Young and Restless India » Caste

Teach for India – NGO with a Mission

Raj — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 02:31:40 +0000

Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State for US, currently visiting India joined with Aamir Khan in a conference on Education at St. Xavier’s college at Mumbai. They found a common ground in challenging bright youths to take care of millions of Indian citizens that falling behind.

Outlook India’s recent article titled “Teaching for India” gives following statistics:

The average literacy rate hovers around 60% in India (for women, the number is much lower)
World Bank statistics show that fewer than 40% of adolescents in India attend secondary school.
According to a recent study, 15 out of every 100 Indian kids will never go to school. And among the 85 kids who do, 50% of them will drop out before the 5th grade.

The Outlook article characterizes this as an educational crisis, where almost 40% of the population is under 15 years of age, these trends are troubling, and can prove disastrous over the long-term if they are left unchecked. The article notes that this educational crisis is exacerbated by severe gender and caste disparities and can impede India’s ambition of Global power.

As Hillary Clinton challenged, the educated youth can volunteer to help spread the literacy in India. Recently launched Teach for India which is modeled after successful Teach for America program will place outstanding college graduates and young professionals as teachers in India’s low-income schools for two years. The aim is to narrow the educational gap and expand the educational opportunities available to thousands of underprivileged children. This is exciting because Gen YRI can take a leadership role in solving one of the major stumbling block India is facing in its march towards prosperity.

URI Young Leaders Conference

Akshata — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:57:23 +0000

URI (United Religions Initiative), India chapter had a conference for the Young Leaders. Check out the video. These are India’s future leaders.

Kerala Nurses

Raj — Thu, 28 May 2009 02:01:14 +0000

News Blaze article “Kerala Nurses: Nursing No Wounds”, the reporter Sreelekha Nair writes that the single largest category of skilled women nurses from Kerala have been migrating as workers within India and to places like Australia, West Asia and North America. Until recently, almost 80 per cent of nurses in Delhi hospitals were Malayalis, with a majority being Christian.

Reporter notes that Researchers attribute the ubiquitous presence of Malayali nurses in the health care sector to various factors:

Women’s education having come early in Kerala;
Missionary and state efforts in developing service-oriented sectors, such as education and health; a well-established tradition of migration;
Existence of informal networks that expedite such migration.

Nursing was the preferred vocation because the investment needed for training was modest, they could sustain themselves and their family, pay for their siblings’ education and even earn a dowry for their marriage. But, for women from the higher classes and castes, nursing was a complete no-no. The profession was looked down upon, as the work was demanding, the hours were long and included night shifts, and it was not seen as advisable for women to attend to strange, unknown people including men.

Today, nursing as a career has become very popular, even among non-Malayalis and men in need of a job. This is because of the opportunities it offers to earn well and go abroad.

http://newsblaze.com/story/20090526074321iwfs.nb/topstory.html