Bringing School to the Dalits: Dumarbana, Dist Arariya, Bihar
Not a single child from 55 family of Mooshar (Maha Dalits or the Dalits among the Dalits) would go to school n this border village. The team of three Gandhi Shanti Mitras including one girl reached out to them; convinced the families; started teaching initially 5 children in their locality itself in October 2013, far from the main populated area having no even name sake path-way. Sh Dilip Jha, Miss Neha Pathak and Roopesh Pathak’s sincere and selfless service has resulted in the enrolment into this Free Hind Swaraj School of 72 children aged 6 to 14. A year back under the leadership of Neha, 14, and Priyanka, 16, eleven girls, aged 12 to 16, with Dilip Jha as their mentor, waged a three month public campaign, held signature campaign, demonstrations in order to upgrade a middle school to high school so that girls can continue studies instead of dropping out after 8th std because the far distance of high school, where families would not send girls for fear of safety. Govt had finally to relent and upgraded school at Basmatiya. It became a celebrated girl’s campaign in the public and the media.