We walk close to 14 km each day to study

Determined to study, 10-year-old Revathi huffs and puffs on a long trek from her remote Mylacherla village on the fringes of the Nallamalla forest on a path less travelled unmindful of the tough terrain at dawn to reach her school in time at Chandrasekarapuram, 35 km away.

Starting a bit late means missing the bus at V.Bailu village, 7 km from her village and going late to her school in C.S.Puram in Prakasam district and missing classes for not only Revathi but more than 20 students who undertake the arduous journey every day. They return to their village in the night resuming the trek through the rugged terrain at dusk in the absence of a motorable road, a demand which they have been making for decades evoking little response from the officials concerned.

“We walk close to 14 km each day to study at any cost,” 27-year-old Rangasamy who had successfully completed B.Com, told The Hindu during a long trek on undulated topography. He now pursues post-graduation in business administration in a college in Nellore.It is not that efforts have not been made to start a school in the village, he says pointing to a dilapidated make-shift school which functioned between 2002 and 2004.Newly recruited teachers put in papers after working for some days unable to put up with the arduous journey which would get tougher during the rainy days, he adds.

“We need a mini-Anganwadi centre to take care of pre-school going children and also a primary school for the kids,” says the villagers.Finding the going tough, 25 families had moved out of the village — with a population of 700 belonging to the Kondaekara community — in the last few years, while others continue to slog accepting the challenges as way of life as their basic facilities, including safe drinking water and ration shop, remain unaddressed for decades. “It is high time the government introduced three-phased power and water supply through individual tap connections,” say the villagers.

After a few unsuccessful attempts, 70-year-old E.Narasaiah had stopped going to V-Bailu to get his monthly pension.“We prefer to wait even for months together to get pension from the officials concerned dreading the long trek despite cash crunch,” rues another pensioner K.Lingaiah.