Childhood is children's right
Just about a few years ago, it wasn't a practice to send children younger than 7 years to school. They could spend all that time with their parents and other family members who lived with them. That's the reason why we believe home is the first school of a child. That's where the seeds of values and imagination grow. Whatever children learn in school used to be an extension of their learning at home. Children learn their language and mother tongue from their mothers. A mother teaches in a rather unconventional method to her kids. She doesn't teach the rules of grammar to her kid. The child doesn't even know it is being taught something. The child begins to learn unconsciously listening to the mother's affectionate expressions of language.
Children often speak what they hear from their mother when they begin to say their first words, it's their mother's language. The child becomes a part of the society by learning from his or her parents’ behaviour too. Only after children's learning is complete in the house, should the doors of school open for them. But in the last two years, things have drastically changed for the kids. Now they have to be admitted into convent schools soon as, or even before they are born.
Parents and the system force the child into LKG and UKG even when the child barely begins to speak. Which means child is away from home even before it completes 3 years of age. Even before the mother finishes her teachings, the child is snatched away from her and school books are imposed on the child. The bond between the child and the mother reasons from being strengthened for good. This is one of the main reasons the bond between kids and parents is getting weaker with every passing generation. Because they don't get to know each other. Even before they realise, kids are robbed of the affection of parents.
Now teachers in school can barely make good for the affection kids would have lost out at home. Children are forced to face strange people at barely three years of age and bear the burden of books and learning, that's imposed on them. This is the main reason for their poor self esteem that creeps in at this stage which gradually takes over the child's personality. Children begin to carry books from a very young age and home work instills such fear in them that they suffer the consequences of this for many many years to come. Without being able to shower affection, the parents spend time disciplining childern to do homework and other stuff that has been made order of the day, thus ruining the secure fabric of this beautiful bond.
Kids barely enjoy their childhood or remember good things about their younger days owing to all this. With things being this bad, the central government's decision to reduce books and home work for children is the most welcome change. The government had ordered for the homework to be done away with for kids studying in first and second grade, and has also specified the burden on books to be reduced to bare minimum.
First and second standard students have to be taught only language and maths, and nothing else. And students from third to fifth classes should be additionally taught EVS and maths as specified by NCERT. If this order is implemented in its right spirit, children can be saved from this demon of homework and have a normal childhood. They not only escape unnecessary homework, but don't have to carry heavy books in their bags. They can spend time with their parents without feeling the burden or work or fear the class teacher next day.
Childhood is a right that belongs to the children. No one can snatch it from them. Neither the parents not the educational institutions have any right to snatch it from them for their prestige. Children should go to school only after they have completed their learning at home and not to ensure their parents’ false prestige. If parents feel kids should secure high marks to maintain their glory as the parents of the child, it becomes some kind of child labour in basic terms. Kids don't go to school only to secure marks and it should never be so that kids are forced to make schools and parents proud only when they secure good marks. It is the responsibility of school and parents to ensure the learning happens through fun and not as a punishment.
The centre shouldn't rest after issuing this order. The work does not end there. It should also ensure effective implementation of the order by schools. Even parents must question those schools which do not implement the order well. They must also ensure their kids don't turn out into marks horses. If parents and educational institutions come together, a thorough change can be bright into the educational system in our country. We need to understand children have to naturally evolve into fine beings than be forced to grow up fast beyond their level of comprehension. Only this can help their future get better with time and for generations to come.
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US SEC summons Gautam Adani, nephew Sagar in bribery case
New York (PTI): Adani group founder and chairman Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar have been summoned to explain their stand on the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) allegation of paying USD 265 million (Rs 2,200 crore) in bribes to secure lucrative solar power contracts.
Summons have been sent to Adani's Shantivan Farm residence in Ahmedabad and his nephew Sagar's Bodakdev residence in the same city for a reply to SEC within 21 days.
"Within 21 days after service of this summons on you (not counting the day you received it)...you must serve on the plaintiff (SEC) an answer to the attached complaint or a motion under Rule 12 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure," said a November 21 notice sent through the New York Eastern District Court.
"If you fail to respond, judgment by default will be entered against you for the relief demanded in the complaint. You also must file your answer or motion with the court," it added.
Gautam Adani, 62, and seven other defendants, including his nephew Sagar, who is a director at the group's renewable energy unit Adani Green Energy Ltd, allegedly agreed to pay about USD 265 million in bribes to Indian government officials between approximately 2020 and 2024 to obtain lucrative solar energy supply contracts on terms that expected to yield USD 2 billion of profit over 20 years, according to an indictment unsealed in a New York court on Wednesday.
Separate from the indictment brought by the US Department of Justice, the US SEC has also charged the two and Cyril Cabanes, an executive of Azure Power Global, for "conduct arising out of a massive bribery scheme".
The ports-to-energy conglomerate has denied the allegations and said it will seek all possible legal resources.
"The Adani Group has always upheld and is steadfastly committed to maintaining the highest standards of governance, transparency and regulatory compliance across all jurisdictions of its operations. We assure our stakeholders, partners and employees that we are a law-abiding organisation fully compliant with all laws."
An indictment in the US is basically a formal written allegation originating with a prosecutor and issued by a grand jury against a party charged with a crime. A person indicted is given formal notice to reply.
That person or persons can then hire a defence lawyer to defend.
Prosecutors said the investigation started in 2022 and found the inquiry obstructed.
They also allege that the Adani Group raised USD 2 billion in loans and bonds, including from US firms, on the backs of false and misleading statements related to the firm's anti-bribery practices and policies, as well as reports of the bribery probe.
"As alleged, the defendants orchestrated an elaborate scheme to bribe Indian government officials to secure contracts worth billions of dollars and... lied about the bribery scheme as they sought to raise capital from U.S. and international investors," US Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement announcing the charges on Wednesday.
"My office is committed to rooting out corruption in the international marketplace and protecting investors from those who seek to enrich themselves at the expense of the integrity of our financial markets."
