Lack of internet connectivity is a major drawback for the school, and for the village in general. To access appreciable internet, we need to visit the local leader’s house about 45 minutes to an hour away by foot. There is no vehicle in the school, so hiking is often the only option left, except on rare occasions when there’s a vehicle going in the same direction and we can request a drop. And the return journey on foot of similar duration is also to be counted. That adds up to about two hours of hiking to access at best patchy and pitiably slow internet. This internet facility is thanks to a government-run programme under the Digital India initiative that aims to digitally empower gram panchayats. But internet connectivity is poor and unreliable, the connection dropping every now and then. This hampers and delays work, eating up much more of one’s time. The sadder part is, this is the best-case scenario. Some days the internet facility doesn’t even run because there’s no sufficient electric power at the house. Lack of reliable internet connectivity indeed proves to be a major hurdle that impedes the flow of work and delays quality work here at Papikrung.
That’s not all; there’s an element of danger in all this. Papikrung is surrounded by thick forests. We live amidst jungle. And snakes and other wildlife live in jungle. Usually it would be dark by the time we’re done with work at the local leader’s house and have to start walking back to our residence. It’s likely that we spot snakes on our way back. We’ve encountered several so far. Especially on a hot day, locals say, snakes like to hit the road and cool themselves on the tar. Or perhaps they come to the road to absorb the remnants of the day’s heat from the tar, to brave the notorious forest chill in the night. With our torches blaring onto the road we are vigilant to our bones intent on spotting the scary reptile from a distance so as to avoid it and pass by safe. That fear and consternation, under the envelope of the forest’s pitch dark, with the croaking of toads and the chatter of cicadas vaguely adding to the trepidation, is a challenge unique to life and work at Papikrung. All said, we learn to live (and work) with it, and that makes it all that much more sweet and fruitful.
Snake alert
Getting internet facility in the school would be a major enabler of effective school functioning. Airtel tower is recently installed in the region but its tele- and internet services are as yet barely operational, running in a rudimentary fashion over haphazard and limited time windows. There is no clarity as to when full-fledged Airtel services would be available here; the village being close to the India-China border, security concerns also weigh in. The school has been sanctioned VSAT internet facility by the government, but this has not been implemented yet for various reasons of governmental inefficiency. There is ample merit in attempting a revival of this project and getting it implemented at the earliest so that the school has in its premises some, if rudimentary, internet facility that will aid the school functioning quite appreciably.
-by Vishwas Patel