Jamshedpur, April 28: Barely a year ago, 13-year-old Kajal Soren, a resident of Baludih in Rakhamines, could hardly read and write.

Now Soren, along with 100 other girls in the area, is not only armed with the three ?R?s ? reading, writing and arithmetic ? but is also propagating the much-celebrated ?School Chale Hum? campaign and is taking it to communities, where going to school was a proposition unheard of.

Soren and her troop are all students at the Rural Institute for Training and Development (RITD) at Salboni, an NGO, which has made a difference to their lives.

According to institute director and National Youth Awardee Nityanand Mahato, the girls, who all hail from extremist-infested areas like Dumaria, Rakhamines, Potka, Musabani, Dhalbhumgarh, Chakulia were identified through a survey and were not only taught the fundamentals of academics but also imparted training in vermiculture, mushroom cultivation, incense sticks making, food processing etc.

Now, it?s reversal of roles for the young brigade who are going about motivating their counterparts in villages to register in primary schools across Maliyanta, Modnabera, Hirachundi and Dharia.

Armed with banners and posters of the campaign, the girls go about chanting slogans like ?aadhi roti khayenge, phir bhi school jayenge? (we will go to school even if we have to eat half a chapati), ?hum ko age badne do, mehnat karke padne do? (Let us move forward and work hard by studying).

Laxmi Hansda, a 14-year-old from the extremist-infested area of Musabani, for instance, was excited about spreading education among those for whom the threshold of school remained a distant dream. ?Six months ago, I was unable to read and write. But today, thanks to my stay at the institute, I have become confident about meeting the world. I feel that everyone should go to school and become independent and not rely on others,? a beaming Laxmi told The Telegraph.

How did her friends greet her endeavour to bring them to the classrooms? Laxmi isn?t all that happy with their response but is still quite optimistic about the future.

While some children promised her that they would go to school, some others ran away as thy young brigade drew near. The troops then met their parents and tried to coax them into sending their wards to the nearest primary school or even the RITD, their alma mater. They were warmly welcomed by some while some more brushed their suggestions aside.

Eight year old Champa Besra of Salboni village says she wants to go to school but the nearest school is far away. At this, Mahto urged her parents to send her to the institute for at least two hours daily. The next step, Mahto said, will be a door-to-door campaign for families to send children between 6 and 14 years to school.