The stench enters the nostrils before the outline of the humongous waste dump appears on the horizon, as one enters Gabbilalpet, a slum in the Jawahar Nagar corporation in Hyderabad.
A church, a temple and a dargah welcome visitors as they take a turn towards the locality from the Balaji Nagar main road. Two more temples, and a mosque can be found further inside.
The area, populated by families that work in the Jawahar Nagar dumpyard and other daily wage labourers, lacks a proper government primary school within one-kilometre radius as stipulated under the Right to Education Act, 2009. Threat of closure looms large on a temporary school which was granted only a year ago after much persuasion.
The Medchal-Malkajgiri district’s education officials hurriedly granted approval for this school put together by activists working locally, after the State human rights commission took cognisance of the issue of lack of a school in proximity. A school at Anthaipally, which had been shut down, was relocated to Gabbilalpet, as there was no sanction from the government for new schools.
“Officials said they would set up a school only if a rent-free building was available. A local resident came forward and gave his house for running the school, and in January 2023, the school was inaugurated by the district education department officials,” shares Himabindu, an activist working in six slums of Jawahar Nagar.
A board was fixed, indicating it was a government school. A teacher was also promised from the subsequent academic year. In the meantime, a retired Mandal Education Officer was appointed as the headmaster on temporary basis, along with two Vidya Volunteers.
As per information shared by the teachers, a total 130 students from nearby slums including Shanthi Nagar, Gabbilalpet, Giriprasad Nagar, Rajiv Gandhi Nagar and Santhosh Nagar took admission in the school, some of them leaving the schools that they earlier attended. As this was only a temporary set-up, the children were given admission in other schools around the locality.
“There are four primary schools in the vicinity of 4-5 km, most of them abutting the main road. Parents are scared to send the kids there, due to frequency of accidents,” Manjula, another activist, says.
Parents’ reservations
“Initially, we sent our children to Anganwadi centres. After they turned six, I made them stay at home and segregate the waste. We both leave home at 5 a.m., and could not be available to drop and pick up the children from a school located far away. After this school was started, we got them admission here,” shares Shaik Jyothi, a worker at the dumpyard who stays in Shanti Nagar.
The dropout rate is very high in Jawahar Nagar. A survey carried out by an NGO in five slums involving 736 families counted 147 dropouts, of whom 61 were engaged as child labour.
The Gabbilalpet school soon fell out of favour with the officials as the headmaster quit, and it was felt that running a school ina temporary building without a headmaster was unsafe.
“A few officials visited and informed that the school would be closed down. When community members protested, they asked them to remove the sign board. Since then, we have been crowdfunding to pay salaries of the teachers, the cook and the helper. I have just learnt that the rice which was being sent by the government for mid-day meals too will be stopped from next year,” shares Himabindu.
Several requisitions went from the slum representatives seeking a permanent school, but availability of land has been an issue.
“If there is a proper school, 500-600 children will join there. There are government lands close by, the survey numbers of which we have mentioned in the representations. But the district collector sanctioned a piece of land, which is 4 km away, bringing the issue back to square one,” said A.Durgesh, member of a community-based organisation from Gabbilalpet.
Leaders’ hand
He and other slum residents hint at the role of a former minister and corporators in thwarting the prospect of a permanent school, as they had their eyes on the government lands.
District Education Officer I. Vijayalakshmi, when asked for his version, says the existing school was sanctioned as a work-site school, and teachers could be appointed only if a permanent building was available.
Sharing the plan to shift the students to other schools after giving them travel allowance, she blamed the involvement of voluntary organisations which, she alleged, are insisting on retaining the school for their own funding. “Even local corporators are saying more schools are not needed,” she explains.
Ironically, however, in a letter to the collector, the DEO herself had mentioned that most of the school-age children from the area had dropped out, as they did not have a primary school nearby.
