Shiv Kumar Padha
Education is considered as the back bone of any nation because it plays a pivotal role in its development and progress. Education is the single most important factor of development in developing countries and higher education is one of the significant factors that can control our past, present and future. The more we disseminate it and take it to the portals of the aspirants of higher education, living in the rural and remote areas the more we are near the long cherished national goals. Due to inadequate or no access to the higher education those living in the rural and remote areas of state feel as if higher education is the prerogative of the rich or of those who live in cities with an easy access to the institutes of higher education. In a democratic country like ours the government has felt the needs and importance of education and has realized the responsibility to implement plans and programs for democratization of education in the country. Now education is constitutionally recognized as a birth right of the citizens of the country. To make education accessible to all has been a mission of the government.
In order to give fillip to the attainment of educational goals, the State Government has have underlined the importance of enhanced access to higher education and its universalization and have stressed upon the importance of satellite campuses, particularly for those located in the remote areas. This will provide opportunities and avenues to the young talent of the state to peruse their higher educational goals without incurring higher expenses and other difficulties of remaining away from their homes because students from poor families face challenges and cannot succeed in securing opportunities for higher education. The decision of the Jammu and Kashmir government to establish satellite campuses in the rural and remote areas like Kathua, Bhaderwah (Sungli village), Poonch and Kargil is aimed at taking the higher education to the portals of remote areas and reaching out to the talent all across the state and give them a break to prove their ability.
Topographically, more than eighty percent of the total population of district Kathua lives in remote areas of Basohli,Bani and Lohai, Malhar of Billawer tehsils with majority of scheduled casts and scheduled tribes population. Hutt, Kachheed, Siara, Banjal of tehsil Basohli, Dhagger,Dullangal, Panyalag, Bhandar, FatehPur, DandiGuttu, KhaderKalote, Lowang, Sarthal of Bani tehsil and Lohai, Malhar of Billawer tehsil are some of the places which are not only remote and backward but in accessible even inthe age of fastest means of transport and communication. The natives of these places are poor and deprived of even basic necessities like food, connectivity, shelter, health, education and employment. Under such circumstances the youth of these areas can never dare aspire for higher education. It is beyond doubt that the youth living in these inaccessible areas are intelligent, industrious, talented and hardworking and are in no way behind their counterparts living in other parts of the state but, for them acquiring higher education is like a wild goose chase.
They feel that they are deprived of bonanza of gifts and facilities which the dawn of independence brought with it for all the countrymen without any discrimination. The youth of these remote areas, after doing plus 2 or graduation, go to the markets of other states of the country and work there as coolies and porters and fetch money in order to feed their families at home. For the poor parents from the remote areas of Bani, Basohli, Lohai, Malhar, Machhedi and Sarthal, sending their children to the nearest university Jammu for higher education is like sending them to any other city of the country because they have to bear the huge burden of expenditure in the shape of admissions tuition fee, meals, lodging and conveyance at the cost of other members of the family at home.
Bhandar, Sarthal, Dhager, FatehPur, Malhar and Machedi the farthest villages of Bani, Basohli and Billawer are at a distance of about 100 Kmts. From Basohli (via the newBasohliBhaderwah road) and about 300 Kmts. away from Jammu by the same rout. There is adequate infrastructure available at Basohli to accommodate the satellite campus with number of post graduate courses in the campus.Basohli, being the nearest town, has got good connectivity with Bani and the remote areas of Bilawer tehsil, is an ideal place for establishing satellite campus and has wide scope to housenumber of post graduate courses. The whole BaniBasohli region has enormous flora and fauna and good deposits of mineral wealth, as such PG courses in geography, Biology, geo physics, environment sciences, home science and fisheries will become the first choice of the youth which will enable them acquire highereducation at par with their counter parts in other parts of the state.
For reviving the faith of the deprived youth in the democratization of education and to translate the provisions of ‘right to education act and education for all’ into reality, the higher education will have to be taken to the portals of those less advantaged families living in the remote and inaccessible areas of Jammu and Kashmir state and provide them opportunities so that they can prove their worth.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel