16 years old, Ananta Doiphode walked 22kmto and fro daily to access education. He had to reach Panshet, a remotehilly area in Maharashtra’s Pune district from Varghad village of Velha tehsil.
Meanwhile, his hard work paid off and he scoredan impressive 82.80 percent in class 10.
Like many, Ananta too find this routine hard aswalking such a distance wasn’t that easy, but he didn’t let this tiring scheduleaffect his studies.
Sharing his struggle, Ananta said in aninterview, “I used to wake up at 4 am and study till 6. After that in again sleepfor an hour before waking and leaving on foot to school.”
He further discussed, “After returning fromschool, I studied late night every day as I knew it was an important year forme.”
Ananta is the eldest of three siblings. Theyreside in an old, tiny mud-house in Varghad village of Velha tehsil, which isbarely 60 km from Pune city.
His father is a waiter in a canteen. Anantaachieved a great score despite odds and by living in a house that has no fanand is dark even during the day.
However, Ananta wasn’t very much satisfied withhis performance and said he’ll only have a sigh of relief once he qualifies theUPSC exam.
Sharing his plans, he said, “I will go to Punecity for junior college. I want to prepare for UPSC to become a civil servant. Iwas hoping to score 90%. I may have achieved that had I stayed at the hostelnear my school. But we didn’t have money. Walking four hours a day was reallytiring” he added.
Asha Kutwal, a school teacher at Shri ShivajiVir Baji Pasalkar High School in Panshet, where Ananta is a student, sharedthat many students walk several kilometers to school. “We have students whowalk 10 to 22 km every day. They come from villages where bus service is not available,”she said.
In the interview, Ananta’s mother also pointedout the unavailability of transportation and said, “There is only one bus availableand that reaches our area very early and in the evening there is no fixed timeas it may arrive at 6 pm or 10 pm. Moreover, we didn’t have money to buy a monthlypass, therefore Ananta and many students like him often choose to go on foot.
“The bus pass for boys costs around Rs 660 permonth, which is quite expensive for them. For girls, it is just Rs 30. Besides,we need to go to Swargate which is in Pune city, to get the pass which again addsto the cost” said Avishkar, Ananta’s classmate.