Skip to main content

Gujarat's rural model? Water logged village, dilapidated school building, inedible grain for midday meal

By Our Representative
In a glaring instance of negligence of Gujarat’s rural areas, a local social worker from Surendranagar district of Gujarat has sought top state officials’ intervention regarding the entire approach road to village Dholi of Limdi taluka having been water-logged due to monsoon rains, with no way to drain it out for days together. In a letter he wrote to Limdi taluka mamlatdar, the revenue official responsible for the state of affairs, Natubhai Lakhabhai Parmar, also points towards how the school building of the village is unfit to study and the midday meal offered to children is of hopeless quality.
Written amidst efforts by a senior economist Ashok Gulati seeking to project rural Gujarat as a model for other Indian states to follow for agricultural growth, the social worker suggests there is nothing in the village which suggests how this growth in agriculture has in any way helped the villagers to improve their conditions, as claimed by many. Attached with Ahmedabad-based NGO Navsarjan Trust, the social worker has said, “The water is at least knee deep. People cannot more in or out even during emergency.”
Parmar, who has sent a copy of the letter to Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel and the district collector, apart from senior officials concerned in Gandhinagar, Gujarat capital, has particularly pointed towards the state of affairs of the Dalit locality of the village, saying, “It has particularly become a victim, as the approach road, built with concrete, has caved in.” He adds, “The Dalit locality is situated in the corner, and is low lying, hence it is the worse sufferer because of the failure to drain out the water by the village panchayat.”
The village school
Parmar, who observed this during his field visit of the Bhal region, his main area of social work, said, “There is a real danger of outbreak of water borne diseases. In fact, you can already see mosquitoes breeding out there. Despite representation by the locals, nothing is being done to drain out the water which has gathered here. One is left wondering if the government is waiting for a dangerous outbreak of disease for this happen.” The village is part of Bhal, which is known to produce one of the finest varieties of organic wheat cultivated in a semi-arid region.
During the field trip, Parmar found that the school of the village is also in poor state. He said in the letter, in sharp contrast to the vast claims of the Gujarat government regarding massive improvement in educational infrastructure in the state’s rural areas, the school building is in a dilapidated state, and nothing is being done to reconstruct the building. Attaching photographs, the letter wants officials to urgently look into the plight of the village.  
Chickpea meant for midday meal in school
“This is the school which gave Gujarat three MLAs – Ranchchodbhai Mer, Laljibhai Mer and Vaghjibhai Chauhan”, Parmar said in his letter, adding, “It has been instrumental in producing engineers, doctors, teachers, government officials and army jawans. The compound wall may fall any any and a major accident may happen. There are only two options: Either the school, which as of today has 361 children up to class VIII, should be closed and converted into a memorial, or a new building should be constructed immediately.”
The type of midday meal offered to the school children is the third major concern observed by the social worker. He said in his letter, “The foodgrain cooked for the children are not fit for human beings. On opening one of the sacks containing chana (chickpeas), we witnessed that the grain is full of insects and uneatable. The government must intervene, withdraw this type of food, and take action against those responsible.”

Comments

TRENDING

Savarkar 'criminally betrayed' Netaji and his INA by siding with the British rulers

By Shamsul Islam* RSS-BJP rulers of India have been trying to show off as great fans of Netaji. But Indians must know what role ideological parents of today's RSS/BJP played against Netaji and Indian National Army (INA). The Hindu Mahasabha and RSS which always had prominent lawyers on their rolls made no attempt to defend the INA accused at Red Fort trials.

Delhi HC rules in favour of retired Air Force officer 'overcharged' for Covid treatment

By Rosamma Thomas*  In a decision of May 22, 2023, the Delhi High Court ruled in favour of petitioner Group Captain Suresh Khanna who was under treatment at CK Birla Hospital, Gurugram, between April 28 and May 5, 2021, for a period of eight days, for Covid-19 pneumonia. The petitioner had to pay Rs 3,55,286 as treatment costs, but the Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) only reimbursed him for Rs 1,83,748, on the basis of government-approved rates. 

'Enough evidence' in Indian tradition to support legal basis for same-sex marriage

By Iyce Malhotra, Joseph Mathai, Sandeep Chachra*  The ongoing hearing in the Supreme Court on same-sex marriage provides space for much-needed conversations on issues that have hitherto remained “invisible” or engaged with patriarchal locker room humour. We must recognize that people with diverse sexualities and complex gender identities have faced discrimination, stigma and decades of oppression. Their issues have mainly remained buried in dominant social discourse, and many view them with deep insecurities.

Religious divide 'kept alive' with low intensity communalism in Gujarat's cultural capital

By Rajiv Shah  A fact-finding report, prepared by the Mumbai-based non-profit, Centre for Study of Society and Secularism (CSSS), has cited the Vadodara Ram Navami violence of March 30 as yet another example of how, after the BJP consolidating its hold on political power in Gujarat post-2002 riots and at the Centre in 2014, the nature of communal riots has changed, underlining, as opposed to high-intensity violence earlier, now riots have become “more sub-radar and at a smaller scale, more localized”.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Urgency for next pandemic? But Mr Health Secretary, you're barking up wrong tree

By Dr Amitav Banerjee, MD*  The Union Health Secretary, Mr Rajesh Bhushan addressing the Health Working Group of G20 India, at Hyderabad on 05 June 2023, cautioned that the next pandemic would not wait for us to make global treaties and called on countries to work together.

76% Odisha govt school infrastructure in dilapidated state, 'undermine' RTE norms

By Our Representative  As many as 75.86% (5,421) elementary schools in Odisha do not possess a playground, depriving students of physical activity opportunities. Also, 75.68% (5,408) of schools require minor or major repairing, undermining the norms and standards stipulated in the Right to Education (RTE) Act.

Caste, impact on Ayodhya area 'halting' BJP rulers to act against Brij Bhushan Singh

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*  Finally, the #WrestlersProtest has got international attention. The United World Wrestling (UWW),  condemning the treatment and detention of wrestlers and expressing its disappointment over the lack of results of the investigations against Brij Bhushan Singh, accused of sexually harassing women wrestlers, has urged the "relevant authorities to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation."

Why continued obsession with adding more 'water guzzling' coal, nuclear power plants?

By Shankar Sharma*  The true concerns over water inefficiency in coal power plants have been known and have been highlighted many times in the past. A highly relevant study report by Prayas Energy Group had highlighted this fast looming threat to our society many years ago. But our authorities have been acting as though there can be no issue with water supply, and that additional coal power plants can be added indefinitely; even without any true relevance to climate change.