Barwani: Here, girls tread 8km-long 'road' to education

BARWANI: As India gets its first woman president from the tribal community, girls from tribal Pati block of Barwani district of Madhya Pradesh face a roadblock to their education. Everyday about hundred girls staying at a hostel of Budi village in Pati block travel a long treacherous journey of 8 km just to reach their school and return back. The reason behind this gratuitous situation is said to be the fault of the planners but these young girls with aspirations pay its price on the cost of their education.
In the village that has Eklavya residential school with capacity of 400, there are four government hostels as well.Everyday, 100 girls from class 9 to 12 of Government Kasturba Gandhi Girls Hostel go to Government Model School on Bokrata road -- 4 km away. Whereas, students of the remaining three hostels have to travel to the School of Excellence that is about 2 km away.
Sharing their grievance with TOI, students of class XII of the hostel said, "We travel 4 km on foot by a 'kutcha' road to reach school and return to the hostel by the same route. It takes about 2 hours to travel every day and gets very tiring. Due to fatigue, we are not even able to study after reaching home."
Girls also expressed concern for their safety as sometimes while returning it gets dark. Speaking on security concerns, Draupadi Dabur, the superintendent of Government Kasturba Gandhi Hostel said that a watchman goes to drop and pick the girls up. She added that all the public representatives and officials are aware of this problem and "have offered to provide cycles but I refused as there was no proper road."
A plan was made to build a road by passing a resolution in the Gram Panchayat to address the issue but it could not be implemented, the sarpanch Badal Jamre said, while suggesting, "Apart from road construction, there should be a bus facility for the students."
The block education officer, Raj Shri Panwar told TOI that recently, Rajya Sabha MP Dr. Sumer Singh Solanki had visited the hostel and taken account of their problems. He said, "I have informed the district education officer and other officials many times about this issue." In his video statement, he said that the authorities did not pay attention to this problem at the time of construction of the hostel. He said, "I am trying to either build a hostel near the school or a school near the hostel." Solanki added, "The model school of Pati has been included in CM Rise School and now a hostel will also be built there sooner or later, which will solve this problem."
Assistant commissioner, Janjatiya Karya Vibhag Barwani NS Raghuwanshi told TOI, "Initially 100 cycles were offered but students and their parents refused to accept it." He said, "As the model school has been upgraded to CM Rise school, I have sent a proposal to the departmental commissioner that a bus facility should be started for the students."
Raghuwanshi said, "For the students of Girls higher secondary, a proposal has been sent to allot funds so that they can utilise it to reach school by any mode of transport."