Hunger and poor diet among children continue to be a key reason for truancy in many remote villages in west Nepal, according to local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working in the education sector.
“Food shortages have always been the cause of children not being able to attend school regularly,” said schoolteacher Anil Srivastava, who teaches in the government-run Shri Gayatri primary school in Tapri village, Bardiya District, nearly 700km southwest of Kathmandu.
Tapri is the poorest village in poverty-stricken Bardiya District with most of its people living on less than US$1 a day, according to Dalit Sewa Sangh, a local NGO which focuses on helping rural communities.
