Red-light area in the way of education

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Saharsa (Bihar): Young girls have nothing much to do in a village in Saharsa, Bihar, but play.

There is little hope of getting any formal education in this village - not because there is no school here or there is gender bias among the people in this village, but because a red-light area stands in their way to education.

The girls need to cross the red-light area to reach their schools and because of this, their parents have opted to keep them away from school.

"Boys pass lewd comments, whistle and tease the girls, so we have asked them to stay at home," says a parent Hasina Parveen.

Girls of several villages in the neighbourhood spend their day either doing household jobs or playing in the field apart from the little time they can manage for self study in home.

A student Rukshana Parveen, says, "We stopped going to school because of eve-teasing."

The crores of rupees being wasted by the Bihar government on education has no meaning in this Saharsa village.

And though the girls want to go to school and have pleaded to the administration to do something, their requests have fallen on deaf ears and no action has been taken.

The solution is quite simple - shifting the red-light area to a place where it does not fall in the way of girls walking to their schools, but till such a solution comes about, the girls will have to keep away from schools.

Says the District Magistrate of Saharsa, N K Chaudhary, "We have a lot of good programmes lined up for children and some of these can be implemented so that these girls can attend school."

Adds Principal, Girls high School, Saharsa, Nirmala Kumari Das, "Parents don't send their girls to school due to the red-light area. A bus should be arranged for them."

Meanwhile, the girls wait for the day that the administration will pave the way for their education.

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