Video: Andhra Tribal Students Sit In Potholes In Unique Protest For Road To School

Tribal students from Andhra Pradesh's Vizianagaram district walked along a broken, dug up path on Tuesday, demanding a proper road to connect their remote villages to the nearest school.

The students walked on the heavily damaged stretch with photographs of Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan hanging around their necks. "We are suffering every day, travelling nearly 12 kilometres through the hilly area to attend school. Please lay a road for us. We want to study," the students appealed.

The protest was organised by tribal students from Rayapalem, Munupurai, Chappanigadda, Vippamanuvalasa and Pallapudungada villages, claiming that the road made commute to their schools difficult, especially during adverse weather conditions.

The students urged the government to provide basic road connectivity to ensure uninterrupted access to education at the earliest.

In December last year, a 10-year-old girl had blocked a road in Madhya Pradesh's Betul district after her school van failed to arrive. Surabhi Yadav, a Class 5 student, sat in the middle of the road clutching her school bag tightly and refused to move for three hours. Vehicles waited and drivers watched as the child refused to move.

Yadav, a student enrolled under the Right to Education Act, travels nearly 18 kilometres daily to reach her school. The school management had discontinued the van service for Surabhi after her family allegedly failed to pay transportation fees for the last two years.

In September last year, at least 90 students from a school in Arunachal Pradesh's Pakke Kesang district marched for 65 kilometres to highlight the alleged acute shortage of teachers at their institute.

The students held posters reading 'a school without a teacher (is) just a building'. The students had said their repeated pleas for teachers were left unanswered by the school and higher education department officials.