Assembly prayers being held at the primary school in Dungar village
Ukhimath, Uttarakhand:
"To my country and my people, I pledge my devotion, in their wellbeing and prosperity alone lies my happiness": As the primary school children in Dungar village in Rudraprayag district of Uttarakhand recite this pledge, another day begins here with another challenge.
With heavy rains in this region, the roof is leaking, the walls have deep cracks and the anganwadi centre has collapsed. And there are just two teachers for 60-odd students from Classes 1-5.
And that's not where the problems end.
"When we came to school on the 15th, they (students) all came to school looking depressed, as if something was on their minds. When we asked they said they were feeling scared. We literally had to start from the beginning, it was almost like we had to teach them everything all over again," says Shakuntala Bharati, who has been teaching there for fifteen years.
Neha Pushwan, a class 12 student at the
Intermediate College in Ukhimath, says, "My own friends haven't returned from Kedarnath. My grandfather is dead. My uncle is missing, my cousin brother hasn't returned. There are lots of problems. I wasn't sure if would ever be able to get back to school."
Neha, like many others in the region, walks to school, sometimes for over an hour through slippery pathways and undulating mountain sides.
However, despite the problems, students are back with a sense of determination.
"I don't want to recollect what happened (in Kedarnath). What's done is done and it's in the past now.
It's time to make a new living. My immediate aim is to do well in my class 12 exams," says Ashutosh Rawat, who survived the disaster at Kedarnath.
However, challenges ahead are aplenty. After school, girls have to often help out with the house-work, be it fetching water, sweeping, collecting fodder for cattle or even cooking. A class 12 student, Kiran Trivedi, says that electricity supply is so erratic that it hardly leaves her with any time to study.
The government's data shows that as many as 150 primary schools have been fully damaged in the state; another 741 have been partially damaged. That's a damage of Rs. 36.22 crore on just the primary school infrastructure. In addition, with over 100 secondary schools partially damaged and four completely raised to the ground, the government has pegged the loss at Rs 12.56 crore.
With heavy rains in this region, the roof is leaking, the walls have deep cracks and the anganwadi centre has collapsed. And there are just two teachers for 60-odd students from Classes 1-5.
And that's not where the problems end.
"When we came to school on the 15th, they (students) all came to school looking depressed, as if something was on their minds. When we asked they said they were feeling scared. We literally had to start from the beginning, it was almost like we had to teach them everything all over again," says Shakuntala Bharati, who has been teaching there for fifteen years.
Neha Pushwan, a class 12 student at the
Intermediate College in Ukhimath, says, "My own friends haven't returned from Kedarnath. My grandfather is dead. My uncle is missing, my cousin brother hasn't returned. There are lots of problems. I wasn't sure if would ever be able to get back to school."
Neha, like many others in the region, walks to school, sometimes for over an hour through slippery pathways and undulating mountain sides.
However, despite the problems, students are back with a sense of determination.
"I don't want to recollect what happened (in Kedarnath). What's done is done and it's in the past now.
It's time to make a new living. My immediate aim is to do well in my class 12 exams," says Ashutosh Rawat, who survived the disaster at Kedarnath.
However, challenges ahead are aplenty. After school, girls have to often help out with the house-work, be it fetching water, sweeping, collecting fodder for cattle or even cooking. A class 12 student, Kiran Trivedi, says that electricity supply is so erratic that it hardly leaves her with any time to study.
The government's data shows that as many as 150 primary schools have been fully damaged in the state; another 741 have been partially damaged. That's a damage of Rs. 36.22 crore on just the primary school infrastructure. In addition, with over 100 secondary schools partially damaged and four completely raised to the ground, the government has pegged the loss at Rs 12.56 crore.
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