Mahakalapara: Sarva Sikhya Abhiyan (SSA), the flagship programme of the government to ensure universal elementary education, seems to be in disarray in this block of Kendrapara district with many school kids being engaged in odd jobs to supplement their family income instead of studying.
With the education system lacking direction, schoolgirls were here seen making cakes from cow and buffalo dung to meet the fuel need of their families.
Most families of Pitapata, a village in Ramnagar panchayat on Mahanadi basin, face acute shortage of fuel.
They engage their school-going kids in making dung cakes. One cannot rule out the possibility of children being engaged as labourers in the other works, a report said.
While the people of this village struggle to get fuel for cooking, ironically people on the other side of Mahanadi, as part of Paradip industrial belt, enjoy high economic growth.
Kendrapara, Mahakalapara and several other blocks still remain underdeveloped in the absence of industrial units, locals lamented.
This has forced the youths of this district to go outside to eke out a living, social activist Subas Swain said.
Alleging that the slogan of quality education for children remains only on paper, locals demanded development of required infrastructure to ensure physical and mental growth of children. PNN
