The Haryana government on Wednesday acceded to the demand of girl students in Gothra Tappa Dahina village, Rewari, to upgrade their school to the senior secondary level. Many of the girls had been on a hunger strike for the last eight days.
The students had alleged that on their way to the larger school in neighbouring Kanwali village, boys would pass lewd comments and harass them.
“We all are happy that our demand has been met. Everyday we faced molestation and eve-teasing. We were left with no choice but to resort to hunger strike to make the government hear us. It has been a splendid victory for us,” said Nikita, a student.
Holding a press conference in Chandigarh, Haryana Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma said that a principal had been appointed to the school with immediate effect and added that admission process for Class XI and XII for the current session would start on Thursday.
Mr. Sharma, however, said that notification formalities might take a few more days.
Rules relaxed
The Minister said that after discussing the matter with Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and Additional Chief Secretary (Education) P. K. Das, it had been decided that the village school would be upgraded by relaxing some rules.
Joint Secretary (Education) also wrote to the Director of Secondary Education that the Haryana Governor has accorded to upgrade the Gothara Tappa Dahina high school to senior secondary level with effect from 2017-18 session.
Soon after the announcement, Deputy Commissioner Yash Garg reached the village with the official communication and broke the news to the girls, who have been protesting since May 10.
Mr. Garg then offered juice to the girls formally breaking their hunger strike.
Besides senior district officials, Haryana BJP vice-president Arvind Yadav and district BJP president Yogender Paliwal were present on the occasion.
Mass support
Raj Kumar, a villager, said that the girls had managed to achieve what they had not been able to all these years. “We had always felt the need for a senior secondary school in the village, but failed to get it upgraded. Today our girls have done what we villagers had failed to do,” said Mr. Kumar.
Thirteen girls from the village had gone on an indefinite hunger strike demanding that their village school be upgraded to the senior secondary level.
The village sarpanch, Suresh Chauhan, and sacked BSF jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav had also held a hunger strike in support of the protesting girl. Later, residents from neighbouring villages and girls from a government college in Kanwali also came out in support of the girls.
Braving the heat
In the eight days that the girls were on hunger strike, many suffered dehydration and a few of them had to be admitted to the civil hospital. An ambulance and a doctor were deployed at the site round-the-clock.
The incident put a lot of pressure on the government and on Monday Mr. Sharma had made a press statement assuring that the school would be upgraded, but the girls had refused to break the hunger strike while demanding a notification.
Following Wednesday’s announcement, Mr. Chauhan said they were satisfied with the assurances of the government and had decided to call off the hunger strike.
