40 years after Bhopal gas tragedy, barefoot school ‘offers hope’
Al Jazeera
Former students at a school for children of survivors of the 1984 disaster recall families’ struggles in the aftermath.
Bhopal, India – Triveni Sonani starts her working day at 9am when she opens the gates of Oriya Basti school and welcomes the children of the neighbourhood into the classroom for another day of learning.
On this sunny December morning, she begins by settling the children into their spots, instructing them to open their books as she prepares to teach them multiplication.
The sole classroom is a simple space – a badly weathered tin roof and walls that are half-painted and partly unplastered. Most of the pupils sit on a few old wooden benches lining the walls, while some sit on thin mats on the concrete floor, their notebooks spread out in front of them, as sunlight streams through the gaps in the roof. Next door is a small but basic library – called the “Anand Library” – that the children can use.
As the lesson progresses, sounds of motorbikes revving, stray cows mooing and vendors calling out their wares drift into the room, mixing with the hum of children reading aloud.
“They love this part of the day,” says Sonani, the school’s only teacher. Her gaze turns to the children and a mural they have painted on the crumbling wall – a rising sun, its rays a seeming symbol of hope in a community burdened by hardship.
