600 girls write to CM Himanta seeking more schools

A report suggests nearly half of the girls quit education before reaching the higher secondary level

Over 600 adolescent girls from Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) and neighbouring Dhubri and South Salmara districts sent postcards to Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and BTC Chief Pramod Boro urging them to set up more schools to check drop-out rates in their areas.

Postcards were dispatched on the occasion of National Girl Child Day and International Day of Education on Tuesday (January 24).

Nedan Foundation and North East Research and Social Work Networking (NERSWN), two prominent NGOs based in Kokrajhar mobilised the girls as part of their “Champions for Girls Education” programme. The programme is campaigning for an extension of the Right to Education Act up to Class XII.

The programme was launched in the region as education has remained affected due to the militancy problem for a long time and also flooding issue every year.

“We have to walk for five to seven kilometres daily to reach the secondary schools. Parents of most of the girls can’t afford to buy bicycles for them. As a result many girls often give up education in the middle and many are even married off early,” said Amin Khatoon, an adolescent girl from Kajaikata Part-II village in Dhubri district. “Sufficient number of teachers should be appointed in the schools as the teacher-student ratio is also high. Some schools lack proper toilets,” she said in her letter to the Chief Minister.

The Nedan Foundation said according to the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) report (2021-22), 10.04 lakh children are enrolled in the secondary level and another 5.45 lakh in the higher secondary schools. Nearly half of the girls quit education before reaching the higher secondary level.

"The main reason behind higher dropout or inaccessible secondary education is the unavailability of the required number of approachable schools at the secondary level. There is a dire need to expand the schooling net by opening new schools. In the absence of this commitment, the brunt of unapproachable schools had to be borne largely by girls as they were not allowed to travel a longer distance for education in the patriarchal set-up of society,” said Sikwna Brahma of Nedan Foundation.

Bajun Hembram, project co-ordinator of NERSWN told DH that the cards were dispatched by girls to the Chief Minister from post offices in Bilasipara, Dhubri town and South Salmara on Tuesday. Similar post cards were sent to BTC Chief Pramod Boro from Tipkai post office in Chirang district in BTR. "We have already received over 1,717 postcards from across BTR and outside and all will be gradually dispatched to the CM and BTC Chief," he said. Hembram said NERSWN is implementing a project for girls' education in at least 41 villages in Bilasipara sub-division in Dhubri district.