Before settling down inside his class room, 12-year-old Onkar Prasad, a 6th class student of Government Girls Middle School, Channi-Himmat, Jammu regularly steps out from the school premises to empty a dustbin, at least 250 meters away from the school building.
When other children in the school premises assemble for morning prayers he along with a group of children walks on foot to dispose off the garbage.
Onkar is not the only student who has been entrusted with this responsibility by the school authorities. A group of at least 6 students ferry three big dustbins and match their steps to reach a nearby dumping site.
These children,dressed in their school uniforms, their identity cards hanging around their necks, some times struggle to carry these dustbins because it becomes very heavy when stuffed with loads of garbage.
To ensure their own safety these children had to take care of heavy traffic plying on the busy road after stepping out of the school premises.
When this correspondent spotted these children near the garbage dumping site and signalled them to stop they tried to run away in order to hide their faces. As this correspondent followed them and approached these students at least two of them spilled the beans claiming the sweeper working in the school is not doing this job so they have to come to empty the dustbins.
When asked, "who is actually assigning them this duty the children refused to identify their teachers".
"Koi nahin kahta yeh kam karne ko sir ", Onkar commented while justifying they are only doing 'saaf safai' in the school premises under 'Swachchh Bharat' campaign.