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| Students daily swim to the Government Middle School at Machkhian in Kaimur district, Bihar Picture for representation only (Related video below) |
Ninety school children in Bihar’s Kaimur district have refused their scholarships and uniform allowances, and asked for a boat instead.
The students are forced to swim across the river that separates them from their school every day.
The Telegraph reports the ordeal of the children, for whom everything about attending the school, from the need to leave early to make it on time to taking precautions to keep their books dry; from changing wet clothes to missing classes during the monsoons, is a challenge.
The acting principal of the school has said that the students refused to accept their scholarships despite his best attempts to persuade them to do so.
In 2014, the National Human Rights Commission had issued a notice to Gujarat government over similar media reports, of 125 tribal children swimming across a river, to reach their school.
The Commission had observed that if media reports were correct, it raised serious issues of violation of right to life of children who had to swim across the river, and the right to education of those not attending the school because of this problem.
Gujarati television channel TV 9 had aired a report on this topic in 2013.