Chaksu/ Jhotwara, Sept. 23 -- It is early in the day, and the children of Beed Sustarampura village are still drowsy as they make their way to school. As they arrive, they hear a puzzling clamour of kitchen noises - the sound of kneading floor, searing oil in a pan - and feel the sting of chilli oil. Amid all this, Vidya Bai, to whom the kitchen belongs, is heard telling a group of three children to dust the blue carpet they use to sit for their daily lessons outside. "Ise bahar jhaad lo. Ye meri rasoi hain (dust that outside, not in my kitchen)," she tells the children, who have been taking lessons in her kitchen for around a month. Her father-in-law Hari Narayan, a farmer, had allowed lessons in his house after the school the children studied in was shut down in government crackdown on dilapidated institutions. The room also serves as a dining hall. A fridge, a gas cylinder, utensils and spices; they draw a marked contrast to the children's drawings and stuffed bookshelves that adorned the walls of the classroom in Beed Sustarampura Government Primary School, which was declared a dilapidated structure and shut down by the education department on August 1, as part of a statewide survey of school buildings. The survey was necessitated by the collapse of a portion of a school building wall in Jhalawar district on July 25, killing seven children. "This is the only school in the village. Rest of the nearby schools are two to three kilometres far and hence the government could not shift us elsewhere. They asked to do some makeshift arrangements on our own. There is also no community centre or a dharamshala where we could have gone," said Anupama, the primary school's principal. After the closure, the school initially remained closed for two days, Anupama said, before a local allowed them to conduct classes from a room at his house. However, she added, the children's constant clamour led to them being asked to leave as an occupant of the house was preparing for competitive exams. That, she said, is when Narayan stepped in and offered them the kitchen until the school building was repaired."I could not study beyond class VII. But my grandchildren have studied in this school. Both of them are now pursuing their higher studies in a college in Jaipur after which they want to do jobs. If these children also go ahead in their career, they will shine the name of our village only. They are also my grandchildren. Their education cannot be over in any circumstances," said 60-year-old Narayan. The only government primary school in Biharipura, the adjacent village, was also found reportedly lacking and shut down temporarily, prompting lessons to shift to the ancestral home of a student. "Bhomaram Gurjar is a local farmer. He has two brothers and four children- two of whose families stay in this house in Biharipura while rest live in another village for their work. After the school was sealed, Bhomaram allowed us to run the school from his porch. However, some other members of his family want to shift to this house next week and therefore we might have to shift to another place. We spoke to the local CBEO but no accommodation has yet been found," said one of the two teachers of the school, Sunita Sharma. Chaksu chief block education officer Punita Sharma did not respond to HT's repeated requests for a comment. The survey report, released on August 22, found a total of 5,667 schools in the state to be in a dilapidated condition, with most in Banswara, Udaipur and Jhalawar. It also found that repair of an additional 1,579 buildings already flagged as dilapidated was yet to be initiated. Banswara had 605 buildings flagged, with Jhalawar in a dubious second place with 448. The report also listed 17,109 school toilets as "completely dilapidated". HT has independently seen and verified the content of the report. The survey led to a logistical nightmare for many of the schools which were temporarily forced to find new premises, with some even seeking out roads and nearby temples. Certain school buildings have also taken on additional loads of students from schools from elsewhere. In Jaipur's Jhotwara, Pankha Chauraha Government Primary School, with a 105 students in total, has been conducting lessons from a nearby temple ever since their building was sealed. According to the principal, who requested anonymity, the local CBEO initially ordered the school to shift to the premises of the Dhankya Basti Government Senior Secondary School, about two kilometres away from Pankha Chauraha. The report incidentally also lists two classrooms in this school as dilapidated. "Therefore, the Dhankya Basti school could not give us a proper classroom, except for one which was also identified as partially dilapidated. I could not take a risk and have the children sit in there," she said, adding that 20 students dropped out over the last month as a result of the situation."Our place is a two-hour walking distance from this new school... My parents wanted to drop me out of the school. But, our teachers convinced them. Now one of our teachers comes to pick us and three other girls up from our place in an e-rickshaw every morning," said Kanishka, a Class 5 student. The principal of the Dhankya Basti school said that three classes in his school were also being conducted from the temple premises. "This is a pathetic situation. We can't take classes during monsoon as this place is flooded. Higher officials were asked repeatedly to accommodate these classes in a different school with enough rooms, but no one heeded anything," he said. However, Jhotwara CBEO that the allocation was made keeping in mind the available space and authorities were not made aware that the children were forced to sit on the floor. The Piplodi Government Upper Primary School in Jhalawar, which was the site of the July 25 collapse, is also currently functioning of a nearby local residence. "This house has three rooms and a hall. We are running two classes in each room. Two of our teachers also regularly visit eight students who were critically injured in the accident and were advised to stay at home by the doctors. It's not a comfortable school space," said senior teacher Mahesh Meena, in an interview over the phone. The Rajasthan high court on September 19 took suo moto cognisance of the matter and rebuked the state government for its failure to provide proper facilities for displaced students. "During the previous hearing on September 9, the court called for a detailed report by the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) on the status of the alternative accommodation of all the dilapidated schools. However, the court expressed its sheer discontent over this shifting process and directed the state to ensure a proper accommodation for all these schools which have been identified in crumbling condition within 10 days and submit a further report to the court," said the counsel of the victims' families of the Jhalawar incident, advocate Vagish Kumar Singh. Commenting on the development, state education minister Madan Dilawar said, "These days, there is barely any area where a school can't be found within one kilometre to another. Most of the schools have been shifted properly. However, some schools are yet facing such issue due to the unavailability of a community centre, dharamshala in the area. We are trying to shift them to a temporary rented accommodation soon." "Our target is to repair these dilapidated buildings as soon as possible so that the students could return to their own space. Budgets are coming from multiple sources for this job and we are hopeful it will be complete soon," he said. Meanwhile, in Beed Sustarampura, a student Tamanna finds herself struggling to focus on the textbooks on her lap as the chilli oil aroma permeates her nostrils and makes her confused. Fiddling with the pages, she poses a plaintive question to the teacher: "Hamara school kab theek ho jayega, ma'am?" (How long before we can back to school, ma'am?)...