As a state, Madhya Pradesh has been one of the ‘leaders’ for having the largest number of school drop-outs in the last few years. According to the CAG Report for the year 2015-16, government schools in MP saw 28 lakh students under the age of 14 dropping out, whereas the number of students leaving from private schools was at around 15 lakh. The report also highlighted the disturbing fact that, contrary to other states where the dropout rate is declining, it has been on a steady rise in Madhya Pradesh since 2010.
The government primary school in Ajaigarh town, Panna district, is an illustration of a peculiar and rather unfortunate reason for dropouts. Here, students bear the onus – quite literally. This is because the sole (water) handpump at their school is not functioning and they end up spending half the school day fetching water from their homes or other sources. The situation has been the same for over two years now.
On speaking to the students and the school officials, we discovered that while some children go back to their homes to fetch drinking water, some have to walk greater distances to the closest functioning handpump. We had a chat with a Class IV student, Raj Narayan, who was on his way home to get drinking water, his friend tagging along so that between the two of them, they could carry a few bottles back . “It takes me about 25 to 30 minutes to go home and come back. Because of this, we miss class. And it affects our studies.”
Among the minimum infrastructural requirements so as to ensure a safe and healthy environment for children, under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE) are, needless to say, safe drinking water facilities. Out of the 390 schools that were physically inspected for the CAG Report in MP, almost 40 did not have safe and adequate drinking water for the students. This is in sharp contrast to the overall audit report of the one lakh plus government schools in the state, which indicates that less than 5% of the schools do not have proper toilets or drinking water facilities. This implies that while numbers may be improving on paper, on closer physical scrutiny – the reality is often vastly different.
In the Ajaigarh primary school, the broken down handpump was seemingly the only source of clean water, and was used not only for drinking water but also otherwise for cooking and cleaning purposes. As the school cook, Rani complains, “We need water for drinking, cooking, everything! We’ve to keep making trips to nearby handpumps to get water. What else can we do?” While another student, Gita, who has just brought a small bottle filled with water to drink, tells us that she will use the same water to clean her lunchbox as well.
There is a strong bureaucratic lag that runs across, we find. The school deputy headmaster, Ram Kishor Yadav tells us, “We have made endless complaints to the education department. The handpump hasn’t been working for three years and it is such a hassle for the children to go and fetch water themselves. The education department had told us that it will get fixed once the machine comes, but nothing has been done so far. We just keep getting vague answers like this.”
The Basic Shiksha Adhikari, Murat Singh Ahirvar, whose mandate is precisely to tick off these essentials in schools, insists that his hands are tied. “It is only the higher officials who can sanction this. We’ve filed formal complaints, talked to them personally, done everything we are capable of doing. They just keep saying it will get sanctioned soon. What more can we do at our level?”
As the passing the buck sport continues, however, children continue to suffer.
For them, studies come later – they must fetch water first.
Khabar Lahariya is a rural, video-first digital news organisation with an all-women network of reporters in eight districts of Uttar Pradesh.