Efforts from both private and community schools to attract Badi children in Bajhang district have failed to materialise, with the majority of the children still remaining out of schools.

Only three out of more than 60 Badi children in the district have been attending the classes regularly. Forty-two Badi families live in Thalara and Chainpur areas.

Nirmala Badi, 12, of Thalara said she dropped out of a school and started carrying loads to help her family. “We don’t have enough food to eat at home. How could we go to school?” she asked.

Gajendra Rasaili, headmaster of Namuna Lower Secondary School, said 15 Badi children were enrolled in the school in the last academic year but they did not attend classes regularly. “Only two students are regular in the school. None of them have been admitted this year,” he said.

Most of the Badi families are landless and make their living as daily wage workers. Their small children are found begging in the bazaar area.

Parents of Badi children said they have no culture to send their children to school. “Badi could not afford to send their children to schools,” said Kasturi Badi of Thalara, also a leader of Badi women.

Only one Badi student has passed the SLC examinations in the district. Dharma Raj Upadhaya, headmaster of Thalara Higher Secondary School, said most of the Badi people are illiterate. “The government should provide them better facilities and income generating programmes which could help them send their children to school,” said Upadhaya.