School for girls turns into textile training centre in Modi's adopted village

With Modi seeking a second term from his Parliamentary Constituency of Varanasi, ETV Bharat travelled to Jayapur, a village adopted by Modi under the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana in 2014, only to find a building meant to serve as a school for girls in the village, being used as a textile training centre for women.

Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh): The residents of Jayapur village in Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi couldn't contain their excitement when their village was adopted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi under the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana in 2014. Five years on, the village continues to struggle with various issues, with the most important being the dismal state of girl education.

With Modi seeking a second term from his Parliamentary Constituency of Varanasi, ETV Bharat travelled to Jayapur, only to find a building meant to serve as the only school for girls in the village, being used as a textile training centre for women, hence, negating the idea behind Modi's flagship Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme launched with much fanfare in 2015.

We spoke to Rita Rai, a trainer at the textile training centre which was supposed to serve as a school for girls, who said, " I manage the making of the khadi cloth at the school-turned-workshop. Since the school is not yet functional, the village head gave the space to the women. Around 80 women work here for six hours a day and make around Rs 2,000 a month."

The school was inagurated in 2015 by Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, but the school still awaits the appointment of a teacher.

At the school, women can be seen sitting in a grid-like fashion in big empty rooms, constantly moving their muscles to the motion of the charkha.

ETV Bharat asked Jayapur village head, Narayan Patel, about the condition of the school. Patel said, "The school has been constructed by private organisations inspired by Prime Minsiter Narendra Modi's vision. But, it has not yet been utilised as a school. Since it was lying vacant, we decided to use it as a textile training centre to empower the women of our village."

As per the eleventh Annual Status of Education Report (ASER 2016) released on 18 January 2017, by Pratham Education Foundation, Uttar Pradesh continues to account for the highest percentage of out-of-school girls within the age group of 11-14 years, at 9.9 per cent.

While the school is providing employment to the women of Jayapur, it is still not serving its actual purpose, which is to educate a girl child and hence empower them.