Following the recent Vadodara bridge collapse that took several lives in Gujarat, another disturbing incident has emerged from Jharkhand's Khunti district. Heart-wrenching videos have gone viral, with young school students risking their lives every day to attend classes by scaling a temporary bamboo ladder over a collapsed bridge.
The viral video depicts school children crossing the dangerous intersection, ascending the bamboo ladder up above the broken bridge.
Some children are assisted by adults, while others make the perilous climb alone, highlighting the daily risks faced due to the lack of safe infrastructure.
The collapse of the bridge has significantly interrupted everyday life, especially for school children, who now have to choose between endangering their safety or losing education.
The bridge on the Banai River in the village of Pelaul, which lies along the Khunti-Torpa main road, collapsed after heavy rains on June 19, as per the media reports. Commuters have been redirected to another route since the accident, though not without difficulty.
The breakdown has particularly affected residents without private transport, most of whom are finding it challenging to get their children to school. In a dangerous step, children had been relying on a makeshift wooden ladder, erected by villagers across the broken bridge, to commute across the river.
In his statement on the issue, Incharge SDO Arvind Ojha confirmed that a safer alternative road has been made available and the temporary bamboo ladder was taken down, according to Hindustan Times reports.
