The ringing sound of a steel plate was spreading over short stretches of sand dunes and reaching every house in Bhadla village on Tuesday afternoon. The sound which traditionally implies a child being born, however was for a completely different reason today. Amira, Vachchi and Hira Banu had become first girl in the village to pass the class tenth exam and villagers had gathered at the learning center to celebrate.
The result of the Rajasthan State Open School declared on Monday night and this routine news became a feat for the sleepy village more so because owing to zero enrolment its only government school was shut five years ago. That could not deter these girls from studying and gifting this historical day to Sixty one families of Noore Ki Bhurj Gram Panchayat, located about eighty kilometers from nearest town Phalodi.“ It (passing tenth class exam) was tough as I couldn’t even write my name before coming to the learning center. How could I study…there was no school…and one can’t buy or beg education,” says seventeen year old Amira in a philosophical tone, who now wants to complete college at Phalodi and become a doctor.
The opportunity came when Dusra Dashak, a local organization devoted to literacy of rural dropouts, especially girls, took it as a challenge and opened a Learning Center where the school used to be. A library was set up at the center and three teachers Muqaddar Ali, Anadaram and Bhanwar along with a mobilizer Amru Choudhary were given the task to bring the sleepy village back into the folds of education with financial assistance from Saurya Urja, a JV company of Government of Rajasthan.The center started in December 2017 and today its attendance register shows an average of seventy to eighty students every day.
