A file photo of the children of Sundargarh Blind School playing musical chair.
Purab Sha can’t wait to be back in school. A Class IX student, Purab goes to the school for visually challenged in Sundargarh. But more than education, what he misses most is the food that he used to get at the residential school, something he had to skip on several occasions these past 10 months the 17-year-old has been at home owing to the Covid-19 outbreak that shut down schools, took away life and livelihood and brought untold misery on countless others.
His is the story of the majority of 6,815 students studying in 103 government-run schools and one college for the differently-abled in the state. These schools, which come under the Social Securities and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (SSEPD) department, have residential facilities and provide students with four meals a day, apart from two sets of clothes for the year.