Mr Dulal Sarkar from Gangtok travelling 1,000 km on bicycle preaching education for all

BEHRAMPORE, 1 SEPT: A 28-year-old youth, Mr Dulal Sarkar from Gangtok, who lost his right leg years ago, went out alone on his bicycle to launch his crusade for school dropouts.
After travelling 1,000 km, he will meet the chief minister, Miss Mamata Banerjee, at Writers’ Buildings. His single-point agenda is to visit schools and encourage the dropout children to resume their studies.
A pair of clutches anchored to his bicycle is his only companion for the journey. After travelling for hours he reached a school where he met the teachers and students and discussed infrastructure issues and put forward his views regarding children who dropped out in recent years.
“I will report to Miss Banerjee about the existing condition of infrastructure in primary and secondary schools in the state. A school in Farakka has 200 students but only one teacher to run it. It is the same story at a school in Jangipur. As children have no classes to attend, they feel left out and prefer to stay at home.This is one of the reasons that force children to leave school. Developing school infrastructure seems to be the only way to solve the problem,” said Mr Sarkar.
Flying the National Flag, a kitbag, some documents in support of his identity and a poster that reads, “Go to schoolchildren and be educated”, he set out on 6 July. Yesterday he left Murshidabad for Kolkata and other districts. Mr Sarkar, a higher secondary dropout himself, could not continue with his studies due to certain family problems. “After my father's death, my mother and brother looked after me. Now I am more concerned about the future of my nation rather than my own,” he said.
-asim pramanik