Children of the migrant fishing community hardly get access to schools because their parents travel often. Most of them, who live with their parents in fishing camps along the backwaters of Hemavati reservoir in Hassan district, have dropped out of schools.
“None of us have ever gone to school. Now, our children are facing the same problem,” said Puttaraju, a member of the fishing community which has set up a camp near Chowdahalli. Eight families from T.B. Kaval, a village near Kadur, have settled here.
“We spend almost 10 months in a year away from our native place. We fish for six months in Gurur dam limits in Hassan district and spend another three to four months at Kasaragod in Kerala,” said another member Jayamma. The fishermen sell their catch for about Rs. 80 a kilo. Each family catches two to five kgs of fish a day.
Children seldom get access to schools when the families keep moving. The Department of Public Instructions has set up a tent school near Konapura in Hassan taluk. But at present, only four children are studying here. “The tent school was set up specifically for children of fishing community. There were 12 children at the start of the year, but eight left recently,” said H.S. Phaneesh, deputy project coordinator of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan in Hassan.
The department is running seven such tent schools in the district, of which six are for children of plantation workers, majority of whom have come from Assam.
“The fishing community keeps moving from place to place. When the school was set up at Konapura, the place was close for the camps settled nearby. We heard that majority of the people have moved to places near Alur,” Mr. Phaneesh said.
The fishermen normally set up their tents near the banks of the river.
They do not have proper road connectivity to nearby villages where the tent schools are located. They move to different locations twice in an academic year.
