Sosotoli village is in Sundari Panchayat of Torpa block. This village is located about 2 Kms away from the Khunti to Torpa connecting road. The distance of Sosotoli from the block HQ Torpa is around 8 Kms. This village is largely dominated by tribal people. Some Schedule caste families also reside in this village. Most of the people in this village are illiterate. The people in this locality speak Mundari as well as Nagpuri language. The main occupation of the people here is agricultural labour work and selling products made of cane in the ‘haat’ (local market).
Sosotoli village has a Middle School having a regular teacher and two para teachers. The number of children enrolled in this school is 63. The School Management Committee is in place and its reformation was done in the year 2014. The reformation has seen many changes and most of the members selected in 2014 were new. They lack motivation towards working for school development neither did they have any orientation on the entitlements provided under RTE act. In short they were not performing the roles which were expected from the SMC members. LEADS under the project OXFAM, had conducted several trainings and workshops for SMC members on RTE and SMC role and responsibility. The issues concerning SMC functionality were also shared and discussed during the SMC meetings. They were motivated through regular interactions with them by LEADS field facilitators. Gradually the SMC members developed a sense of responsibility towards school development. As a result the SMC meetings have become regular in Sosotoli. Issues relating to schools development were being taken up in the SMC meetings. Seeing the activeness of SMC members the teachers started discussing the school funds and expenditure in the SMC meetings.
During rainy season the school building at Sosotoli was facing problem of water seeping in some classrooms due to leakage which needed repairing. The school management has been requesting the Education Department for repairing fund since last couple of years but it resulted in vain. During SMC meeting in December 2015 this issue was again raised when the teachers shared that the school white washing fund for the year had arrived. The teachers suggested that if the villagers and SMC members can voluntarily contribute in whitewashing of the school then the money saved out of labour payment can be used for roof repairing. The members of SMC agreed to the proposal, hence, 23rd January was fixed for white washing on the occasion of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Jayanti. As planned, people gathered in the school premise and completed the white washing work; along with that the school campus was also cleaned. The amount saved in lieu of labour payment was taken into account by the management committee for the purpose of roof repairing.