CHITWAN, Feb. 18 -- Janjagriti Basic School (JBS) at the Bandarjhula settlement in Madi Municipality has 50 students. In the beginning of the academic year, there were 15 students from the Chepang community in the school but most of them have stopped coming to school after the Dashain festival.

Principal Dandapani Pandit informed Republica that only half Chepang students are attending the school after Dashain. As per the provision of the government, students from the marginalized communities were provided mid-day meal in the school. However, JBS stopped providing such meal to the students from this fiscal year. Hence, the number of students attending the school has declined in recent days.

JBS provided lunch to its students for two year...