India can build billion-dollar companies in months. It cannot build a bridge over the Betwa river in years.
In Kakraua village, Vidisha, schoolchildren cross a stop dam on the Betwa river to reach the Government High School in Paloh — leaping between nine narrow pillars with fast water on both sides, because the road route would add 8 to 10 extra kilometres to their day. Boys carry their own bags and the girls’, freeing hands for balance.
The video went viral only because someone filmed it. Children have likely made this crossing for years, unrecorded, unremarked.
The state’s response, once outrage forced one, arrived as stopgaps: barricades, a watchman, an offer of bicycles for the longer route. The bridge itself is still a proposal. The Madhya Pradesh High Court has had to appoint amicus curiae just to ask why one hasn’t been built.
Economic growth is worth celebrating. Unicorns are worth celebrating. But a nation’s progress isn’t measured by valuations alone. It’s measured by whether a child can get to school without a tightrope over a river.
Sources: ETV Bharat The Tribune Free Press Journal NewsX
