To inspire students, PM recalls his early days

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has recalled his hard days as a child and his gradual rise to become the head of the state in an attempt to inspire schoolchildren across the country. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Nov 7, 2011, 01:48:49 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has recalled his hard days as a child and his gradual rise to become the head of the state in an attempt to inspire schoolchildren across the country.

In a message to be read in 14 lakh elementary schools across India on November 14 — the Children’s Day — Singh says education gave him a “new life” and his efforts have been “rewarded” by the country.

“I went to a village school that had no electricity,” he said. Singh did his schooling in Chakwal district, now in Pakistan, in 1930s and 1940s. “I studied under an earthen oil lamp.”

Singh, who lost his mother at an early age, studied in a temporary school miles away from his village. “My village did not have pucca roads or fast vehicles… I would walk miles to reach school.”

But a lot has changed since Singh went to school. Right to Education (RTE) is now a fundamental right and elementary education is free. Singh’s family had to pay for school education and it was not mandatory for schools to admit a child, now a must under RTE Act.

“In the India of today, every child, without discrimination, has the right to education,” the PM’s message, translated in 12 regional languages, reads.

In the light of change, Singh urged children to ask as many questions as they can and seek answers to them from teachers and quoted Mahatma Gandhi to insist that persistent questioning and healthy inquisitiveness are prerequisites for learning.

The 79-year-old, who is the third longest serving prime minister, owes his achievements to education.

On the occasion of the Children’s day celebrations, a message from HRD minister Kapil Sibal emphasising on the importance of RTE and messages from respective chief ministers will also be read in schools.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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