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Vegetable seller in an isolated region of India turned his children’s difficulty into a handmade work, using simple tools to carve a path through the mountain and reduce the daily journey to school.
Jalandhar Nayak, a 45-year-old vegetable seller, single-handedly opened a road of about 8 km in a mountainous area of Odisha, in eastern India, to ease the way for his three children to school.
The story came to light in January 2018, when the local press highlighted the work done with manual tools between the village of Gumsahi and the region of Phulbani, in the Kandhamal district.
The route did not arise from a planned public work, nor from a company contracted to open a passage in the terrain, which increased the repercussion of the case both inside and outside India.
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According to The Guardian, Nayak used a chisel, hoe, and pickaxe to cut part of the mountain after seeing his children face a narrow, rocky, and time-consuming path daily to study.
Path to school required hours of walking
Before the road was opened, Nayak’s three children took about three hours each way to reach their classes, on a route marked by rocky and difficult-to-navigate sections.
This condition made going to school more tiring and unsafe for children who depended on walking, especially in an area without a proper road to connect the village to nearby services.
To News World Odisha, quoted by The Guardian, Nayak reported that he saw his children stumbling on stones along the way, a scene that guided his decision to act directly on the mountain.
With the goal of making the commute more feasible, he began to open a passage so that the children could walk more easily, without relying on heavy machinery or a team of workers.
The initiative was born out of a family necessity but ended up exposing a larger infrastructure problem in isolated communities, where lack of access directly interferes with school routines and contact with urban centers.
In Gumsahi, the difficulty did not only affect the journey to school, as it also limited the family’s connection to basic services and reinforced the isolation of those remaining in the region.
Isolated village in Odisha became almost empty
According to The Guardian, Nayak and his family were the only remaining residents of Gumsahi during that period, after other inhabitants left the village in search of places with better roads.
The departure of the residents reinforces the impact of the lack of connectivity on the permanence of families in rural areas, especially when access to services and transportation depends on long and difficult paths.
Also according to the New Indian Express, Nayak’s family was the only resident of the region, while the other residents had moved due to the difficulties imposed by the mountainous terrain.
The publication reported that the road he built connected Gumsahi to the main road in Phulbani, within the Kandhamal district, expanding the connection between the village and areas with more infrastructure.
Without an adequate road, basic activities turned into long and exhausting journeys, which made the family routine more difficult and reduced the alternatives for staying in that rural territory.
For Nayak’s children, education depended not only on the existence of a school but on the concrete possibility of reaching it without facing a daily route of stones and natural obstacles.
8 km road was opened with simple tools
For about two years, Nayak dedicated part of his routine to opening the road, in manual work that required physical endurance and continuity to advance over the rugged terrain.
The New Indian Express reported that he worked eight hours daily during this period, in an effort to build the 8 km stretch between the village and Phulbani.
The scale of the service drew attention because the mountainous terrain required breaking rocks, widening the passage, and leveling parts of the path without heavy equipment, construction machines, or constant technical support.
Instead of just clearing an existing trail, the vendor advanced over the slope to create a usable route, driven by the difficulty faced by his children on the way to school.
In the Indian press, the case began to be compared to other stories of residents who opened paths on their own in isolated regions, always in the face of insufficient public infrastructure.
Even so, Nayak’s central motivation was directly linked to the children’s school routine, with the intention of reducing wear and making the commute less dangerous.
Local government promised support after repercussion
After the story was aired by a local media outlet, authorities began to comment on the case and recognized the scale of the individual effort made in a hard-to-reach area.
The Guardian reported that Brundha D, a local administrator cited in the report, acknowledged Nayak’s work and said he would be compensated for the time dedicated to opening the road.
The continuation of the work also entered the public agenda, as Nayak still intended to work for another three years to complete about 7 km remaining.
According to The Guardian’s report, this later stage was taken over by the local government after the repercussion, while the vendor ceased to be the sole person responsible for attempting to connect the village.
The New Indian Express also recorded that S. K. Jena, an official of the local administrative block development, stated that Nayak would receive support in the context of the repercussion about the area’s conditions.
In the same coverage, the region where the family lived was described by the official as almost uninhabitable, an assessment that reinforced the severity of the isolation faced by the Gumsahi community.
Lack of road affected access to education
The road opened by Nayak made visible a difficulty that is not limited to the distance between home and classroom, but involves safety, transportation, and a minimal presence of infrastructure.
In isolated areas, children’s attendance at school may depend on safe paths, public services, and connection with urban centers, factors that directly influence the continuity of studies.
When these elements are lacking, enrollment alone does not guarantee access to education, as the daily commute can become as big an obstacle as the absence of a spot.
The case of Gumsahi showed that a family reached the point of turning a daily necessity into hard work on the mountain, using simple tools to tackle a basic infrastructure failure.
The repercussion also highlighted how the lack of roads can contribute to the depopulation of rural communities, especially when residents do not find safe access to essential services.
As families leave their homes due to inadequate transportation, isolation deepens for those who remain, making it even harder to maintain connections with school, commerce, and public services.
The 8 km route opened by Nayak did not replace a structured public work, but made concrete a demand that had been part of the family’s routine for years.
How many other children still depend on improvised paths to reach a classroom?
