It is home to 80 tribal families struggling for basic infrastructure. With impassable road access to education, healthcare and essential services remains a distant dream

Kerachakka village, located about 50 kilometres from the district headquarters of Sarangarh-Bilaigarh in Chhattisgarh, is struggling with a lack of basic infrastructure.

Home to 80 families, primarily from the Khairwar and Bariha tribal communities, the village is accessible only through a broken, unpaved road. During the monsoon, this road becomes nearly impassable, cutting the village off from the outside world. This affects not only transportation but also children’s access to education.

Sunil Lal Chauhan, the head teacher of the local government primary school, explains that while 23 children are enrolled, only a few attend school during the rainy season.

The road conditions are simply too poor, making the journey unsafe, especially for adolescent girls whose education suffers the most. Chauhan adds that with only one teacher, who is also burdened with administrative tasks, the school struggles to provide the attention the children need. The broader issue is compounded by the migration of families in search of employment, disrupting children’s schooling for extended periods. Resident Badri Prasad highlights another challenge: ineffective local governance.

Though the village falls under Gram Panchayat Gardih, meetings are rarely held, and the Panchayat office is often closed. Essential services like ration distribution happen only once a month, which creates difficulties for the villagers. Badri Prasad emphasises that due to the village’s distance from the district headquarters, Kerachakka has been left behind in the development process. Poor road connectivity remains a major barrier, preventing growth and access to opportunities.

Rameshwar Prasad Kurre, a local social worker, points out that the village’s rocky terrain limits agricultural opportunities. Most families own small plots of land that barely yield enough to sustain them.

Consequently, many villagers migrate during the off-season in search of work, which has a particularly harsh impact on women and adolescent girls. Malnutrition is rampant, with women and girls often being the first to suffer when resources are scarce.

While pregnant women and young children receive some nutritional support from the Anganwadi centre, this does not extend to other women, leaving them vulnerable. Recent government initiatives, however, offer hope. The Union Cabinet has approved Rs 70,000 crore for rural road development under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana for 2024-29, and the Chhattisgarh government has allocated Rs17,529 crore in its 2024-25 budget for village roads.

These investments aim to improve infrastructure, create employment opportunities, and reduce migration. Better roads could be the first step in bringing Kerachakka and similar villages into the fold of progress, ensuring they are no longer left behind in the race for development.

(The author is a grassroots worker from Ajmer, Rajasthan; views expresed are personal)