By V Saji
Palakkad, July 23, 2020: Twenty four children in Kerala’s Palakkad district have undertaken a hunger strike in their homes to protest non availability of electricity that has prevented them from attending online classes.
Kerala on June 1 started its academic year by launching ‘First Bell,’ the online classes for students. The classes are meant for estimated some 4.5 million students of the government and government-aided schools.
For those with no access to smartphones or internet, the classes are streamed through the government-run Kite-Victers channel, available on cable TV networks.
As the country continues to be under lockdown because of the Coronavirus pandemic several states, including Kerala, advised schools resort to the novel idea of online classes and classes through television network.
However, the 24 children belong to 41 families settled in the Kurukkan Kundu, Paravalavu area of Jellippara, Attapadi that has no electricity.
“None is taking an initiative to bring electricity to these people,” said Father Saji Joseph, director, Career Orientation and Research in Education (CORE), an organization under the Palghat diocese.
These families have no wired electricity connections at their households. The 24 children are students of Mount Carmel High School, Jellippara, 7 km away from their houses. They used to walk to their school and sometimes carry torches in their bags.
Palakkad district boasted of the first completely electrified district in India.
The children have run from pillar to post to secure their rights. They have represented their plight to the prime minister, state chief minister, district collector and other officials.
“We too are children, we too want to study,” reads one of the placards held by the protesting students.
“We have strong faith in the power of satyagraha, a method of protest taught by Mahatma Gandhi. And we have great hopes too,” said Ann Maria, one of the students.
They are on hunger strike in front of their homes to highlight their plight.
The settler families who moved into Kurukkankundu about half a century ago are locked in a land wrangle with the Forest Department. All of them have land deeds, but the Forest Department has different claims.