When children in the dusty Santosh Nagar neighbourhood in Mumbai are studying in school, five-year-old Kannan Swami is playing at home. The boy who was allotted a seat in a private school under the Right to Education (RTE) Act in 2015, waits impatiently for his admission while his mother runs from pillar to post to beat a patriarchal government rule.
Kannan, who is being brought up by his 32-year-old mother Gauri, was denied admission because his mother could not produce her estranged husband’s income certificate. Having separated nearly five years ago but not legally divorced, Gauri’s dilemma, like that of many other single mothers, is that the government does not accept the caste/income certificate of the mother unless she is legally divorced. Bringing the case to the consumer forum did not help her, and She will soon file a writ petition in the Bombay High Court. A few blocks away, Kiran’s daughter faces a similar dilemma. Her daughter was refused admission as she did not have a caste certificate.
The women, who have been fighting their cases since 2015, are now exhausted. ‘We have been running from one government office to another. Meanwhile, our children remain out of school’, they say.