Mounesh Vishwakarma
Daijiworld Media Network - Bantwal (SP)

Bantwal, Jul 6: The children of this village have to go to the riverbank for listening to online classes, download the offline lessons and send the homework executed by them. 

You are wrong if you presume that we are talking about some backward hamlet from an abstract region. This is the plight of the children from the Chendthimar - Manihalla area, which is located within the municipal limits of Bantwal.

The people of the Chendthimar and Manihalla areas in Bantwal taluk have been suffering from network issues. The suffering of the students who depend on online classes is pitiable. 

There are about 250 houses in this area with a population of above a thousand. People have to come out of their homes if they want to use their phones or the internet. In most cases, to use the internet, they have to scale the terrace of their houses or reach the riverbank.

Online classes have begun in the last few days and the number of children reaching the riverbank in search of signals is increasing every day. To download homework sent offline, and to send back the homework that is attended, too can be executed only on the riverbank. The students have to come with their parents. A parent, Shantala, confides that sometimes, attendance of children online creates problems because of network problems. Fourth standard student, Dishanth, says it has become difficult to send finished homework and that his mother has to accompany him to send things from the riverbank. Ramya, a parent, admits that hearing the online classes every day is becoming very hard. On Tuesday, there is no electricity too. Even hearing of Chandana channel lessons is possible only on mobiles if one reaches the riverbank.

For the students, it is very difficult to stand by the roadside or go to the terrace to attend online classes on rainy days. Because of the coronavirus problem, the classes are already truncated. The network problem has complicated matters further. 

An SSLC student, Supriya, says that during the rainy season, it is hard to go in search of a network with an umbrella in hand. Even though the town area is nearby, network has been a huge problem here. The people are looking up to the officials and people's representatives to do something to provide permanent relief to the problem. 

Rajesh Naik, Bantwal MLA, says that a district-level meeting of the MP, deputy commissioner, zilla panchayat chief executive officer and officials of the firms concerned was held on the network problem. At a few places, some hurdles concerning the construction of towers needed have been addressed, he said, duly promising to hold a taluk level meeting soon about the implementation of the decisions and solve the problem once and for all.