PUNE: On a regular visit looking for out-of-school children in November 2020, Zilla Parishad school teacher Balasaheb Kanade from Manchar in Pune district came to a community settlement on the outskirts where the children did not attend school.
He was able to convince eight children to enrol in the school, and this year their number has increased to 17. The enthusiastic response is because of a borewell dug for the community from the contributions made by teachers from the Junnar-Ambegaon area.
Kanade, with 30 years of experience, joined the ZP primary school in Shindewadi three years ago. “During the Covid 19 survey for out-of-school children, I found that many students in this particular settlement did not go to school or were irregular. After convincing the parents, eight children joined school in January 2021. I felt it was a victory. However, these children had poor hygiene and the other children would sit with them. They attended school irregularly. When I went back, I found that the 18 huts in the area had no water supply. They would beg for water from the nearby farmers or call a tanker by paying a huge sum,” Kanade said.
The community had been living in poverty and were often outcasts. This group had moved from the market yard in Manchar, off the Pune-Nashik highway, to the base of some hills near a local college 11 years ago. Premnath Bhosale, who has three school-going children, said where they lived previously, people would taunt them and often destroy their huts, forcing them to relocate.
We have no water source, so we would request local farmers for water. But Covid-19 impacted us badly. Nobody would let us near them and the farmers who helped us before shooed away our women away or threw out our containers.
We hire a tanker for Rs 1,000 that suffices for three or four days. We try to stretch it by using it for drinking and cooking, so bathing is the least of our priorities. Hence, our children bathed infrequently and the local schools were not that interested in letting them in. It made many drop out of school,” Bhosale said.
Moved by their plight, Kanade decided to dig a bore well for them, and put up a request in his Junnar-Ambegaon teachers’ WhatsApp group. Within a day, he collected Rs 40,000 from contributions, and work started last June. “We requested the panchayat samiti to provide a hand pump and that too was installed. With access to water, children started bathing and the change in their overall look enabled them to mingle with other students and be accepted by the villagers. For this academic year which starts on June 13, I have 17 children enrolled in the school. They will come from June 1 for remedial classes,” Kanade said.
The response has thrilled the teachers. Many felt their effort had paid off well. After two years of experiencing a loss in learning and watching children dropout of school, the educators said it was gratifying to see these children return to school.
Student Firoz Kale is happy. “Ever since the hand pump was installed, it had become easier for my mother to wash clothes and for me to take a bath daily. So I started going to school. Now I am in class IV,” he said.
