A nationwide lockdown to combat the spread of COVID-19 pandemic was imposed in the country on March 25, 2020. Educational institutions across the country have been shut since then. The central government has not yet informed when it can be opened.

In such a situation, when students across the country are apprehensive about their future, Hanuman Prasad Poddar Andh Vidyalaya, a school for the visually-impaired students, in Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency, has decided to discontinue Class IX to XII, citing the paucity of funds. Since the registration for Classes IX and XII were done, it was decided to carry on with the current academic session for these classes but new admissions will not be made.

The students were shocked to learn this through letters sent by the school administration. The students and their families have demanded the prime minister to intervene and save the school. At present, the number of students of Class IX and XII in the institution is about 25.

“The students are scared about their future. At a time when the whole world has been shaken up by an unprecedented pandemic, the school management has brought us on the road,” said Ravi Rai, a student of the school from Azamgarh district. “We are about to be deprived of education, the only hope, in our otherwise dark future,” he sighed.

Hanuman Prasad Poddar Ucchtar Andh Vidyalaya is situated near the Durga Kund Temple, not very far from Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi. For several decades, the school has been a beacon of hope and education for the several visually impaired children of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

The institution was established in 1972 in memory of Hanuman Prasad Poddar, the founder of Gita Press. Initially, it was set up as a school only up to Class V. The school, however, became a recognised junior high school in 1984 and got its high school and intermediate recognition in 1990 and1993, respectively.

Corruption charges

The school is run by Hanuman Prasad Poddar Smriti Seva Trust, chaired by Krishna Kumar Jalan, a prominent businessman in Varanasi. Ashok Kumar Agarwal and Jagdish Jhunjhunwala are deputy chairmen. The 18 trustees are all businessmen and the principal of the school is an ex-officio trustee.

A school functionary, who wished to remain anonymous, said there is a ‘huge conspiracy’ behind the decision to discontinue senior classes at the school. He alleged that the trustees are playing with the future of the children, eyeing the school estate worth millions of rupees in the real estate market. The students back this allegation.

Students learning about the closure due to paucity of funds have held the school administration and the trustees responsible for it. They termed the billing of expenditures such as generators as outrageous because the generators, they allege, are never run for students’ purposes.

On the condition of anonymity, an official of the school revealed that since the arrival of the new principal in the school, about six lakh rupees have been spent ‘uselessly’, just towards his amenities.

“The school is aided by the funds from the Ministry of social justice and empowerment. The management spoke about discontinuing classes last year as well,” Shivshankar Upadhyay, an alumnus who has stepped forward to protest the move on behalf of the students, informed Gaon Connection. “I had gone to Delhi then. The district magistrate had written thrice to the Centre, and the school received a grant of Rs 49 lakh,” he said. “In the year 2017, PM Modiji had given them Rs 32 lakh under the skill development scheme. Then, how did the economic crunch occur? The school management also delays seeking the grant,” he added.

“The school declared its closing down the classes unmindful of our plight. We are now told to seek admission in the blind schools at Gorakhpur, Lucknow, or Banda,” complained Sumit Singh, another student from Azamgarh. “We have checked up with these institutions and found out that there are no seats available. It is not easy for the blind to be educated and the little glimmer of hope that we had, is about to be taken away by these people,” he said.

School’s expenditures

The total school expenditure from April 1, 2018, to March 31, 2019, was Rs 64,23,383.57. The students have alleged that the expenditure incurred in the name of electricity, building repairs, and skill development were wasteful as they were not taught anything in the name of skill development. They alleged that most of the electricity is used by the administration.

“The expenses that are shown under student nutrition are also beyond comprehension because the government feeds the students,” said Abhay Sharma, an ex-student of the school, now a comedian and mimicry artist. “A capitalist mindset of the trustees is at play behind the closure of these classes,” he added.

“There are at least 100 bhandara (communal feasts) held in the school annually. 8,000 rupees are deposited in the school for each bhandara, that is, the school annually collects eight lakh rupees for food, but feeds its students out of the government ration. It is, therefore, difficult to understand where all that money goes,” contested Upadhyay.

The students blame the management appropriating a huge sum of money in the name of machine procurement every year whereas the new machines are not bought annually.

Teachers’ salaries are not paid on time either. The salary of a teacher is Rs 17,000 on paper but, is actually Rs 10,000 and the teachers get only Rs 8,000 in hand. The teachers are not even paid this much now, due to the pandemic.

Administrative apathy

Gaon Connection tried to talk to many people to establish the truth in the allegations made by the students. Numerous calls were made to Shri Krishna Jalan, the chairman of the trust, another trustee Shyam Sundar Das and the acting principal of the school but nobody picked up the phone. The school’s manager, Neeraj Dubey, told Gaon Connection that he was not aware of the matter.

“The Prime Minister’s mere glorification of our disability as ‘Divyang’ will not save our school. The school receives funds from the Ministry of social justice and empowerment with considerable delays,” Upadhyay lashed out. “This gives the trustees a chance to do all the mischief. The government should think seriously on this matter and take over the school from the trustees making it autonomous,” he added.

According to the 2011 Census, about 2.68 crore Indians are physically challenged and out of them, 19 per cent are visually impaired. Gorakhpur, Banda and Lucknow are the only schools for visually impaired children in Uttar Pradesh. For Bihar and Purvanchal, the school at Varansai is the most accessible.

If the classes are discontinued, where will parents take their children? It is not only about the plight of current students, but a grave concern for the ideal of ‘Education for all’. The government cannot extricate itself from the issue by terming it as an individual and isolated matter.