Muruganpathy, it’s a very rural village of Coimbatore district, it comes under the Madhukkarai Block Panchayat. There was a small school it started under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA) Programme of central government in 2005. There is about 10 Kilometers of travelling is needed to reach that school from the nearest small town and there is no transportation facility available to that place also. We have to take a private vehicle either go by walk. I have been there for two times. One was for just a visit with my senior student Hari and two of my classmates Suchithra and Shiva. It can’t just call a simple visit; we had an aim of giving some value based education to those children who are studying in that school. The second time I have gone with IT Department students and faculties of Amrita Viswa Vidyapeetham. They were doing some social value programs into three schools include Muruganpathy LP School and we (Shiva, Anand and Me) are assigned to do the video coverage of the program.
The school has got 30 students in 5 standards (I to V) of education and a single teacher to take class for all of these students. In that school the scarcity of teachers are due to the lack of transportation facility and scare of wild animal attacks, because the school route is very close to the forest of Western Ghats. The available classrooms are 3 in the whole building. Most of the children are from the poor family background. We may call them ‘Adivasis or Dalits’. The parents of those children are working on the fields nearby the school. There are many land owners are controls the entire place and people working there for the daily wages. The roads are made under the ‘Sadak Yojana Programme’ of the Central government and their houses are built by the State government Programme. A Public Distribution System (PDS) shop and a Railway line passing near the school compound.
I have done two of my visits in the duration of a year. A second visit was on 21st Oct 2011, and I noticed there was an international school has grown in that rural village which is 3 Kilometers far before from the SSA LP School. “No wonder! Because now the smart colleges and international schools are growing in the rural parts of the country”, they can acquire land in a very less cost and make concrete forests very fast. Coimbatre is the one best example for this. The students those who are studying in the Muruganpathi LP School have to travel another 8 kilometers for getting their higher education and so much of the discomfort abilities accompany them. So usually the children of the village will stop their education in 5th standard especially girls.
The students those who are studying in the international school must be from the elite class of the society. Of course there will be no students from the village. Even if there students from the village, they will be the sons and daughters of these land owners. The main thing all behind of this is the international school brings students to this village by their transportation service from the nearest towns, where there are poor guys and girls who can’t go to school after the completion of the 5th standard due to the unavailability of the transportation. Let’s say something about the railway line. I have recalled a scene from the movie Pather Panchali directed by Satyajit Ray. The boy and girl name d Appu and Durga are running to watch the railway line and train which passing through their village and that is not stopping there at all. Is there any difference after the 60years of the movie and that adapted from a novel older of 70years?
Yes, there is also a Railway station but it’s not near to the village. The station name is ETTIMADAI, which helps the students and staffs those who are from the Deemed University that University stays near the Railway station. Many passenger trains are passing through the station and stopping there also. But the poor people of the village won’t have an access to use the greatest Public Transportation Service. They are also paying the taxes to protect the public system. They are also part of these world’s largest democracy and putting votes too. They are also receiving the idiotic assurance from the politicians at the election times. If any train stops there for a minute or half of a minute. You will see a change in the lives of these poor people. How? Teachers will come to the school to teach ‘Growth of education! It sounds great”. These poor village people can go to work in other parts of the district when there are no jobs in the farming fields. They can sell their village products to the passengers for protect their livelihood. They will see the world and they would not be exploited at anymore. More over they will have an access to the hospitals for coming out of the various illness they used to suffer in everyday life.
This is not a demand to convert the village to a town and make a part of the Coimbatore city. Just to solve the very basic problems of those poor people. They are suffering from the social problems like poverty, health and education. They have the rights to get access to all these areas in this democratic country. Who is trying to keep them away from their rights? Yes we have the answer. This is the situation of the rural India, not only in a village called ‘Muruganpathy’. Allowing one train stop will not solve all the problems of the village. But creating a transportation system will solve some problems. Something is always better than nothing.
I would like to end up this article with the statement of “We will not be Nero’s guests”. This says by P. Sainath. He who I consider as a good Journalist of the country and he is the one inspired me to write this. He also says “the fastest growing segment of India is Inequality” this is something we need to discuss and let’s not allow it to grow more.
thank you,
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thank you,
Please add your comments even if you don't like it...
