Betul (Madhya Pradesh): There are many inaccessible areas in Bhainsdehi of Betul tribal area where children have to take a lot of risk to go to school. As a reason, the number of students in schools keeps decreasing every year. But, there is a government school in Bhainsdehi, which was on the verge of closure, until 'Scooty-Wali Madam', Aruna Mahale, came to their rescue and the children started coming to the school again.
Aruna Mahale has been picking up children for school and dropping them at their homes every day for the past seven years. She was posted in the Dudhiya of Bhainsdehi block of Betul district. Due to the difficult terrain, seven years ago only 10 children were left in the school. It was on the verge of closure when Aruna decided to do something about it.
With the help of her scooter, she started bringing children from home to school and dropping them back. Gradually, Aruna started the work of picking up and dropping off all the children, who were not coming to school. "Population of this tribal area reduced rapidly due to migration of the locals as they were finding it difficult to live in such unfavourable conditions. But, I insisted the parents let their kids stay if they decided to move to the other localities", says Aruna Mahale.
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"As a result of Aruna Mahale's initiative, the number of children in this school has increased to 85 today. The government has withdrawn the decision to close this school", informed the Block Education Administrative officer. "Scooty-Wali Madam takes her scooter in the morning and brings the children to school with her through unpaved roads and then goes to drop them back", says Rupa Bamne, a parent. She spends a lot of time and money on them, but Aruna does not have any children of her own, so she loves all her students as her own children. Aruna Mahale also has a guest teacher in her school, whom she pays from her own salary. If any child does not have school supplies, then she buys those for the children, too. Aruna Mahale has never taken any amount from the families of these children in seven years.
