SAJANPURA VILLAGE, India (AP) – It’s a long, wet journey to school for 61 teenagers in part of western India. If they want to learn, they have no choice but to swim.
The boys and girls carry books, papers and changes of clothing in plastic bags or buoyant jugs as they cross the Heran River, shoulder deep in places. Parents or other adults sometimes accompany them on the 15-meter (50-foot) swim.
The girls put on their dry clothes in a small changing room, while the boys change on the riverbank.
The students then walk up to 5 kilometers (3 miles) to their high school in Gujarat state’s Narmada District. It’s shorter and quicker than the alternative: A road with a bridge takes a circuitous, 25-kilometer (16-mile) route. There’s no public transportation.
The students say the swim is worth it for an education that can help lift them out of poverty in India, where at least 700 million people are living on less than $1.25 a day.