Seven days 80-odd girls of classes IX and X sat on a hunger strike in Haryana’s Rewari district demanding upgradation of school, the state government finally gave in to their demands on Wednesday.
The Haryana government issued a notification for upgradation of the government high school to the level of senior secondary school.
Following the notification, the protesting students ended the hunger strike.
The girls, studying in class IX and X in Gothda Tappa Dahina village, had demanded that the school they study in be upgraded so they do not have to travel to another village every day to attend school for their higher education.
Girls in the village complain that they are subjected to daily harassment at the hands of boys while travelling to the neighbouring Kanwali village which has a senior secondary school – three kilometres from where they stay.
Of the 80 girls on protest, 13 were on an indefinite hunger strike.
The fear of harassment is such that even discourages the parents of many girls in the village to discontinue their wards’ education. Their fear too is not entirely misplaced.
Last year, in the same district, girl students of two villages had stopped going school with after a girl was allegedly raped on way to school in another village.
One of the girls on hunger strike said: "We fear harassment and molestation by youths of other villages and hence, we are demanding upgradation of our school up to Class XII."
One of the protesting girls had said that boys riding bikes snatch their scarves and throw them on road. The miscreants wear helmets so that cannot be identified.
The school girls even claimed that the boys even hold their hands and click their pictures.
