No more rowing to school, ‘raft kids’ get a motorboat

RAIPUR: Shanti, Preeti and Poonam went home in style on Tuesday — without getting their feet wet or their arms tired from rowing makeshift tin-drum boats that were so far their only mode of transport to and from school — to their native Rahata village, about 120km from Raipur. Moved by their daily ordeal, Balod district collector Kiran Kaushal gifted them a motorboat and life jackets.

When the schoolgirls and their friends returned to where they had moored their ‘boats’ along the banks of a dam reservoir in Arajpuri village, they saw an inflatable motorboat and two home guards waiting to take them home. Collector Kaushal was there to wave them off. The girls beamed as they got off the motorboat. “We never felt so good,” they said. Shanti is in Class 12, Preeti in Class 10 and Poonam in Class 8.

Moved as they were by the collector’s gesture, village elders told her that the village couldn’t afford a motorboat and requested her for a proper rowboat instead. Kaushal agreed, and brand-new fibreglass boats are on their way. Till then, the kids and villagers can use the motorboat — all expenses paid by the administration. For years, going to school has always been a test of nerves for kids. Their parents would build one-person rafts out of empty oil tins, ropes and a few lengths of timber. Sitting gingerly on these rafts, children would row to the other side of the Kharkhara Dam reservoir with little paddles.

After learning of their plight, Balod collector Kiran Kaushal visited Rahata and saw their daily struggle for herself. “I went with my team to the village to hear the grievances of residents on Monday. They said they have to cross the reservoir of Kharkhara Dam on boats made of oil tins to reach Arajpuri village to buy grocery and for other daily needs,” Kaushal told TOI. “We provided them with a motorboat and two home guards, who will help the girls and villagers cross the river safely. They have been given life jackets. The fibre boats with paddles will reach them within 15 days,” the collector said.