Six villages, one bus, and a school day that starts at 5.40 in the morning

Sample story — delete this file once your own reports are up.

At twenty to six the road is still blue-dark, and there are eleven children standing at the junction with their bags already on their backs. The bus is due at 5.55. It is usually late. If it does not come at all, which happens perhaps twice a month, they walk to the main road and wait for a share auto, and they reach school after the second period has started.

What changed

Before 2020, four buses covered this stretch. Two were withdrawn during the lockdown and never came back. A third was moved to a different route in 2023. What is left is one service in the morning and one in the evening, carrying children from six villages.

"If the bus is cancelled, my daughter misses school. If she misses school three times, the teacher asks me why. What can I say — that the government cancelled the bus?"

The arithmetic of a missing bus

• Distance to the nearest high school: 11 km
• Buses on the route before 2020: 4
• Buses today: 1
• Cost of a share auto, one way: ₹30 per child
• Monthly cost if the bus fails twice a week: around ₹480

That last figure is roughly a fifth of what a household here earns from a week of agricultural labour.

The official position

A written request for restoration of the route was submitted by the panchayat in 2023 and again in 2025. Both were acknowledged. Neither has been answered. Officials, asked informally, point to fleet shortages and to routes with higher ticket revenue.

The children keep standing at the junction at twenty to six.