In the remote Bagdabra forest area of Murshidabad, West Bengal, the COVID-19 lockdown pushed many tribal children, like class 8 student Biplab, out of school. With no access to online classes or resources, education became a distant dream for these first-generation learners.

Moved by their plight, Angshuman Thakur, a Bengali literature professor at Prof Syed Nurul Hasan College, stepped in. In 2021, he started Anirvana Gacher Iskul — an open-air school........

© The Better India