Friday, November 22, 2013

Five Questions to Ask Your Election Candidate (English Version)

This is the English version of the flyer circulated a little before the last general elections. As mentioned, it got results, but was a little late in the campaign.



IGNUS-PAHAL
The one who fights for children’s rights!                         Is the one who will get our vote!

Five Questions On Our Children’s Rights

This election may affect your children.  Especially if your would-be representative in legislative assembly keeps the following in mind.

·       Education – good / quality education – is everyone’s right. Especially after the RTE, education in every government school should be such that everyone finds it good. But even very poor parents are removing their children from government schools and making sacrifices to send their children to private schools.
Ask your would-be representative – Question 1: What will you do to ensure appropriate and quality education in government schools?

·       Teachers’ salaries have gone up. They now get training from time to time to enable good education for children. There is provision for mid-day-meals, school uniforms, play equipment, learning material – all free. But there is demotivation among teachers. They feel neglected. They feel as if they are not being respected.
Ask your would-be representative – Question 2: What will you do so that teachers take interest in their work and are committed to the good education of their children?

·       According to RTE the responsibility of running/managing the schools will now be with community and panchayats. But the community and the panchayats feel: how can we give any advice to the school? They do not find themselves capable of advising / supporting schools. And they feel this is not even their work.
Ask your would-be representative – Question 3: What will you do to enable the active involvement of community and panchayats in improving education in our schools?

·       Community and parents both expect that education will ensure children’s development as well as employment. But now people say: All this education is going to lead only to unemployment, so it is better that the child be engaged in some wage-earning work right away.
Ask your would-be representative – Question 4: What will you do so that every member of the community is aware and committed towards the education of their children?

·       If we look at the money spent on education, most of it is used for salries, infrastructure and maintenance. Crores of rupees are spent every year on this. Even then our schools and education offices look dirty and disorganized compared to private institutions. And the people responsible for improving education for children cannot even be heard talking about it.
Ask your would-be representative – Question 5: What will you do so that government schools and education offices look attractive? So that people in the system not only think of children’s improvement but also do what is needed?

Your views will have an impact, won’t they? But only if you raise these questions! Give your vote only if you get an answer! So go ahead, ask questions, get others to ask, and let us know!!

Our contact: ignuspahal@gmail.com


Thursday, November 21, 2013

Five Questions To Ask Your Election Candidate!

With elections not so far away, here are five questions you can encourage people to ask of their prospective representatives. We used these in the last general elections, and had encouraging results. They were re-printed by others and spread over a fairly wide area in Varanasi and Lucknow regions. Many candidates and their party heads had to touch upon these issues. Unfortunately, we got the idea fairly late during the campaign season. This time though we need not be so late!

Inviting everyone to take a look and use what they find fit. Right now, these are in Hindi (and not a good reproduction of the original flyer) - will put up an English version as well.