Patna: The state government may be patting itself on the back for organising the human chain on Sunday against child marriage and dowry, but the event took its toll on academic activities in schools across the state.

For the past 10 days, students and teachers had to attend various activities in the run-up to Sunday, from painting competitions to prabhat feris (morning processions), cycle rallies, essay writing competitions, torchlight processions and writing letters to parents about the twin social evils.

"From January first week, many classes were suspended as we had to participate in various activities for the human chain," said a student of Bankipore Girls High School. "The state government's fight against the two social evils is good but it has affected our studies at a time when we are yet to complete our syllabus."

A teacher of Bapu Smarak Balika Madhya Vidyalaya in Rajendra Nagar agreed.

"For the past 10 days, we entirely focused on the success of the human chain," the teacher said under cover of anonymity. "We had to carry out various activities on a daily basis and submit the status report to the district education officer."

The initiative was noble but it affected academic activities, the teacher added.

On record, however, all major teachers' associations supported the event. Only a few associations mainly of primary school teachers were against the human chain, and demanded equal pay for equal work first. The secondary teachers' association, which too is demanding equal pay for equal work for teachers, supported the government move.

Bihar secondary teachers' association general secretary Shatrughan Prasad Singh said: "We had supported the event but at the same time the government should look into our demands."

At many places in the human chain, teachers held placards demanding equal pay for equal work. The Supreme Court will take up the teacher' associations demand of equal pay for equal work on January 25. The education department had initially told schools to ensure participation of all students from class V to XII. However, after the high court directive, students' participation was made voluntary.