Camel cart ferries TV to Barmer open air school

An open air school in Barmer hired a satellite television set and mounted it on a camel cart to beam Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Teachers’ Day speech on Friday, a frugal innovation that brought much joy to dozens of students in a far-flung desert village.

With no electricity connection or TV sets, there was little chance of about 35 students of the government primary school hearing Modi live. But local education department official Laxman Solanki would not give up easily.

After realising that a temporary electricity connection could not be arranged, he hired a camel cart to ferry a TV set, a satellite antenna and an inverter. The equipment were then mounted on the cart.

“We did not want to deny students and teachers this opportunity to listen to the prime minister. So we used our tried and tested tradition with technology,” said Laxminarayan Joshi, in-charge at primary education.

“In another middle school in the nearby ‘Tarani Meghwalon ki Dhani’ there was no electricity so about 50 students of that school were also moved here.”

The officials were happy that their efforts made the children happy. The school is about 135 km from Barmer.

Lunaram, a student of class V at the school said, “The camel cart is not new for us but for the first time we have seen television on a camel cart.”

The school was sanctioned three years ago but still functions under open sky. Most of the students belong to the SC/ST community. Most schools in the area still do not have electricity.