Over the past month, students across Uttar Pradesh have taken school grievances to the streets — blocking roads in Lucknow and Unnao, marching to a Collectorate in Hamirpur and locking themselves inside a hostel in Kannauj — until officials heard them out.Their demands have been basic: more teachers, better food, drinking water, functioning fans, cleaner campuses and better infrastructure.Three of the protests — at Sarvodaya residential schools in Lucknow and Unnao — took place within days of each other, prompting the Uttar Pradesh government to order inspections of all 103 such schools, which are run by the Social Welfare department, in the state.Back-to-back protestsOn Wednesday, students of Jai Prakash Narayan Sarvodaya Vidyalaya in Unnao reached Mohan crossing around 6.30 am, carrying placards, and sat on the road, disrupting traffic.Read | A tale of three protests, courtesy Madhya Pradesh’s Gen AlphaThey alleged a shortage of teachers, poor-quality food, inadequate drinking water, inappropriate behaviour by teachers and cleanliness issues.Police, Social Welfare Department and district administration officials reached the spot and tried to persuade the students to withdraw the protest. The agitation was called off after around half an hour.Additional District Magistrate Sushil Kumar Gaur said the students were protesting over several demands.Story continues below this adA day before Independence Day, more than 100 boys from Jai Prakash Narayan Sarvodaya Vidyalaya blocked Mohan Road in Lucknow over a shortage of teachers, poor-quality food and other facilities. Three days later, around 200 girls from another Sarvodaya Vidyalaya blocked the Lucknow-Dubbaga Bypass in pouring rain, raising similar complaints.Read | Bihar’s Gen Alpha march 4 km to demand fans, good food, toiletsThe first protest ended after Social Welfare Department Minister Asim Arun, whose vehicle was caught in the traffic jam, reached the spot and offered to hear the students’ grievances. The second drew senior officials from the Social Welfare Department and district administration to the spot.Arun later said the teacher shortage was partly linked to a legal dispute over the continuation of guest teachers. Guest faculty had been selected last year, he said, but could not be engaged for about a year because of a case before the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court.The schools in Lucknow are in the Para area.In Fatehpur, demand for better classroomsStory continues below this adOn July 28, around 1,000 students from Classes 6 to 12 at Sarvodaya Inter College in Fatehpur’s Kishanpur town gathered outside the school carrying placards, banners and a photograph of B R Ambedkar.Their demands: safe drinking water, repairs to dilapidated classrooms and leaking roofs, functioning fans, and basic furniture.The four-hour protest ended after Fatehpur District Inspector of Schools, Rakesh Kumar, met students and assured them that their grievances would be addressed.The intervention was followed by action. Fans were installed in classrooms, arrangements were made for RO-filtered drinking water, and other facilities demanded by the students were provided.Story continues below this adPrincipal Lal Bahadur Singh said students had organised the protest themselves. “All their demands, which include proper tables, chairs and fans, have been fitted as per requirement,” Singh said.March for better road in HamirpurThe protests were not confined to complaints about facilities inside school campuses.On August 11, around 35-40 school students in Hamirpur, accompanied by their parents and guardians, marched 5 km, carrying the national flag, to the District Collectorate. Their demand was simple: repair the road leading to their school.A 300-metre patch of the roughly 1.8-km road had become virtually unmotorable during the monsoon. Work on the larger stretch was also pending, with forest department clearance cited as one of the hurdles.The protest drew attention beyond the district.Story continues below this adTaking cognisance of a newspaper report on the incident, the Allahabad High Court directed that the matter be registered as a PIL. A division bench comprising Chief Justice Arun Bhansali and Justice Kshitij Shailendra issued notices to the state government and senior officials of the district administration, Public Works Department and Environment, Forest and Climate Change Department. The next hearing is scheduled for August 24.The road, meanwhile, has been repaired.“Locals had given a representation in July and were briefed on the progress of the road repair. However, in August, heavy rain worsened the condition of a particular patch… locals along with children reached the Collectorate to raise the issue. The entire road has now been repaired,” Hamirpur District Magistrate Abhishek Goyal told The Indian Express.In Kannauj, a hostel lockdownOn August 14, around 100 students of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya in Kannauj adopted another form of protest: around 4 am, students of the residential school locked themselves inside their hostel rooms and refused to come out for several hours.Their complaints included the poor quality of food served in the mess, cleanliness, drinking water, besides allegations of misconduct by school staff.Story continues below this adThey refused breakfast and lunch, saying they would open the doors only if the district magistrate personally came and assured them that their complaints would be addressed.Eventually, Kannauj District Magistrate Ashutosh Mohan Agnihotri reached the school.“There was no major issue. Students had some problems with cleanliness, food, fogging and drinking water. These have been taken care of and facilities have been restored with proper checks,” he told The Indian Express.Why are the protests catching on?When asked about the uptick in protests, officials played down the possibility of a wider trend.Story continues below this adAccording to officials, while students’ concerns may be genuine, “one incident is acting as a trigger for another as it goes viral on social media and there are reports of immediate attention by authorities”.This can make others adopt the same route to get their demands met, they said.Amid these protests, the Education Department is considering strengthening its social media presence.Sources confirmed that recently, a high-level meeting had taken place at the state headquarters, where it was decided to make the social media handles of the Education Department more interactive, so it not only gives a platform for students and their parents to lodge complaints but also point out fake posts and wrong facts.Story continues below this ad“Not much should be read into it. It is a routine exercise as we plan to just strengthen our social media handles for wider reach,” explained a senior officer.Meanwhile, protests by students of Sarvodaya schools have forced the government to order a state-wide inspection.“We have asked all district magistrates and district-level officials to visit these residential schools, interact with students and teachers, address issues that can be resolved locally, and report to us about issues that need state-level interventions,” Sanjeev Singh, Director, Social Welfare Department, told The Indian Express.As for the complaint over shortage of teachers, he referred to the case in the Allahabad HC. Following court directions, Singh said they’ve issued orders to continue the services of empaneled contractual teachers to fill the gap till a further decision is taken.