Education takes back seat in Jalandhar's Dhakka Basti

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

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Jalandhar, July 30

Jaswinder Singh (19) who passed Class XII last year was going to take admission in an ITI course in Jalandhar. As he is from the worst flood-hit village of Lohian, he lost his home along with his dream of getting higher education just like several other youngsters. Jaswinder is now looking for a job and studies have taken a back seat for now.

Dhakka Basti is a village where the majority of the people have lost their homes and they are now staying at Null mandi. Parents said when their children should have been spending their time in the colleges, they were roaming without any purpose now.

Jaswinder said: “My brother is studying at Punjab Agriculture University, Ludhiana, and my father, a daily wager, was paying his fee by doing hard work. I also wanted to help him and took a year’s break so that I could go abroad and earn. But, when nothing happened, I decided to stay here and study. Now, there is no money left for my education. Will think of doing some job now,” he said.

A mid-day meal worker at the government school, Harmesh Singh, father of 18-year-old Gurpreet Singh, is going through the same dilemma. His son had applied for a course online at a college before tragedy hit them. “I do not know the result after he applied for the course. Also, what is the need to even know now as I don’t have any money to pay for his higher education after the deluge took away everything with it,” the father said.

“My son is an athlete. He really wanted to study further. But, for now, everything seems blurred. Right now, I am here at the mandi while my son is at his relative’s home. I was earning so that my son could study and become independent, but this disaster had some other plans,” he said.