Polio is one of the main culprits for the majority of the students' disabilities,
but there are a few amputees included as well. School admissions are prioritised
on the basis of those who are most severely handicapped, irrespective of
their caste and creed. SKSN has 161 students in the 5-10 year age group,
170 in the 11-15 ranges, 161 students from the 16-18 groups and there are
54 students over the age of 18 years. Read the story of one of the SKSN girls who joined the school in 2001 - Raj Kanwar
Most of the SKSN children come from families who are extremely dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods. With the region being highly prone to an erratic and deficit level of rainfall, the farmers can only reap a single, yearly crop – should they be that lucky. This being the case, many of the SKSN students would surely be deprived of an education, if their parents had to pay for the children’s education.
Apart from the climactic element, many of the rural schools are located at too great a distance from the disabled child’s home. A physically challenged child simply would not be able to endure a walk of 3-8 kilometers, twice a day, and that too, through a very sandy terrain. This is yet another strong reason why they would completely miss out on any kind of an educational life, if they were not at SKSN.