Equal Education for All Odyssey (contd.)

EducationWorld’s special correspondent Srinidhi Raghavendra recently completed a 18,700 km motorcycle odyssey to highlight the importance of education equity. In March he traversed Bhutan, the north-eastern states of India and Myanmar. Excerpts from his tour diaryEducationworld‚s special correspondent Srinidhi Raghavendratogether with Kishore Patwardhan under the aegis of Borderless Bikers, Bangalore was on a South Asian motorcycle odyssey from December 2006 to April 2007. The objective of the mission was to spread the message that the people of India and neighbouring nations need to demand Equal Quality Education for All. The duo traversed 18,700 km during their epic four and a half month tour, zooming across 25 states in India and crossing over into Nepal, Bhutan, and Myanmar. The expedition was supported by EducationWorld; TVS Motor Company; Intel; and Cramster, Bangalore.In the July 2007 issue we featured Raghavendra‚s diary notes recording the duo‚s journey through the Himalayan nation of Nepal. Given below is an account of their travels through Bhutan, north eastern states of India and Myanmar.February 14, Baghdogra. We started the day by meeting R. Rama Swamy the principal staff officer of the Border Security Force (BSF), Kadam Tala. Our host was highly supportive of our mission and arranged for our accommodation at various BSF officers mess‚ en route to Kolkata. After the meeting we proceeded to Siliguri town (15 km) to leave our battered-on-Bihar-roads TVS Apaches for servicing. Since there is not much to see in Siliguri, a trading town, we returned to the officers mess in Baghdogra.February 15. We took delivery of the bikes and decided to test ride them around the bustling business town of Siliguri. The crowded, narrow roads of Siliguri where every roadster believes he has the right of way, was not the most pleasurable experience. February 16, Baghdogra-Jaigaon via Haldibari. On a day which proved memorable, we started off at 8.00 a.m and proceeded towards Jaigaon, the Indo-Bhutan border town. But while fuelling up in Siliguri we met Premananda Roy, vice president of DISA (Development Initiative for Social Advancement) who invited us to their anniversary celebrations at Manikganj village, Haldibari Tehsil on the Indo-Bangladesh border. Trailing his car through the outbacks of West Bengal, we passed through some of the remotest villages of the country. Although the CPM (Communist Party of India-Marxist) which has ruled West Bengal since 1977 claims to have uplifted rural Bengal, except for good quality roads, nothing in these villages seems to have changed for the better. Houses are makeshift bamboo huts, most villages don‚t have schools, running water or electricity. People eke out a living through agriculture and inland fishery.Education provision is pathetic in these border areas. A single government primary school serves 17 villages. This lacuna is being filled in an effective way by DISA (see EW, March p. 14). We spent the entire day participating in the anniversary celebrations of DISA, visiting their project sites and learning centres and interacting with resource persons, teachers and volunteers. By the time we started from Manikganj towards the Jaigaon (India)-Phuntsoling…