LUCKNOW: More than 200 girl students of a government residential school in Lucknow took to the streets on Monday, blocking a busy road and protesting over a shortage of teachers, poor-quality food and other grievances.
The students of Jai Prakash Narayan Sarvodaya Vidyalaya for Girls blocked the Lucknow-Dungga road for nearly two hours, disrupting traffic. The protest ended after senior officials of the Social Welfare Department, district administration and police intervened.
Videos of the protest on social media showed some students sitting in a row in front of vehicles and others forming a human chain. They raised slogans and demanded that senior administrative officials come to the spot, hear their grievances and take steps to address them.
A police team reached the spot and tried to persuade the students to clear the road. Most of the students left, while around 50 remained at the protest site. Later, senior officials from the Welfare Department and district administration interacted with the students and took them back to the school, where their grievances were heard.
The protest came three days after more than 100 boys from the boys’ campus of the same school staged a similar protest over a shortage of teachers and other issues.
The school is run by the Uttar Pradesh Welfare Department. On the eve of Independence Day, the boys had blocked Mohan Road over the shortage of teaching staff. Uttar Pradesh Welfare Department Minister Asim Arun, who was travelling through the area, was caught in the traffic caused by the protest and intervened to speak to the students.
Reacting to Monday’s protest, the Samajwadi Party posted on X: “After Gen Z, now Gen Alpha is also on the streets — this is clear proof of how much the BJP has ruined the education system.”
