Around 100 students at a tribal welfare residential school in Kaidiri town of Sri Satya Sai district in Andhra Pradesh were infected with ‘Madras eye’, also known as conjunctivitis. Twenty students were severely infected and their parents were asked to take the children home. Shocked to see the filthy conditions in the school, a parent along with the help of a student organisation, reported the matter to the district Scheduled Tribe Welfare Officer (DTWO) on Saturday, November 19.
Ravinder Yadav, District General Secretary of All India Student Federation (AISF) alleged that the school management was worried more about reputation and concealed the issue by not delivering timely medical assistance to the children. “The virus spread to almost all the children. Why was there no timely medical care provided to students until it spread to everybody,” he asked. He said that a parent who came to take the child home saw the children manually filling a pit that was dug a few days ago to repair a pipeline and was shocked. “The parent informed me that the management was making children do manual work and we went to the school. The school was in unhygienic condition. The management told us that due to lack of staff, they were unable to keep the premises clean.”
According to reports, there are about 250 students at the tribal welfare school at Kutagula railway gate in Kadiri town. Initially, some students were suffering from the eye virus and were asked to be confined to the sick room. By then, the disease had spread to several students and some were infected severely. The unusable state of the washrooms and restrooms was evident in the videos that have surfaced. All kitchen waste is being dumped in the backyard of the kitchen.
Mohan Ram, DTWO of Satya Sai district told TNM that a health camp was held on Friday, November 18 and students with severe eye infections were asked to take rest at home. “Around 80 students in the school are affected and 20 children have gone home with their parents. Now the situation is alright." Speaking about the maintenance of the school, he said “Every school has the same manpower to do the work. We have directed the staff to keep the premises clean.”
AISF members staged a dharna in front of the school and alleged that diseases are spreading in the hostels due to the unsanitary conditions and negligence of the officials. The student leaders called 108 ambulances and shifted the students to the government hospital along with the hostel warden.