Excerpt from

18 August 2002

All rights reserved to The Himalayan Times
Number of Rajak girls passing SLC dips with only six clearing exam this year
Himalayan News Service
Kathmandu, August 17,
Members of the Rajak group, a part of the Dalit community, stressed the need to promote education among their community. Development within the Rajak community can be achieved only with education, they said.
"We should encourage Rajak children to be enrolled in schools since it is an important tool that leads to development," said Bandhu Ranjan, treasurer of the Rajak Scholarship Trust (RST) at a programme here on Saturday.
The programme was organised by RST, a trust that provides scholarship to students belonging to the Rajak community.
Currently RST is working with the Vishnumaya Rajak Scholarship Fund, which provides scholarships to 21 students.
Poverty has forced Rajak children to engage in different economic activities at the age they should be in school. Pointing out that such children should be encouraged to study, he added that it is essential to focus on need-based scholarships.
Govind Man Dhobi, chief advisor of the RST and also the first person in his community to pass SLC examinations, emphasised that parents and students of the community should make efforts for meeting the latter's educational goals.
However, this year, there has been a decline in the number of Rajak girl students in passing the SLC. Only six female Rajak students passed SLC this year, while 13 male students cleared the examinations, he said.
Stressing that parents' help and encouragement is a contributing factor in achieving educational goals, he said, "We are a deprived community. Therefore passing the SLC examination is just overcoming a small hurdle since there is a lot to achieve."
Dhobi handed over scholarships to Rajak students scoring the highest marks within their community in the SLC examinations. Binita Maharjan, Raji Rajak and Jyoti Meghaya were declared top Rajak girls while Ujwal Meghaya, Yogesh Rajak and Sudan Rajak were the top boys.
Stating that the scholorship programme of RST is a positive move, Ishwar Meghaya, who won RST scholarship in 2000, said that other organisations should also aid the Rajak community in the area of education, thereby helping the community to become an integral part of society.