The weather at this time of the year is unforgiving, but every evening, as I walk home, I see her walking home with a bag or two on her back, among a group of school children. But don't mistake her for an old woman going to school. It is but a burden of old age. Old age is the best time for prayers some say, but Abi Wangdi does not enjoy that kind of luxury for she has to drop her two grandchildren to school and pick them up in the evening.
The Ministry of Education discovered 890 'underage' children admitted in schools across the country in 2019. Thus, the ministry in May 2019 issued a notification revoking the admission for these children. Majority were in urban centres. Desperate, parents and the affected schools requested the government to intervene. They also requested the government to consider lowering the enrolment age to five years. Currently, in Bhutan a child can legally go to school only when s(he) is six years old. And that policy was strictly followed a few years ago to the extent that some schools refused to admit children even if they were short of a few weeks. So, parents, mostly in urban areas, resorted to faking their children's ages. Many parents were guilty of adding years onto their children's actual ages. However, most parents, we are told, managed to correct their 'mistakes' later. Faking a child's age was rampant...
The pictures are disturbing for my soul. She may be doing it for the love of her grandchildren but the heavy load and the thick clothes in pling at this time of the year may not be her fav. She may want to sit under the shade of some tree near the Zangdopelri with other old folks praying... we often forget that our parents are not our babysitters, they have babysitted us and given us this comfortable life...now it's the time for us to grannysit them...
ReplyDeletePS: remove second, third and the fifth pictures...
Yeah PaSsu. I was disturbed myself and it took me sometime to ask her. Old people have had their share of work, as you have said it. But the reality is far bigger than the expectations. There is no happiness when old people have no time for prayers.
ReplyDeleteThanks PaSsu, I have removed those pictures you have asked me to successfully.