Class 6 girl walks 10km to file complaint against dad in Odisha

KENDRAPADA: A slip of a girl studying in Class 6 on Monday summoned the courage to stand up for her rights and the strength to trek 10km to the DM's office in Odisha's Kendrapada to claim the midday meal benefits her allegedly greedy father had usurped.
On receiving the girl's written complaint against her father, Kendrapada collector Samarth Verma directed an official to not only arrange for direct transfer of benefits to her bank account, but also ensure that the money and rice her father had illegally claimed were handed back to her.
Since the lockdown started, the government has been depositing Rs 8 a day in the bank account of each student — or that of a guardian in case the beneficiary doesn’t have one — besides providing 150g of rice daily under the midday meal scheme.
While the girl holds a bank account, the cash equivalent of unavailed midday meal benefits had all along gone into her father’s account, she alleged. The father, with whom she no longer stays, had also been collecting rice in his daughter's name from her school.
The girl's ordeal had apparently begun after her mother died two years ago and her father remarried. Since being shunted out of her home in 2019, she's been living with an uncle of hers.
"As directed by the collector, we will deposit the money she is entitled to directly in her bank account and take action to recover the amount her father received in her name," Kendrapada district education officer Sanjib Singh said. "I have directed the school’s headmaster to henceforth provide her quota of rice only to her."