Jhalawar: Just days ago, the cheerful laughter of two siblings echoed through the courtyard of a modest house in Rajasthan’s Jhalawar. Today, a deafening silence prevails as the children were among the seven who died in the school building collapse on Friday.
Weeping inconsolably, the mother of the duo — a boy and a girl — wished God had taken her instead and spared her children.
“I’ve lost everything… I had only two children, a boy and a girl, and both are gone. My home is empty… There’s no one left to play in the courtyard. I wish God had taken me instead and spared my children,” she said.
Among the many stories of sorrow, perhaps hers stands out as especially heart-rending, even as the tragedy has plunged several families into mourning.
On Saturday morning, wails of grieving mothers pierced the air outside the mortuary of the SRG Hospital here as the bodies of the seven children were handed over to their families.
Some of them clung tightly to the wrapped bodies of their children, refusing to let go, while others sat in stunned silence, struggling to come to terms with the sudden and shattering loss.
Shortly afterwards, five of the children were cremated together on the same funeral pyre while the other two were consigned to flames separately.
Another woman, who lost her child in the incident, raised questions on the role of the teachers present in the school at the time of the incident.
“The teachers went outside, leaving the children behind. What were they doing outside?” she charged.
The tragic collapse has raised serious questions about the condition of rural school infrastructure in Rajasthan and the systemic neglect that turned a place of learning into a site of mourning.
The youngest of those who died was only six years old.
Those killed were identified as Payal (12), Harish (8), Priyanka (12), Kundan (12), Kartik, as well as a brother and sister — Meena (12) and her brother Kanha (6).
Five of the school staffers were suspended, and a high-level inquiry into the matter was ordered. The School Education Minister has announced compensation of Rs 10 lakh to those families who lost their children.
Jhalawar District Collector Ajay Singh met the grieving families on Saturday to console them.
Later, talking to reporters, he said appropriate action will be taken against those guilty.
“Five school staffers have been suspended, and a probe committee has been constituted. If needed, an FIR will be registered. If suspension has to turn to expulsion, that will be done,” Singh told reporters.
He said all possible help and support is being given to the aggrieved families, and the school education minister has announced that a new building will be constructed in the village.
He said maximum financial assistance will be given to each family in the next 10 days.
Reacting to a video of road patch work being done outside a hospital in Jhalawar ahead of the school education minister’s visit to meet the injured, the district collector said, “I am unaware of it… I will take an update”.
On the repair work of the school building, Singh said, “There are clear-cut directions for it. The district administration is making efforts to ensure that the incident does not occur again. District education officials have been directed to not let students enter schools if the condition of the building is not good.”
He said it was unfortunate that no input was received from the school staff regarding the condition of the building. “If we had received any complaint, we would have got the building repaired and the incident could have been averted,” he said.
On Friday morning, the children, all students of Classes 6 and 7 at Piplod Government School, had barely assembled for the morning prayer when a portion of the building collapsed, burying over 35 children under debris. 28 were injured.
Slabs of concrete, bricks and stones were piled up high, and scores of people, including frantic parents and teachers, helped in the rescue effort, searching through the mounds of debris to pull out the children.
After the incident, anger and sorrow spilt onto the streets as locals blocked roads at Guradi Circle and outside SRG Hospital, demanding accountability. The protest, joined briefly by Congress leader Naresh Meena, led to his detention by police.
Protesters at Guradi Circle turned aggressive when police reached the spot to clear the roadblock and started pelting stones at the police, injuring a policeman. The police used mild force to disperse the agitators.
Follow on Twitter | Posted by Marziya Sharif | 
