UTTAR PRADESH : Gyanendra Singh, a 2014-batch IAS officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre, has shown through his work as the district magistrate of Pilibhit in the state’s Terai region that strong will and determination can move mountains.
During an inspection, he found kids at government primary schools sitting on the floor. This moved him. Without waiting for the normal procedure, he led an initiative to furnish 903 govt primary schools in Pilibhit district with desks and chairs, benefiting over 95,000 children. The drive addressed a decade-long absence of basic furniture that had forced students to sit on the ground during classes.
After discovering the severity of the problem, Singh bypassed bureaucratic delays by directing local administration to use village panchayat development funds and corporate social responsibility contributions to procure furniture for the schools. “When I came to know about this, I went to check in few schools. Two children were sitting on the ground. So I asked them, “Why are the children sitting on the ground?” he recalls. “Then I came to know that furniture was not available, nothing had come.”
Subsequently, a comprehensive survey identified 903 government schools with no furniture for students. Singh coordinated with village heads and deployed local education department officers to implement the ‘School Chalao Abhiyan’ pledge that “every child deserves to sit comfortably while learning”.
“We talked to all the village heads and started with CSR funds. Under the School Chalao Abhiyan, we took a pledge,” he said. “Our village head has a basic responsibility. The first duty of the village head is to make the school of his village beautiful.” Despite challenges such as flooding and production delays, the district administration pressed ahead to meet the target of furnishing all 903 schools fully by Deepawali.
By October, most schools had received desks and chairs at a cost of approximately Rs 1 lakh per school, sourced through village development funds.
Pilibhit district now educates over 95,000 students in government primary schools and more than 66,000 in upper primary schools under improved conditions.
Singh’s reforms extended beyond furniture. He revitalised the Yuvak Mangal Dal and Mahila Mangal Dal, the village groups to boost community engagement, relaunched Gram Sachivalaya—mini secretariats—in each Gram Panchayat for decentralised governance, and mandated village cleaning staff to maintain school cleanliness, particularly toilets.
