Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah recently received a letter from children in Pachedoddi, a hamlet in Chamarajanagar district that lies entirely off the public-transport grid. They described their ordeal of trekking 14 km every day to reach schools in the nearest taluk headquarters or bigger villages. Rain or shine, they must walk through the dense forests of the Male Mahadeshwara division, risking encounters with wild animals. Ministers and officials had promised transport links, but never delivered. Even a video of the students’ gruelling daily walk, widely shared on social media, failed to move the administration.
Pachedoddi is not an isolated case. Hundreds of schoolchildren in the remote belts of Yellapur, Joida, Anashi and Ankola taluks in Uttara Kannada district also trek several kilometres each day. Being within the Anshi-Dandeli Wildlife Sanctuary and the Kali Tiger Reserve in the Western Ghats, the routes expose them to real danger. A few NGOs have stepped in with bicycles, but these are far from adequate. In Raladoddi village of Raichur district, children walk 14 km barefoot, their parents unable to afford shoes. Here too, bus connectivity remains a ritualistic poll promise.
Successive governments have failed these children on two fronts: providing reliable public transport and ensuring schools within the safety of their own villages. The B S Yediyurappa government did supply free bicycles to rural high-school students in 2006-07—a move that improved girls’ enrolment—but the scheme was discontinued during the pandemic. There is now a demand to revive it.
The contrast is stark. Karnataka—a tech, defence and aerospace powerhouse—continues to exclude its most vulnerable residents from its arc of progress. The state boasts a slew of welfare “guarantee” schemes, yet overlooks basic, indispensable amenities for children. The focus remains firmly on Bengaluru and its surrounding affluent zones, home to 25 lakh IT professionals and 16,000 startups, where citizens demand last-mile connectivity. The capital has grand plans: double-deck flyovers, metro and suburban-rail extensions, tunnel roads, a 117-km business corridor, even a second airport.
But Karnataka, despite having one of the highest per-capita state GDPs, leaves its rural children at a crushing disadvantage. Calls for more jobs for Kannadigas will ring hollow as long as the state fails to give its own children a fair chance to learn, grow, and flourish.