In Santhal Pargana’s underbelly, development is still a far cry

Surajbera (Pakur): It is generally a school from where one elects representatives during elections. While exercising franchise is important, so is education. However, in the tribal-dominated areas of Jharkhand,

schools

seem to be mere dining rooms where kids come only to have their midday meals. A few kilometres from the Littipara block development office lies Surajbera (East) middle school which cuts a sorry face with 100 enrolled

students

, but only two teachers and one functional classroom.

A small village in Pakur district, Surajbera has an anganwadi, a recently-inaugurated but defunct health sub-centre and around 250 houses, apart from the school.

With one permanent and a para-teacher, the high school, which, after mergers, was turned into a primary school, hardly sees any student. When TOI reached the area on Wednesday morning, Kailash Thakur, who is the permanent teacher there, said, “The school starts from 9am, but kids arrive a little late. May be by 12pm, a group or two will arrive and leave after the midday meal is served to them.”

The only classroom, which is functional, has a few benches and accommodates all the 100 students of Classes I to V. “Two days ago, an electricity meter was installed. Though the lines had been laid long back, it was not connected to the transformer. However, thanks to the election, we will have electricity here at least for a few days,” para-teacher Subhro Pulak Bardhan said.

The school also has two other rooms, but they remain locked as the roof leaks and they serve as store rooms. The back door of the educational Institute, which has no boundary wall despite several requests by the para-teacher, leads to a narrow street which leads to the health sub-centre. When TOI asked about the health sub-centre, a passer-by said, “The building was constructed in haste and was inaugurated a few months ago, but it stays locked and has nothing inside.”

The locals here, however, are not worried about education or a non-functional health centre much and why would they be? Their basic needs of roti, kapda and makaan are far from being addressed and in this condition, everything else truly seems to be a luxury.

Dharaprasad Murmu (45), said out of the close to 250 families, only about 15-20 have received the much-hyped Awas Yojana. “Forget houses, the toilets built in our village cannot be used as they do not have pits to dispose of the waste,” Murmu said. “The contractor ate away a portion of the money which was allotted to build the toilets. So how can a bigger one be made,” he added.

Lack of drinking water, joblessness and collective apathy of government officials and politicians are just a few other problems that ail Surajbera. “Both my wife and I are eligible for the old-age pension but none of us get it. I have three daughters. One was married off, the other stays at home while the third one goes to college in Dumka,” said Misir Murmu, another resident of the village. The Littipara assembly constituency has been, for the last four decades, represented by JMM's Simon Marandi. Asked about why his constituency is still considered to be one of the most backward in the country, he said, “How can you say that? So many people have motorcycles here. Things have changed a lot in the last 40 years.”

Surajbera is just one such village which represents the several others across the state where development is yet to make inroads, but still count in the vote banks of politicians.