An organization working for the welfare of the nomadic Gujjar and Bakerwal community in Jammu and Kashmir today advocated for "forced schooling" for the children of the community.
"Forced schools should be opened to educate the nomadic Gujjars and Bakerwal children as most of the parents in the community are not ready to send their kids to school owing to migratory way of life and low tribal economy," Dr Javaid Rahi, secretary, Tribal Research and Cultural Foundation (TRCF) said here.
He was speaking at a function organised to discuss "Education among nomads and reasons of lowest literacy among Gujjars-Bakerwals".
The speakers who were drawn from the Gujjar community stated that on the prototype of pre-1947 'Forced Schools' started by the Maharaja in Kashmir, Ladakh and other parts of the state, the government should start same type of compulsory free education for their children.
"Education must be made compulsory for Ajjhari (shepherded Gujjars) and Manjhi (cattle breeders) as the parents are deliberately denying education to their children and using them as human resource in their day-to-day work," Rahi said.
