Where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is ‘toiling’ to digitise India, certain parts of the country still fail to shake off the epithets of illiteracy.
One such example is Bijnor’s Icchawala village known as ‘anpadh gaon’ (illiterate village) in rest of the district.
While 90 percent of the people of this village cannot read and write, the remaining are able to read and write their names only, in Urdu. People in this village depend on the neighbouring villagers for getting their letters read, dealing with other documents and even for handling their mobile phones.
Representational image | Image Source: bouboum.net
Located on the banks of river Ganga at the border of Bijnor, Muzaffarnagar and Haridwar districts this village with Muslim-majority is 25 km away from Bijnor city and has 700 registerd voters in population of 1400 people. Icchawala is reached, crossing the river by boat.
Among the denizens of this place, two boys have studied up to class 8th, who have moved out of the village for furthur studies. Girls have never seen a school as there is not a single place to study in the whole village.
People of this village living in kuchcha houses, depend on labour and farming, while wailing for their children being deprived of education.
More than the concern for getting rid of the sorrow for lack of basic amenities, the villagers want to wash-off the epithet ‘anpadh gaon’ from their identity.