Little girl rescuing books during demolition in UP catches SC’s attention

Lucknow: The Supreme Court on Tuesday said the footage of a little girl in Uttar Pradesh’s Ambedkar Nagar running with a ‘clutch’ of books rescuing them from fire during a demolition drive on March 21 here has ‘shocked everyone’.

The schoolbag containing Hindi, English and ‘ginti ki’ (maths) books for eight-year-old Ananya Yadav is her means to become ‘IAS adhikari’ and ‘protect the country’, The Indian Express impassionedly reported.

A Bench of Justices A S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan responded after taking note of the video being circulated online.

‘There is a recent video in which small huts are being demolished by bulldozers. There is a small girl running away from the demolished hut with a clutch of books in her hand. It has shocked everyone,’ Justice Bhuyan reportedly observed.

Ananya Yadav, a Class 1 student at the Government Primary School, Arai, told The Indian Express that upon returning from school she kept her bag in the chappar (thatched shed) where her mother already had herded the animals. When a fire started in the chappar nearby she immediately thought about her school bag and books, she could not wait to save them.

‘My mother tried to stop me, but I broke free and ran,’ Ananya reportedly said.

Ananya said she was afraid of her books and bag getting burnt, knowing only too well the chancing getting new books is hard, adding ‘I was afraid my books and bag would get burnt. I went back to my mother afterwards’.

Her grandfather, Ram Milan Yadav (70) reportedly claimed that authorities had come to raze the strictures sitting on ‘two biswa’ of land that the family has been occupying for ’50 years’.

Ram Milan Yadav said one of the thatched sheds caught fire just as he and his sons were explaining to authorities that a case was being heard in the tehsil court.

Ananya’s father Abhishek, a labourer, said that many politicians came to visit them since the video went viral, adding that ‘we don’t understand what’s happening’.

Expressing the resolve to continue fight for the land, Ram Milan Yadav said ‘All we know is that we will continue to fight for our land’.

Ananya’s video received wide attention including from Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav who shared it, while Congress chose to send a delegation to meet her family.

However, authorities involved in demolition claimed that they had not touched any residential accommodation or shade where her bag was kept.

Pawan Jaiswal, sub-divisional magistrate, Jalalpur reportedly said that Ram Milan was served with a notice two months ago to vacate the encroached land but the family stated protesting when they went to clear it, adding that they had no idea how the thatched structure caught fire ‘but it was brought under control. Later, one of the structures was demolished, but it was all non-residential.’

Pawan Jaiswal also claimed that the structure to where the girl ran was not even touched, adding that an FIR was filed against ‘fake’ videos linking the girl to the demolition.