Parents of Musaika Qadri, 10, a Class 5 student of Srinagar’s Presentation Convent, are anxious to send her to school, like many others, on August 19, as the Jammu and Kashmir administration plans a phased reopening of schools after the 14-day lockdown .
A resident of Khanyar in the old city, Ms. Qadri’s father S.M. Qadri, a government employee, said he was “unwilling to send her ward anytime soon”.
The Khanyar area falls in the jurisdiction of one of the six volatile police stations in the old city where restrictions on the movement of vehicles and its residents remain since August 5.
“The interior roads are blocked by protesters and the main road is hemmed in by spools of concertina wires every 100 metres. Would a father like his ward to face harassment at every crossroad of the street? Can she take this intimidation given her age? I have decided against taking any risk to send my daughter immediately,” Mr. Qadri said. Besides, the parents complained that the school administration-run online applications were inaccessible due to Internet shutdown. “I am not even informed if the school has decided to go with the government decision or not. The school online application remains out of bounds,” he said. At least 190 schools, out of around 900, in Srinagar are to be opened in the first phase. Unlike Presentation Convent School and other top-notch private schools that cater to large areas of Srinagar, the administration pins hopes to see semblance of normalcy in the government-run schools. These schools are located within the localities, in many places away from the main road.
Mixed population
Many government schools fall in peripheries like Theed and Dhara near Srinagar’s Harwan area, where very few incidents of street protests were reported in the past two weeks, besides it hosts a mixed population of Kashmiri and Gojri-speaking.
“We look forward with optimism and hope the coming week, as schools started functioning again,” said Jammu and Kashmir government spokesman Rohit Kansal.
However, several government teachers said they were clueless how to reach these schools in the absence of any public transport in the State. “No buses ply anywhere in Srinagar. Crowds stop vehicles in many areas of Srinagar. Who will guarantee security to teachers?” asked a government teacher on condition of anonymity.
K. Vijay Kumar, adviser to the Governor, said the administrators were concerned about the safety of students. “It was not that we wanted to open the schools. The demand came from the ground, spontaneously from the parentsWe agreed to it. We are doing everything to ensure the safety. We are conscious of the requirements like mobility and communications,” he told a television channel.
Mr. Kansal said there were attempts to coerce shopkeepers to close shops in the areas where restrictions were relaxed on Sunday and warned that “action will be taken against such miscreants as per law.”
“Two persons were injured [in street protests] and both are stable. Against 35 police stations where restrictions were eased on Saturday, it was expanded to 50 on SundayThe process of easing of prohibitory orders will continue,” Mr. Kansal said.
He said the relaxations were announced in advance on Sunday to allow the shopkeepers and buyers to plan in advance. “Relaxation hours were also extended from six to eight hours,” he added.
