The children living in holding centres in Bode, Bhaktapur and Kharipati after being displaced due to floods are forced to spend 1-1.5 hours daily to commute to school. The parents of affected children have informed, long hours of journey, lack of sufficient of food and tiredness have impacted on their health and education. Punam Devi Paswan, a victim shared for children living in Holding Centre in Bode have to travel for about 15 Kms and depending on the traffic they spend 1.5 -2 hours on travel. According to her the children leave for school after having simple break or milk and they are provided with afternoon snacks in the school which leads to insufficient food until evening.
Parents from Kharipati Holding Centre shared, children have to spend around 1 or more hours in the vehicle to reach to their schools. They further said due to longer hours of journey the children are extremely tired when they return back. After relocation of 15 children who were living in Ichangu Narayan Holding Centre they were unable to access education for about two weeks. Parents informed, after close coordination with concerned stakeholder arrangements were made for their education at local schools despite of which the student still have to walk for around half an hour.
Khagendra Bista, a sociologist at High Powered Committee for Integrated Development of Bagmati Civilization informed in coordination with the Ministry of Education has made arrangements of vehicle for children in Bode and Kharipati. According to him though arrangements were made for schools nearby the parents wanted their children to continue education in their older school for which transportation facilities have been arranged accordingly. He acknowledged studies have been impacted of children’s living in Ichangu Narayan for some time and informed about current arrangements made at local schools.
Vidhyanath Koirala, an Educationalist said the daily travel time of 1.5 -2 hours will impact on children’s education, health and overall development. He pointed out on the necessity of close coordination between local level, school and concerned department to ensure the children are able to access education in schools nearby to the holding centres.