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Villagers win fight for children’s education
In a landmark achievement that demonstrates the power of people and social media, villagers of Thummalapally, a remote area located about 75km from Hyderabad in Marpalle Mandal of Vikarabad district, forced the administration of Upper Primary School to set things right.
In a landmark achievement that demonstrates the power of people and social media, villagers of Thummalapally, a remote area located about 75km from Hyderabad in Marpalle Mandal of Vikarabad district, forced the administration of Upper Primary School to set things right.
About four months back 93 students were enrolled in the School. In a grand gesture, the administration patted the villagers’ back and the enrolment was carried out under Prof Jayashankar Badi Baata. Ten days after the opening there were only 35 children left as there were no teachers in the school.
The children who dropped out were employed in farmlands. The lone Vidya Volunteer was occupied in serving Midday meals and doing administrative work of filing reports.
Located in Marpalle Mandal of Vikarabad district, the remote village is located about 75km from Hyderabad.
According to Varsha Bhargavi of Child Rights Protection Forum, “The situation has now reversed as the parents and village elders along with the students resorted to agitation.
Initially the administration did not take cognisance of the representations. But, when the villagers took to streets and the videos of the agitation went viral on social media, the deputy collector Amrapali Katta took instant note of it and initiated measures to resolve the issue.”
“By evening, the Education Minister Kadiyam Srihari took a decision to appoint five teachers and the drop outs returned to school,” informed Bhargavi. “Now the school has a Telugu and Hindi pundit as well. It has not retained the students with active participation of the village sarpanch, Thuljhamma and conscious citizens like Sangameshwar and the parents,” she added.
Library set up
Thummalapally village has now got a library for the residents. The initiative, which was started on Sunday with contribution of torn and unused books lying the in the houses of the villagers, has got help from various quarters. The sarpanch mobilised the village youth for the cause.
The young brigade led by Ramesh and a few of his friends started collecting books. About 384 books were collected in three weeks. In addition, an online campaign was started by civil organisations, which helped in getting over 400 books in English, Telugu and Urdu.
The village is now poised to install a computer. Though the village has no net connectivity and even a cell phone does not work the computer will have preloaded programmes to educate the youth of the village.
