One Day All Children

During Aug 2017, former Sunbird Trust Programme Manager Ankita Phalle was detailed to conduct an appraisal of the feasibility of building a school at the extremely remote and barely accessible Kadi group of villages in Tamenglong District of Manipur. Together with our Project Manager Amos and “Chief Engineer” Konish Naidu, she trekked over 80 kms over three days to complete the allotted task. Here is their story lucidly captured by Ankita…

Amos woke us up at 4:00 am on 22nd August and Konish, Amos and I were in our Bolero by 4:30 am driving towards Gelnel after picking up Lavner enroute. A refreshing cup of chai at Chawangkaning at 7:00 am later, we picked up rice and chicken for lunch and reached Gelnel by 8:30 am. We parked our Bolero in the compound of one of the villager’s house and started our 33km long trek at 8:45 am.

3 weeks before this day Konish had received a phone call from Chris Sir, the founder of Sunbird Trust, informing him about a villager who had approached Sir asking for help in building a school near their village. We were assigned the task for the site visit and research. The first thought to cross my mind when Konish told me about this was- THIS IS THE DREAM PROJECT I’VE ALWAYS WANTED TO WORK ON. BUILDING A SCHOOL FROM SCRATCH. My excitement level had no bounds and I couldn’t wait for this project to kick start. Thankfully, the weather cleared by 18th August and we met Lavner, the villager who had approached Chris Sir for this project, 2 days before the visit to know about the place a little more. All he told us was that it was a long climb, will be a challenge for us, city kids, and did not believe in us to be able to complete the trek to the village. Specially me. Ouch. The feminist side of me was hurt and I took it up as a chance to prove myself. Little did I know that this site visit was going to cost me every bit of my physical as well as mental strength and stamina.

At 8:45am, when we started our trek, Lavner told us- The first 17-18 kms will be a steep uphill climb to the village called Kadi 3. We will have lunch at Kadi 3. From Kadi 3 to Kadi 4 is another 8 kms. We will have chai at Kadi 4. And then the last leg will be another 8kms through hills from Kadi 4 to Kadi 5, our destination. In total, we were to hike 33kms on Day 1. As mentioned, the first 17kms were steeeeeeeeeep. The remaining 16kms were a combination of steep uphills and downhills.

I found myself cursing at myself half way through the first 17kms for taking Lavner’s comment of “specially” me not being able to do the hike so seriously. I could have waited back. Konish and Amos could have gone alone. I could be sitting in Bombay right now in a more comfortable space, sipping over coffee, doing a job that wouldn’t cause me so much mental and physical stress. I could be earning more for the amount of efforts I am giving for this one hike. I could just be home right now in AC, on my bed watching Netflix. And I cursed and cursed and cursed and kept thinking about everything I could be doing but this.

After one hour long breaks at Kadi 3 and Kadi 4, we successfully reached Kadi 5 at 5pm. We had completed 33kms of trekking through steep hills and valleys, something absolutely no non-tribal had done so far in EIGHT hours. When we reached Lavner’s house people were SURPRISED beyond their imagination to see two non-tribals which included a GIRL reach Kadi 5 in EIGHT hours. Konish, Amos and I could not believe we were alive and we had reached on time. But before we got too carried away with our emotions we remembered what we were there for and started our work immediately.

Suddenly, we were aware of the fact that these were a group of villages inaccessible by road, had no phone network as well as electricity. These were a group of 8 villages in the hills. Each had a Government Primary School. Every school was defunct. Kids from families had to go to live with relatives in other districts if they wanted to attend a school. This was unaffordable for most families. Kids who did go to school had to go through that trek and figure out public transport to the school and back during every visit to school. This led to most kids dropping out of school. Pregnant women and people facing medical emergencies had lost their lives trying to trek and reach the nearest town with a decent hospital.

Suddenly, I did not care about the comforts of the city life. I did not want Netflix and coffee. Suddenly, all I wanted was that school to be built. Not because it can be a dream project for me. But because they NEED this.
I taught my kids about Empathy through the two years of my Teach For India Fellowship in Bombay. I told them Empathy means to walk a mile in somebody else’s shoes. I walked 80kms in the shoes of these villagers. It made me feel extremely grateful for the comforts I have in my life. It also made me extremely angry to learn that this level of inaccessibility still exists in Twenty Seventeen and people have the nerves to get mad at outsiders who make any negative comment on the development of India. It made me sad to know that most of the working population is unaware of the reality we currently face.

I hope people get more sensitive towards their environment and other humans around them; that they invest some time to be aware of understanding the truth outside their comfort zones. I hope this visit to the Kadi hills turns out to be fruitful. I hope that one day all children in Kadi will attain an excellent education.