Separated from Andhra Pradesh by a parched riverbed, Sagroli, a tiny town in Maharashtra, seems like a typical rural pocket. What is not apparent is that, tucked away on 150 acres, is one of the country's biggest rural schools.

PICTURE SPEAK

SMART ONES: A few of the school's nearly 4,000 students

Ever since the lone sugar factory shut down, agriculture has been the sole source of income for the arid town of 10,000 people. But with the school, run by charitable trust Sanskriti Samvardhan Mandal (SSM), Sagroli remains an attraction for neighbouring villages. The school currently has a strength of nearly 4,000-2,000 resident students and 1,900 day scholars. Students troop in from Shimpala, Bolegaon, Daulatapur, Mandarnar, Rampur and a clutch of other nearby villages.

It all began in 1959, with philanthropist Keshav Deshmukh and the charitable trust he founded. The only school within a 50 km radius, it comprised a few huts and only 36 students. Now the sprawling campus has a high school, military school, computer training centre, special courses for the deaf and mute, 10 hostels, an exhaustive library, an orphanage and a 24-bed hospital.

The school provides education from preliminary to undergraduate level and offers vocational courses for its senior students in carpentry, moulding and electronics technology. Rainwater harvesting and crop science are also taught. While the education of girls suffers across rural India, this school's population is 40 per cent female. School fees are heavily subsidised, but resident students pay Rs 7,500 yearly for room and board.

The results are encouraging. The students are focused, bright and unafraid to ask questions. They speak fluent English and are on a par with their city counterparts in academic and co-curricular activities. Focused on excelling academically, the students worry about the lack of jobs in and around Sagroli. "Sister, where can we find a job?" is the most tossed about question.

Most of the school's 170 teachers are former students. High literacy, like in Kerala, is becoming a problem in Sagroli as employment is at an all-time low. "Being self-reliant is the only way," says G.A. Deshmukh, SSM chairman and son of Keshav Deshmukh. Determined to continue what his father started, he is now turning his attention to income-generation projects and self-help goups.

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