"Ratnagiri school asks kids to walk 8 km every day carrying buckets filled to the brim, because nobody has the Rs 2,600 needed to fix a broken water pump."

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/article/2/2009010620090106020310402c5c198cc/Want-water-Fetch-it-yourself

This particular news story appeared in the Mumbai Mirror today and shocked me to the core. I was absolutely horrified to hear that small kids from the primary classes of 5-7 in a Zilla Purna Prarthamik Shala in Ratnagiri are being told to walk 8 km to fetch water for the school as the water pump is broken and requires only 2,600/- Rs to fix it. The students have been fetching water for the last one month and their parents are too busy anyways with their daily chores to bother about what happens in school.

What shocks me most is the paltry sum that is required to fix the pump. Apparently the Gram Panchayat is aware of the problem and had also been awarded a sum of 50,000 Rs/- by the Central Government by former President APJ Abdul Kalam. But, as to what happened to those funds and whether they were appropriately used and exhausted, nobody knows for sure.

Why is the staff of the school using the small kids to carry full buckets of water for 8 kms? This is absolutely sickening! The villagers don't seem to have this small amount of money to save the poor kids all this trouble?

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