BIT Mesra students with Pancholli children at the school. Telegraph picture

Ranchi, Aug. 10: The state virtually abandoned them. Students of BIT Mesra literally embraced them.

Forty children of a nondescript village, some 16km from the capital, are able to go to school for two months now, thanks to the selfless efforts of a group of 10 like-minded BITians who have taken the onus to run a state primary school.

Bharatiya Sahitya Parishad, an organisation floated by BIT Mesra students to aid literacy campaigns, has hired three teachers to guide the children at the school, which is a stone’s throw from the institute. Earlier, there were only two teachers for Classes I to V.

The school is being funded by Karampath, another organisation founded by BIT alumni (2005 batch) last year.

Pancholli village has some 400 poor farmer families who depend on the sole state-run school for basic education of their children. “But the state did little other than appoint a couple of teachers. The pitiable state of the primary school in the absence of adequate infrastructure and funds prompted us to come forward and help,” said Raghvendra Purwar, a third-year production engineering student and treasurer of the parishad.

Purwar’s concern was shared by friends Vikash Verma, Sunil Kumar, Ayush Anand, Sameer Kishan, Saundarya Soni, Upendra Dwivedi, Vikas Pandey, Utsav Nepali and Vineet Sehgal — all pursuing studies in different engineering streams like electronics and communication, civil, mechanical and IT at BIT Mesra.

Together, they decided to ensure that these poor children were not deprived of education. “We started running the school with funds for books, pencils, et al, two months ago. There were initial hurdles like getting power connection and money to hire teachers, but today we can boast success,” Purwar said.

He added they had also wanted to impart adult education, but the mission failed to generate much interest in the village.

The BITians visit the school at least once a week to motivate both students and their teachers. “It gives us a feeling of satisfaction when we watch the children attending the school,” Purwar pointed out.

Class II student Munni Kumari only strengthened that feeling. “School aana bahut achcha lagta hain. Bade ho kar teacher banenge (I like coming to school. I will be a teacher when I grow up),” she said.