R. K. Kapur

THE ROLE OF THE BHARAT SCOUTS AND GUIDES IN YOUTH TRAINING AND WELFARE

By

R.K. Kapur

[Shri R.K. Kapur, a keen student of English literature was on the staff of the Punjab University in preparation days. After the partition of the country when he migrated to Delhi, he joined the Ministry of Education in the Government of India and rose to be a Joint Educational Adviser in that Ministry. He retired from service in 1963 when he was appointed Joint Director of the Regional Institute of the UNESCO in New Delhi for Educational Planning in the South and SouthEast Asia. He is now Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sambalpur in the State of Orissa.]

No one can deny that youth in this country, and, indeed, in the whole world is in a state of great turmoil today. It is not prepared to tolerate any longer the inanity of life in affluent societies and the injustice and the exploitation which exist in such large measure in the poorer parts of the world. It refuses to be imposed upon by an order generation in whose empty promises it has lost all faith. It has seen to much selfishness masquerading as patriotism, too much personal advertisement passing as social service, too, much violence covered up in ostensible pursuits of peace to have any regard left for those who have the reins of power in their hands. There are many other causes which go to shape this complex phenomenon, but this obviously is not the place to analyse them. Suffice it to say, that in Asia.

Europe and America the younger generation seems to have reached a point when they think they must acquire power to fashion the world in a much more just, equitable and meaningful manner than their elders have been able to do in the past. The mighty eruption which took place at the Sorbonne in Paris some time ago, and which found responsive echoes in many parts of Europe and elsewhere has been the most dramatic exhibition of the malaise which is now found in most Universities of the World. Compared to the explosions which are now taking place in established seats of learning, what we

had in our schools and colleges in the last few months appears to be a Guy Fawkes Night of negligible fireworks.

In the human body, as in the social organism, symptoms of disease usually begin to manifest themselves long before the malady assumes a dangerous form, and it is the business of those who wish to maintain personal or social health to take remedial measure in appropriate time. It will not be unfair to say that in our anxiety to expand education during the last seventeen years, expansion for which, let us concede, there were strong, social, political and economic compulsions we concentrated heavily on the quantitative aspects of the problem, and neglected other important elements in this complex process, without which it could not have yielded socially satisfying returns. What was vital and ignored has given rise to tensions which threaten to cancel the advantages which education sought to achieve.

It will be readily conceded that good education is not merely academic instruction; it involves the harmonious development of physique, a balanced development of emotions, a fair degree of socialization and the acquisition of a set of moral values which can help one throughout life. All this apparatus is not acquired in the class room alone; the co-curricular activities, games and sports, contacts between teachers and students, the atmosphere in the home the prevailing climate in society in fact, the social ethos as a whole, all these contribute their share in moulding a properly educated man.

Let us briefly examine how our educational system has, fared on some of the major counts which have been indicated above.

It is well known that after the second World War, there has been all over the world, but more especially in developing countries like India, an explosion of expectations; the common man is not prepared to regard his poverty as a divine and unalterable dictum, and he looks upon education as the major instrument for transforming his lot. There has, therefore, been during the last seventeen years in our country an expansion of education, the like of which has never been witnessed in the world before. Schools, Colleges and Universities have gone on proliferating, sometimes in answer to the existing needs, sometimes for political and prestigious considerations. The country has just not been able to afford suitably qualified and trained teachers for those institutions, nor has it attracted to the profession, through appropriate emoluments and other benefits, men and women who are best tilled fitted to devote their lives to

this nation-building activity. Poor and dissatisfied teachers lead to poor text books and poorly unrelated to the real problems of life, ends with an examination which is mechanical, unimaginative and bug-bearish in its psychological effects. The educational system, therefore, becomes a soulless machine, and our schools and colleges, largely agencies of mass production, and not instructions where the human personality, each of which is essentially unique, is helped to unfold itself according to its hidden potentiality.

The poverty of the academic provision is matched by the inadequate attention given to the development of the physique. Thousands of schools and colleges have no playgrounds, and even those that have them use them indifferently for games and sports. The full impact of these activities is unfortunately not yet understood in our system. They are regarded as the preserves of the scholastically backward students or of those who wish to take them up as a profession. The character building quality of sports and the social and moral values which they call into play, quite apart from providing a wholly healthy outlet for physical energy, are not yet considered as an integral part of education. The spirit of adventure for which there is a deep urge in the young is seldom called into play. There is little provision for a medical check-up at entrance, a medical follow-up where necessary and emergency care of those who require it. Such surveys as have been conducted in schools and colleges have revealed an alarming incidence of disease and malnutrition in our boys and girls.

The emotional and psychological problems of our students also tend to be neglected, partly because of limited resources and partly because we lack trained man-power to develop appropriate welfare services. First generation learners who come from illiterate families and enter college for the first time, feel bewildered in their new surroundings and need sympathetic attention. Guidance is also needed in the choice of subjects, in moments of emotional tension (which are bound to occur during adolesence), during financial crises (by no means in-frequent in the life of an average Indian student), and in the long and hard quest for a job. Confidence in the young to face the world develops with emotional maturity, which is brought about through cultural activities, debates and discussions, social meets, camps and hikes and other forms of organized group activity. Only the best schools and colleges in the country promote these activities in any appreciable manner.

In this face of this large catalogue of weaknesses and deficiencies, one might well ask what role the Bharat Scouts and Guides can play to promote youth training and welfare. Let us be candid and say at once that scouting is not a panacea for all evils, and any tall and untenable claims made on its behalf can only harm the cause. It is quite obvious that scouting cannot reduce over-crowding in schools and colleges: it cannot improve teacher salaries or even induce able men to join the profession. It also cannot, perhaps, improve curricula, or reform the examination system. However, in the total process of education, it can make a highly beneficial contribution, and its methods and content can help to bring about well-developed and harmoniously rounded personalities which can stand up squarely to the pressures of modem life.

To begin with, scouting catches one young, when habits can be easily formed, and through games and pleasurable activity promotes socialization, and a keen sense of responsibility. The Scout Law and the Scout Promise are simple, straightforward statements which become part of one’s mental make-up through constant repetition. And during the Camps, which are prominent features of the movement, scouts and guides are brought under a number of influences which promote emotional maturity, the spirit of adventure is implicit in nearly all the scout activities; that is why it is so deeply satisfying to those who join it.

At several places in the country today, students have been invited to take pledges to safeguard democracy and secularism, to obey the rule of law and to settle differences, no matter of what kind and intensity, through an amicable exchange of views. This is supposed to be an antidote to lawlessness and indiscipline. A question has been asked that even if the students take the oath, what surety is there that they would continue to honour it? One makes promises and oaths and one frequently breaks them, according to one’s convenience. Since there is no moral sanction behind the oath, there may be no moral compunction in repudiating it. It is quite obvious that if these oaths are taken by those who have been guides and scouts at some point of their educational careers, they would never want to break them; they would honour and of decent behaviour is at the very root of democracy, and a scout is a seasoned democrat, even when he willingly obeys duly constituted authority.

The indiscipline among the Indian Youth today is a result of accumulated frustrations; a cheerful, active and outward looking

scout is free from frustrations not because life is kinder to him than to others, but because he has an outlook in which both sorrow and joy, failure and achievement have their appropriate place and get synthesized in a deeper understanding of human existence. Life in the Camps by which the movement sets so much store as a whole school of education in itself. It teaches emotional integration and the solidarity of India (and in International jamborees, the unity of the world) as nothing else can. It satisfies a large number of youthful impulses and desire, and as an open-air, outdoor activity promotes clean habits and a healthy outlook among the participants.

And the beauty of it all is that the scout teachings are not imparted through a para-military organisation or through an iron- regiment but through activities in which pleasure and instruction are inextricably blended. It is tempting thought as to how different the moral climate in our educational institutions would have been today, if, instead of dissipating our energy in a number of comparative activities in the field of Youth Welfare, we had, during the last two decades, concentrated on promoting scouting and guiding alone. This is a challenge which the workers in the dream of the great man whom we are honouring today through the publication of this volume.