pounds towards India's universal elementary education
programme over the next four years, British Chancellor of the
Exchequer Gordon Brown said here Thursday.
During their visit to a government primary school at a village in
Gurgaon on the outskirts of New Delhi, Brown and Gareth Thomas,
permanent under-secretary of state in the Department for
International Development (DFID) of Britain, re-instated their
support towards the central government's universal elementary
education programme, also known as Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).
On his maiden visit to the country, Brown went to the village
school, part of SSA and is supported by the DFID, to see the
progress of the children studying there.
DFID has contributed 210 million pounds to SSA over the past three
years and aims to, in Brown's words, "educate each and every Indian
child".
"Over the next four years, we will contribute 200 million pounds
towards the education of children in India. Educating every child in
the country might look difficult but we will make it possible," said
Brown, the Labour's prime minister-in-waiting.
Although a hurried visit, Brown was taken around the school campus
by the state project director of SSA, Raja Sekhar Vudru, where he
met the kids of the bridge course, the primary and the secondary
sections.
The bridge course, for children who have dropped out of school but
are now willing to resume their education, is supported by an NGO,
Sant Nischal Singhji Foundation (SNSF).
According to official data, the number of dropouts have come down
from 25 million in 2003 to less than 10 million in 2006, which Brown
termed as "remarkable", but nevertheless wanted better results.
While interacting with the kids, he and Thomas also took a peep into
the kitchen that serves mid-day meals to children.
At one excited kid's queries if it was the prime minister of Britain
who had come to visit them, Brown simply laughed and pointed out to
their uniform, and said: "I love red!"
Women from many states including Orissa and Andhra Pradesh had also
come to share their experience of uplifting themselves from poverty
with the help of a DFID-sponsored micro-finance programme, Credit
and Saving for Household Enterprise (CASHE), implemented by CARE
India, a humanitarian organisation.
CASHE is the largest microfinance initiative outside government
initiatives and is designed to provide credit to poor women.
It was launched with the support of 10 million pounds by DFID while
another 16.5 million pounds was contributed by the Small Industries
Development Bank of India (SIDBI).
Brown spoke to the women about the project and encouraged them to
continue their work.
"The contrasts in India are huge but when a child is rescued from
child labour and comes to school, the gap is bridged a little. We
will help bridge the gap completely," he concluded before waving
goodbye to the kids.
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