Monsoon Struggles: Tribal Students in Palghar Fight to Reach School
VASAI: Every monsoon, students from remote tribal hamlets in Palghar District face life-threatening obstacles, crossing swollen rivers, slogging through sludge-filled tracks, and balancing on fragile bunds, just to attend school.
In three separate incidents reported in a single week, children from interior villages were seen enduring hazardous conditions in the absence of basic infrastructure. The rains have once again laid bare the systemic neglect of this tribal-dominated district — carved out of Thane in 2014 but still starved of essentials like proper roads, bridges, and medical facilities.
In one instance, children from Mhase Pada, a small hamlet in Vikramgad taluka, used an inflated tyre tube to cross a swollen section of the Pinjar river. A local who ferries the children across said there are around eight students from Classes I to V who must rely on the tyre during the monsoon.
If it rains heavily, they stay at home for a week or more and miss school. Sometimes, it rains even during the crossing, he added. Not just students — even adults use this makeshift ferry system to access markets and other essential services. The community has repeatedly demanded a bridge here, but nothing has moved.
In Wada taluka, students from Ghodvinde Pada, Man Pada, and Palat Pada are forced to trudge through ankle-deep slush to get to their school. A broken mini-bridge or sakav, already in disrepair for years, becomes completely submerged during heavy rains, disconnecting the hamlets from the nearby market. This sakav is in a dangerous condition and can collapse anytime. We’ve been asking for a permanent bridge for over a decade, but our voices go unheard, said a resident.
Another group of students from Nakar Pada and Jugre Pada were seen navigating a bund dangerously close to an overflowing river, clinging to each other to maintain balance. Locals say this route is a shortcut, and while risky, it saves a long detour. We know it’s dangerous, but there’s no other option, said Ram Katke, a resident who’s now pushing for a bridge at the site. A nearby ashramshala (residential tribal school) has taken note of the situation and admitted 17 affected children so they can stay at the hostel and avoid the treacherous daily journey.
We’ve urged their parents to keep them with us for the entire academic year, said the head of the ashram. The infrastructure crisis isn’t limited to education. In medical emergencies — childbirth, surgeries, accidents — tribal families from Palghar often travel to Vapi or Nashik, as nearby public health facilities remain inadequate.
Despite 11 years since the district was created, development in large swathes of Palghar remains elusive. The annual arrival of the monsoon only magnifies the cost of that neglect — and it's children who bear the brunt, one dangerous step at a time.
