Rautahat, July 12

Phul Kumari Sah,14, a fifth grader of Rajpur Rural Municipality has rejoined school after two years. Sah had earlier dropped out of school as she had to handle household chores.

A girl education campaign named the ‘Golden Thousand Days’ programme convinced her parents to send their daughter to school again. She had given up her studies two years ago and had been staying at home since then.

In another instance, fourth grader Tamsun Khatun, 13, of the same rural municipality had also discontinued her studies due to her parents’ pressure. After attending the programme, her parents became aware of the importance of education and encouraged her to rejoin school.

In a similar fashion, girls at Mudabalab, Brahmapuri, Laxmipur, Belbechhawa, Badaharwa, Jokaha, Banjarhal, Kanakpur and Bishrampur, among other villages in the district have started to go to school after the girl education awareness drive in their localities.

Miran Kumari Yadav, 14, of Maulapur Rural Municipality is studying in grade V at the local Saraswati Primary School. Despite being a little too old to be studying in grade V, she is happy that she has started schooling again. She said that she was also helping with household work. Her parents however think education will put unnecessary financial burden on them. She has got many opportunities to take part in different training programmes under the GTD programme.

Local social worker Shambhu Supreme said the programme had encouraged hundreds of girls in Rautahat to go to school.

Information Officer at the District Coordination Committee, Rautahat, Subash Thakur said uniforms and school bags, among other education materials, had also been distributed to students under the programme. “The students were motivated to study after getting education materials,” he added.

Kanchan Das, a coach at the GTD programme, said around 80 per cent girls who had dropped out of school had resumed studies in the district.

Meanwhile, Local Development Officer Umesh Basnet said the programme had made guardians and parents aware of the value of education for their wards and children and to see the necessity to send them to school.