Schooling eludes Bede children in Lalmonirhat

Almost all the children of the Bede (gypsy) community in Lalmonirhat are deprived of education due to absence of awareness among their guardians and lack of proper facilities. Instead of sending them to school, the parents teach the children magic tricks to earn money.

Shefali Akhter, a nine-year-old Bede girl in Mostofi village under Lalmonirhat Sadar, was asked if she wanted to go to school. She replied, "Of course, I want to go school. I want to get academic knowledge, but my parents are not interested in admitting me to a school. Instead, I'm given training on how to amuse people with magic tricks."

Noor Islam, an 11-year-old Bede boy in the same village, said he told his parents to admit him to a school, but they didn't listen to him. "As my parents did not agree, I am learning magic," he added.

Rehana Begum, 44, of the village, said she gives training on magic to the children following the tradition of their community. There are 65 children of 25 Bede families in the village, and some of them are earning money from exhibiting magic, she said.

Shefali's father Rafiqul Islam, 44, of the village, said getting an education isn't the job for this community's children, getting training on magic is the main job. "Education will not bring anything for us, so I don't allow our children to go school," he added.

"We have no permanent address, we move here and there round the year, so we cannot send our children to school," said Shefali's mother Souravi Begum, 36. "We live in a village for one to three months, then we go to another place. We have no houses, we live in huts," she added.

Sekendar Ali, the leader of this gypsy community, said 2,100 people of 500 families of the community, divided into 20 teams, are at present living in different places in Lalmonirhat district, and they don't know where they will go next.

"Our community people earn from snake charming, selling talismans and amulets, and showing magic tricks in villages and towns," he said, adding that their children are also attracted to their ancestral profession. "Our community people countrywide don't send their children to school due to absence of awareness and lack of proper facilities," he added. "If the government assures us that our children could attend class at any school in any place we go to, we will of course admit our children to school," he said.

Mahubar Ali, a schoolteacher at Mostofi village, said he talked with many children of this community, and they showed great interest to go school. If the community's children are given proper facility for studying, they will become educated, and bring light in their society, he added.