Kathua, Jammu And Kashmir:
Little Seerat Naaz is not happy that she has to sit on an unclean floor, along with friends, at her school and wants the holder of the country’s most powerful office to do something about it.
In a video, now viral on Facebook, the little girl from the Lohai-Malhar village in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district voices an adorable wish to Prime Minister Narendra Modi – “Please Modi-ji, ek achhi si school banwa do na (Please Modi-ji, build a nice school for us)”
The video, shared on Facebook by a page named ‘Marmik News’ from Jammu and Kashmir, has now got nearly 2 million views.and over 1,16,000 likes so far.
The young schoolgirl begins the video request, which has a runtime of just under 5 minutes, by introducing herself as a student of the local government high school.
She then moves out of the frame and takes a walk down her school compound, giving ‘Modi-ji‘ a sense of all that it lacks and what she thinks the authorities could do to make it better.
Looking into the lens, she says, “Modi-ji, mujhe na aap se ek baat kehni hain (Modi-ji, there is something I need to tell you.)”
Young Seerat then pans the phone camera towards an uncovered concrete surface, right in front of two closed doors which she identifies as the “Principal’s office and the staff room”.
“Dekho humara farsh kitna ganda ho chuka hain. Humein yahan niche bithate hain (Look how dirty the floor is. They make us sit here).”
The girl then takes PM Modi on a virtual tour of the school building, saying, “Chalo mein aap ko bari si building dikhati hoon aapne school ki (let me show you the big building where our school is)”.
As she walks further and points the camera to the right, an unfinished building comes into view.
“Yeh dekho, pichle 5 saalon se, dekho kitni gandi building hain yahan pe. Chalo mein aap ko andar se dikhati hoon (Look how unclean the building has been for the last 5 years. Let me take you on a tour of the inside of the building)”.
After pointing the camera to where the students sit for their classes, she once again points to the floor and the visible layer of dust on it.
“Please, aap se na request karti hoon, aap na achha sa school bana do. Humein niche baithna parta hain aur hamari uniform gandi ho jati hain aur phir humein Mamma marti hain. Humare pas bench bhi nahin hain (I request you to build us a nice school for us. Currently we have to sit on the floor because of which our uniforms get dirty. Our mothers often scolds us for getting the uniforms dirty. We don’t have benches to sit on).”
She then takes a flight of stairs to the first floor and pans her lens towards the corridor, which has a similar unclean appearance as the ground floor.
“Please Modi-ji, mein aap se request karti hoon ki achha sa bana de yeh school. Meri bhi baat sun lo (Please Modi-ji, I am requesting you to make the school infrastructure better. Please grant my wish)”.
She then skips down the stairs and proceeds to the outer compound with her camera firmly directed towards the surface.
The little one pans her lens out towards the “toilet”. “Dekho, humara kitna ganda toilet aur tut gaya hain (Look how dirty the toilet is – and broken too).”
She then points to an open area where she says a new school building is coming up.
Giving a first-hand view of the lack of amenities at the school, she shows how the students have to relieve themselves in the open. She points the camera towards a pit where the students go to relieve themselves.
The girl ends the video with an appeal to PM Modi. “Modi-ji, aap poore desh ki sunte ho. Meri bhi sun lo aur achha sa humara yeh school banwa do. Bilkul sundar sa school bana do taaki humein niche na baithna padhe. Taaki Mamma na mare. Taaki achhe se padhai karein. Humara school please achhe se banwa do (Modi-ji, you listen to the entire nation. Please listen to me too and build us a good school for us. The school should be such that we don’t have to sit on the floor. So that my mother doesn’t scold me for getting my uniform dirty. So that we could all study well. Please have a nice school constructed for us),” she signs off saying.