From the fields to the fast track

Bhavna Vasava,a Class IX student,enjoys the physical excercise. As the semester examinations are around the corner,she has been restricted by her PE teacher,Mohanbhai Dholu,to only two rounds of the 400-metre field. She plans to increase this to a dozen rounds in the morning and evening each so that she can train for the Khel Mahakumbh,an annual sporting event organised by the Sports Authority of Gujarat which begins on November 23.

Last year,Bhavna was part of the under-14 kho-kho team that played at the national level. As she is over 14 now,she plans to participate in three events at the athletic event next month long jump,triple jump and the 5,000- metre race.

As she ties her shoelaces,she says,I would like to train more,but our teacher has asked us not to strain ourselves until the examination is over.

The residential school Bhavna studies at is one of 158 schools that were sanctioned by the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs under the EMRS Scheme in June 2010. The school began to function the same year but with just one class of 60 students. Today,it has four classes with 240 students,and an equal number of boys and girls.

The Union government recently declared the scheme a success,saying 111 had become fully functional. Under the scheme,tribal students from Classes VI to XII are put up in hostels and offered a scholarship of Rs 42,000 each per annum to take care of their studies,food,dress,stationery and other expenses. Gujarat has 22 such schools,but they are not running at full capacity.

Eklavya schools prepare the students for further studies or to pursue even alternative careers in sports,music or art.

Half a dozen of these schools in the state are run by a society formed by the state Tribal Development Department. The rest are run by NGOs under a public-private-partnership model.

Bhavna is from Jamoli village in the tribal-dominated Jhagadia taluka of Bharuch district. Her father is a farmer with a small tract of land. Though he only studied till Class V,he has ensured that Bhavna,her elder brother and sister receive good education. It was Bhavnas primary school teacher in Dholi who encouraged her to take the entrance test for admission to the EMRS school when she was in Class V.

Bhavna wants to be an athlete and idolises sprint queen PT Usha. She is also keen to become an English teacher.

At the school grounds,its hard to escape the tough regimen prescribed by Dholu,who does not allow the students to break formation even while they jog around the track.

Last year,the campus was shifted from Sagbara,which is 100 km away. Even so,the Nandod school still does not have its own building. One building is rented from the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd. A school building is under construction and is expected to be ready by next year.

By 7:30 am,Bhavna heads for the dining hall with her friends,Hiral Vasava,Nisha Vasava,Suresh Vasava and Dikshit Vasava. She eats khaman dhokla,her favourite breakfast,and has a glass of milk.

All four of Bhavnas friends share her passion for sports and will also participate in the Khel Mahakumbh. They belong to tribal villages in Bharuch and Narmada and their fathers too are either small farmers or field hands.

After finishing breakfast,the students work in the garden,tending to plants and removing weeds. A bell rings to signal assembly,where they sing prayers to instruments played by the students themselves. It also includes a discussion on the thought for the day, which is followed by a book review of any one book chosen by a student. On this day,the book is Gharnu Dhan wealth of family,authored by Mohan Patel. A birthday song is sung for Jarina Vasava,who has turned 15 before the session ends with Vande Mataram.

The students then file into their respective classrooms. Classes go on till 3 pm,with an hour-long break for lunch. Lunch consists of rice,daal,vegetables and butter milk. They later retire to their hostel rooms to freshen up before going for another sports session.

At 5 pm,there is roll call which is followed by a general knowledge and vocabulary session. We always have a competition between the boys and girls, says Bhavna.

Dinner is at 8.30 pm and the students then study for two hours.

Principal Jivabhai Gabu,who has been with the school since it started four years ago,says the facilities are among the best and will improve when the school gets its own building. Still,he wishes the salaries for teachers were higher.

We work with the students all day and night,taking care of their studies and their health. But we get lower salaries than our counterparts in similar schools run by NGOs, he says.

Bhavnas parents visit her every second Sunday,the designated parents day. Sometimes her elder brother also comes along. The last time she went home was for a five-day Janmashtami break.

Between helping her father in the fields,she hopes to practise running when she goes home for the Diwali break. I have to win the 5,000-metre race, she says,as she pores over her books for her two-hour study session.