Tucked away in the remote village of Subahi along the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border, a school unlike any other is quietly changing the lives of orphaned and marginalised children.
Vidya: The Living School, founded in 2020 by educator Dr Pranjal Buragohain, has become a beacon of hope for 189 students from some of the most underprivileged sections of society in the Dhemaji district.
Accessed only through a narrow iron-barred bridge that was absent a decade ago and lacking electricity, internet, and paved roads, the school operates without the basic facilities most urban institutions take for granted.
During the rainy season, students and teachers had to swim across swollen waterways to reach the campus. Yet, what visitors find upon arrival isn’t hardship but joy.
It was half past one in the afternoon when I reached the Dibrugarh University gates. The sun beat down relentlessly. Sir had asked me to wait in the canteen since his exam duty wasn’t yet finished. When he finally arrived, we set off without delay toward the bus to Dhemaji.
The journey took us forty-five minutes from Dibrugarh District to Moridhol Town. From there, Sir stopped to ask if anyone was headed toward Laipulua, the last village at the edge of Moridhol, near the foothills of Arunachal Pradesh. Someone agreed to take us the remaining half-hour by road.
As the vehicle climbed toward the mountains, I pointed at the broken path beneath us and asked why the panchayat hadn’t paved the road. Sir smiled quietly. “They have made it once,” he said. “And it was gone forever. The floods come every year. The water rises to your waist. In one stretch, the village where the school is located is connected only by a small iron bridge. Ten years ago, even that bridge did not exist.
“Then how did the children go to school?” I asked.
He paused. “We swam across. During the rainy season, we swam.” I contemplated that image in silence, wondering, with some honesty, whether I could have done the same.
We laughed about it together a little later, the way one laughs at astonishing things. Passing through a village, Sir pointed to a young boy carrying a long bamboo shaft tipped with iron pins. “Do you see that?” he said. “That’s a long harpoon, for catching fish.” A moment later, he waved to a woman at a roadside stall. “Baideo, bhale asey,” he called out. Your shop looks bigger than before.
A Campus That Lives and Breathes
I had heard about Vidya: The Living School before we arrived, but no description truly prepared me for what I saw. A wide, dusty ground where hundreds of young children played various sports in the afternoon heat. The moment I stepped out of the e-rickshaw, small figures ran toward me. “Mam, Pranam!” they called, one after another. Then Sir stepped forward, and the children rushed toward him, hugging each one, boy after girl, without tiring. Not a single child was left unattended.
What struck me most wasn’t the activity but the faces. There was no unhappiness here. No anxiety. The school has no electricity, no internet, no concrete road, and only partial walls of bamboo and thatch. And yet, the children seemed genuinely at peace.
Serving the Marginalised
Vjaya Lakshmi Gogoi, the most senior teacher from Sonari, Charaideo, Sivsagar, expressed with overwhelming conviction, “My righteous decision to continue my service to the community was never wrong.” At that time, my youngest daughter, who was just five years old, boldly said, “Ma, you can stay here.”
Another senior member of the management, Pankaj Sonari from Tingrai, Tengakhat, remarked, “I originally came here for one week, and now it has been over four years.” Others had come from Nagaon, Majuli, Nazira, Khuwang, and many other places drawn by something that was hard to name and seemingly impossible to leave. Everyone I asked gave the same answer: it’s heaven here.
The school was founded in 2020 by Dr Pranjal Buragohain, who has invested his own earnings into building homes for children who had none.
Of the 189 students currently enrolled, fifteen come from dysfunctional families and seven are orphans. Many arrived without shelter or food. There are no fees or greatly reduced fees. More than thirty teachers are all postgraduate-qualified, each a specialist in their field.
But academic learning is only one thread in this fabric. I watched children learn to raise poultry with care.
I saw mats woven from banana fibres, soaps made from turmeric and aloe vera, and pickles prepared from the Bogori trees lining the school compound. The students compete in football, volleyball, cricket, Taekwondo, and yoga at the state level. They perform Kshatriya dance, Jhumura, and drama. They make, grow, and build together.
The truth is, surrounded by hills and mountains, breathing pure air, and free of the noise that fills most schools I have visited, Vidya reminded me of what education might look like if happiness were considered as important as achievement.
Educators call institutions like this “living schools,” where the campus itself is the laboratory that integrates System Thinking, Food Literacy, and Energy audits. India has very few of them.
Vidya may be the most quietly radical of all. The school’s library is open to fifteen tribal villages on both sides of the border, serving as a shared resource for communities from Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
As evening fell, the community gathered in a spirit of unity for a vibrant assembly that celebrated collective well-being and artistic expression. The gathering showcased a rich blend of talents, from the graceful discipline of yoga to the harmonious joy of group songs performed in chorus.
Recognition and Awards
Vidya’s innovative model has earned it regional recognition. Scholar Dr Ranuj Pegu has documented and praised Dr Buragohain’s framework. The school was awarded at the Sorai Sapori Children and Youth Film Festival in 2025. The documentary titled Vidya: Built with Scars, for the transparent, game-changing impact of the institution on the tribal children
This pedagogical idea, based on the work of Catherine O’Brien and Patrick Howard, aims to develop collective learning, social-emotional intelligence, and lasting happiness in students.
Dr Pranjal Buragohain, the founder, has invested his own earnings into building shelters for homeless children and expanding the school’s self-sustaining infrastructure. By the way, his vision, that dignity and fearlessness can be taught even without electricity and internet, seems, against all odds, to be working.
On the journey back, I thought about the boy with the bamboo harpoon, the children who once swam to school, and the teacher who came for fifteen days and stayed for four years. I pondered what it means to be happy, truly and durably happy, without any of the things we’re told happiness requires. Vidya does not answer that question but lives it every day at the foot of the mountains, past the iron bridge, in the last village on the road.
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