Housing monuments to the dead, Jharkhand school closed after students leave 'out of fear'

Over the past few years, several monuments (locally known as Kalbud) have been built in the Bansdohar Girls' Middle School of Leslieganj block of Palamu giving the campus the look of a cemetery.

Palamu (Jharkhand):A middle school for girls in a far off village in the Palamu district of Uttarakhand is left with no students since they all left after feeling uneasy by the monuments to the dead being set up on the school premises.

Over the past few years, several such monuments (locally known as Kalbud) have been built in the Bansdohar Girls' Middle School of Leslieganj block of Palamu giving the campus the look of a cemetery. The setting up of Kalbuds, locals say, is their tradition and something continuing for generations. However, the presence of the grave-like monuments did not go well with the 150-odd students, who, one after another, left to seek admission to some other school. The school was eventually closed in 2018 after the approval of the Block Education Committee.

Staring at the symbols of death every day, apparently, made the students uneasy. However, the villagers say that the school was abandoned not because of the monuments but due to the "negligence" of the teachers. The land on which the school has been built is listed as 'gair-majrua' (government land) due to which villagers did not hesitate to build monuments on it.

Ramjan Pandey, a local, said even before the construction of the school building, some of the memorials were already built. "The condition is that only monuments are visible in front of the school. The teachers got transferred one by one and left from here. Due to which, the school had to be closed," he said. Unlike the villagers, Amresh Singh of Jharkhand State Primary Teachers Association said that children from poor families studied in the school.

"It was unfortunate such monuments were built in the school since they affect the psyche of the children and their mood as well. In that environment. it is not possible for any teacher to impart education," he said. District Education Officer Upendra Narayan said they will try to reopen the school.