Lucknow, August 12, 2026

A basic road has become the centre of a protest in Uttar Pradesh’s Hamirpur district, where Gen Alpha students marched with the national flag to demand better connectivity to their school. The students, joined by their parents and village elders, organised a ‘Tiranga Yatra’ on Tuesday, highlighting how the absence of a proper road is affecting education and daily life in their village.

Carrying posters and raising slogans, the protesters walked nearly five kilometres to the district collectorate and staged a demonstration at its main gate. They claimed that their village has remained without a proper connecting road since Independence. During the monsoon, the unpaved route becomes waterlogged, forcing students to cross muddy water on their way to school. A student protester said, “Our school uniform gets soiled, and our shoes are ruined in the muddy water. We have raised this issue multiple times in the past, but all our demands have fallen on deaf ears. They keep giving false reassurances, stating the work will begin in a week or two, but nothing has moved.”

The students used posters to highlight the wider impact of poor road connectivity. One poster read: “Road nahi to nahi hai rozgaar. Road nahi to vidyarthi jeevan hai bekar. (If there is no road, there is no employment. If there is no road, the life of a student is useless.)” Another student claimed that she had to leave school because travelling on the muddy route had become too difficult. The protesters said the condition of the road has made regular commuting a major challenge, particularly during the rainy season.

Sub-Divisional Magistrate Abhishek Kumar and the circle officer held discussions with the students and their parents following the protest. The demonstrators initially said they would remain at the collectorate until road construction began, but later ended their sit-in after receiving assurances that the work would start at the earliest. The protest also received support from Gen Z protesters, with Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke praising the children for raising an issue directly linked to their future. The demonstration has once again brought attention to the basic infrastructure challenges that continue to affect education and rural communities.