The truth behind India's viral photo that got a girl into school

A five-year-old in the southern city of Hyderabad was enrolled in school after a photo of her peeking into a classroom sparked an outcry. BBC Telugu's Deepthi Bathini reports on why the photo doesn't tell the full story.

Divya is something of a local celebrity in the slum where she lives. The shy five-year-old was the subject of a recent photo which went viral - it showed her clutching a bowl and peeking into a classroom at the local government school.

The touching image was published in a Telugu newspaper on 7 November with a caption that translates from the Telugu as "hungry gaze".

It quickly grabbed people's attention: a children's rights activist shared it on Facebook, lamenting that yet another child was being denied the right to food and education.

It had such an impact, the school enrolled Divya the following day.

But her father, M Lakshman, says the photo and the outcry it provoked was in fact unfair to him and his wife, Yashoda, who works as a sweeper.

Image caption

Five-year-old Divya enrolled in school after a photo of her in a newspaper went viral

"I felt sad when I saw the photo," he told the BBC. "Divya has parents and we are working so hard to give her a good future - but she was portrayed as a hungry orphan."

Mr Lakshman says he was waiting for Divya to turn six so he could enrol her in a government hostel where his other two daughters are studying. The couple also have a son, who has finished school and is now applying to college while helping Mr Lakshman, who works as a rag picker.

Breaking the cycle

Divya and her parents live in a one-room hut in a shanty town in the heart of Hyderabad. The slum is about 100 metres from the government school, where Divya was photographed. Most of the 300 families living here are daily wage labourers and their children attend the school nearby.

The home is sparse and plastic and glass are piled outside, ready to be sold for recycling. He says between him and his wife, they earn about 10,000 rupees ($139; £108) a month, which pays for their food and clothes. Education, however, is free for the children, since they are all enrolled in government-run schools.

Mr Lakshman knows what it is to struggle: he himself grew up without parents and always battled to earn a decent living. "I never wanted my children to have the life I had. So I made sure they all go to school."

The photo, he adds, was especially hurtful because he has also been taking care of his brother's five children.