Daily trek to school a hurdle, girl starts crowdfunding to get ‘good govt school’ in remote J&K village

“Merey school ki halat aaj bhi waisa hi hai jaise pehle thhi. Mujhe ab kisi se koi ummeed nahi hai. Ab main khud se aur aap sab ki madad se apna school banwaungi (the condition of my school building is the same as it had been for years. I have no expectations from anyone and now I will, with your help, get this building completed),” Seerat is heard saying in a video that she put up on social media recently.

Seerat’s mother, Saima Naaz, said the child began the fund by herself donating Rs 2,000, which she received as award from people for her motivational speech, dance performance and painting a freedom fighter at the Independence Day function in her school in August. Seerat has since last week raised Rs 7,500, with the highest contribution — Rs 1,000 — coming from an anonymous donor in Hyderabad.

The short video, uploaded on September 7 begins with Seerat telling viewers about her earlier video of her school, which, however, “failed to have much impact…. So today I have again come before you.”

She was referring to a video she had shot on cellphone in April, documenting her school’s poor infrastructure. In that video, she had requested Prime Minister Narendta Modi to have the authorities build a “good school so that students can study property”.

With nearly 350 students on its rolls, the school has two buildings — an old one with three rooms along with a verandah and a two-storey incomplete building that has nearly a dozen rooms in dilapidated condition.

Officials said construction of the latter was undertaken by J&K Public Works Department following a commitment made by then Chief Minister of the erstwhile state, Omar Abdullah, during a visit to the area in 2014. In 2016, however, the contractor left the work incomplete and locked it, as his payments were allegedly not released by PWD, an official said.

The building having classrooms is still incomplete with unfinished floors and walls.

Recalling her daily struggle to reach school, Seerat said that after each spell of rain, the swollen nullahs on the way are a threat to life. In July, two schoolgirls had died after they were washed away while crossing one such nullah.

“I want to have a good school in the village so that I can study and do something for the village and the people here,” Seerat said.

Deep Raj, project director of Samagra Shiksha, J&K Department of School Education, said work taken up by PWD nearly a decade ago was not completed even after spending Rs 98 lakh. The delay has resulted in cost overrun, which is estimated at Rs 65 lakh, he said. This demand has been raised in the plan and work will be taken up soon, he added.