When it’s daily wage vs daily school

But the 10.30 am-5 pm timing left the students unable to put in hours in the evening, when employers needed them most. They risked losing their jobs and the meagre income it brought them because they reported late.

Last week, students got the State Human Rights Commission to intervene and the state government agreed to revise the timing to 8 am to 2.30 pm.

In the process, the school became the first institution to use the provision of the People’s Education Act, a Madhya Pradesh legislation that allows school timing to be revised after holding a referendum.

Some students told The Indian Express today that the education department had been stonewalling their demand, citing a rule that single-shift schools like the one they went to should function only from 10.30 am to 5 pm.

Their parents had little time to press beyond a point but the students persisted, getting their point across whenever education department officials came for inspection or local leaders visited the school for hoisting the tri-colour.

In the end they approached the commission, which did not insist on the revision but wanted to know if there was any hitch. Students union president Raju Mandrai, who cooks food for his younger siblings before coming to school, said he got the idea of approaching the commission while watching a Doordarshan programme.

District Education Officer Dhirendra Chaturvedi said this was the first such case in the state. “When a majority of students wanted it we had no objection.”

Since only three students had approached the commission, the education department told the school and the Parents-Teachers Association to find out how many were in favour of the timing change.

Shivcharan Khushwah, a Std XII student, delivers newspapers before coming to the school and works at a medical store from 3 pm. The Rs 500 he brings home is a major relief for his family as his fathers earns only Rs 1,500. “I have six siblings and no option but to work,” he said on what the change meant to him.

Sunil Singh, 18, a Std X student, said he was no longer afraid of losing his evening job at a medical store. “Earlier the owner would threaten to drive me out of the shop because I could not reach in time.”

Principal Mohammed Hanif said all students were asked to give written consent to the timing change. When more than 60 per cent agreed, the school had no issue left.

The school did not have a reason to disbelieve students’ economic status because it has records.

Some of the teachers were reluctant but came around the idea when they were convinced that the demand was genuine.