Youth in Hirapur stop exploitation by teachers and improve services in education and health

The village of Hirapur is situated 15 km from the district headquarters. There are 115 families and its total population is 980. The youth facilitators are Mr Satish Parmar and Ms Bhawana Bairagi.

The major problem was that both the teachers and the school administration were unconcerned about children in the school and even exploited them. Its headmaster was hardly punctual. One teacher opened it up on time but the rest came much later. At mid day the children had to make tea and snacks for the teachers. They were also involved in cleaning the school. The boys group complained to the Sarpanch in the Gram Sabha following which the Sarpanch and PTA members went with the group and admonished the teachers. This practice was stopped and the teachers began to get their refreshments from tea shops. For cleaning two part time staff were appointed. There was a problem of punctuality since the female teacher came from Bhopal came late. After being warned she started coming on time as did the others.

It was found that children were not getting adequate rations in the mid day meal. The boys and girls met the PTA as well as the teachers to rectify the situation. A meeting was held which was attended by the Sarpanch, Sachiv, head of the PTA and the school principal in which the menu was fixed and a decision was taken to ensure that children received enough food.

Apart from the attitude of teachers there were infrastructural issues as well. There was a paucity of water and children had to go to the house of the Sarpanch for water. A storage tank was sanctioned which was placed inside the school. Toilets were also absent and the only toilets were meant for teachers. Through the intervention of the boys’ group a new toilet was built for male students while the teachers’ toilet was partitioned for the use of female students.

Manpower was also a constraint. The teachers complained that they were insufficient to teach all the students so the boys group forwarded an application through the Sarpanch to the education department. The group also identified two teachers in the village who gave part time tuitions and these were appointed as guest teachers. To increase the time for studies, the time period of 30 minutes each was increased to 40 minutes so that instead of closing at 3:30 PM the school began closing at 4 PM. This was done because every morning the school opening started with prayer and assembly and that consumed 15-20 minutes so that effectively the students studied for only 4.5 hours.

Besides the school, the group motivated the people to change their habits gain access to different government schemes.