Bicycles for tribal students

Wearing a pair of worn-out Hawai chappals, Aakash Kumar, a Class 10 ­student at Rajkiyakrit Higher Secondary School, Pakur village, Jharkhand, walks seven kilometres every day to attend school. The journey, which takes him over 90 minutes, is along a rough, stony path. “On rainy days, the road turns into a muddy, slippery mess. My chappals slide in the thick mud, and by the time I reach school, my legs are covered in mud. Sometimes, my feet hurt so much that I struggle to concentrate in class. More than the pressure of board exams this year, it’s the exhausting journey to school that’s frustrating me,” he says. Many of his friends have stopped coming to school “because it was just too hard to make the daily trip. I almost gave up school.”

But everything changed the day Aakash Kumar received a bicycle. As part of an initiative by RC Jubilee Hills, RID 3150, in collaboration with BGR Mining and Infra, a ­leading mine developer and ­operator, 1,000 bicycles were donated to students hailing from tribal areas in Jharkhand. Of these, 850 were distributed to students at Kumar’s school. “Now, the same journey takes less than 20 minutes, and I am no longer exhausted when I arrive. Most of my friends have also started to come back to school,” he smiles.

“The Rajkiyakrit School serves children from villages spread across the region, and getting to school every day is a real challenge for them. The bicycles are more than just a mode of transport; they are a way to enhance their entire schooling ­experience,” says Balakoti Reddy, president of RC Jubilee Hills. “By making the ­journey easier, we’re helping students look forward to attending classes, rather than quitting.”

This initiative coincided with the renovation of several school buildings and construction of new classroom blocks, science labs and vocational training infrastructure by BGR Mining and Infra. “These efforts have transformed not only how students get to school but also their learning environment,” says Reddy and adds that in a recent conversation with the school principal, “I was pleased to hear that student attendance has improved, along with academic performance.”

This collaboration demonstrates how Rotary can effectively match corporate responsibilities with community needs, creating a win for everyone involved, he adds.