Alleging that tribal schools in India faced government apathy for the last 80 years, Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke on Wednesday announced the launch of his group's 'Adivasi School Thik Karo' campaign from Gadchiroli in the state from September 17.
NAGPUR — Alleging that tribal schools in India faced government apathy for the last 80 years, Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke on Wednesday announced the launch of his group's 'Adivasi School Thik Karo' campaign from Gadchiroli in the state from September 17.
Addressing a press conference here, Dipke said the campaign is aimed at drawing the government's attention towards the problems and discrimination faced by tribal students.
A month back, the CJP launched 'School Thik Karo', a nationwide campaign aimed at improving the condition of rural and urban public schools.
Dipke said, "Schools in tribal regions across India have been neglected by all governments in the last 80 years. Therefore, we are starting the 'Adivasi School Thik Karo' campaign from Thursday in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra."
Gadchiroli is a tribal-dominated district in eastern Maharashtra's Vidarbha region.
As part of the exercise, CJP representatives will visit tribal schools and inspect the facilities and infrastructure, he said.
"Almost all governments have ignored tribal students...Political parties spend crores of rupees to build their party headquarters in every district, but they don't have funds for tribal residential schools that are mostly operated from rented properties," the CJP convenor said.
Dipke urged the government to focus on students from tribal belts, saying they have a lot of potential.
"The government will have to give priority to the tribal community which comprises a big chunk of the population. Just claiming a 7.8 GDP growth rate or talking about becoming a USD 5 trillion economy is not enough," he said.
"We request all the governments to focus on tribal schools and students from rural parts of the country as they also are the future of the country just like students from big cities and private schools," he said.
According to Dipke, more than 590 tribal students died in Maharashtra in the last two years.
"Many tribal students die of snakebites. But these deaths fail to draw any response from the government. Had these deaths occurred in Pune or Mumbai, it would have created a furore across the country," he said.
More than 30 tribal students died in Balaghat, a tribal belt in Madhya Pradesh, in the last two months. Deaths of tribal students also took place in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Uttarakhand, he said.
The families of deceased tribal students do not even get fair compensation, according to him.
Dipke also raised concerns over Eklavya Modern residential schools and alleged that 477 out of these 720 schools are non-functional.
"Where will these tribal students go for their studies?" he asked.
Tribal students only have a 22.8 per cent enrolment rate in higher education, he said, adding that just 130 Scheduled Tribe (ST) applicants got admission in IITs.
"Why is the number of admissions and faculties in IITs so low? This is nothing else but outright discrimination," he alleged.
When asked about alleged attempts to saffronise the education system and whether it could influence Gen Z, Dipke said, "I don't think Gen Z can be manipulated like that. I think Jantar Mantar (protest) has shown how aware and smart they are. Jai Bhim was one slogan that Gen Z accepted across India irrespective of caste and religion. Gen Z has shown that this country will be run by the ideologies of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, Jawaharlal Nehru and will walk on the path shown by Mahatma Gandhi."
"They can try to saffronise but they will never be able to achieve it. They can try and they have been trying a lot, but this country always comes back to the values of Dr Ambedkar, Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi," he said.
When asked whether the government was taking cognisance of the CJP's 'School Thik Karo' campaign, Dipke said steps were taken towards improving ashram schools in Vidarbha.
He recalled Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis inviting him to visit Zilla Parishad schools in Vidarbha.
"This thing prompted the administration to start working on ashram schools. We do not have any political agenda. Our agenda is only that the condition of schools improve. But why did you start working only when the CJP raised this issue? Will you work only when there is an agitation? Is agitation an answer to every issue in the country?" he asked.
Talking about his recent meeting with Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange during the latter's ongoing agitation, Dipke said that the root cause behind the demand for reservation is the government's failure to provide good education or job opportunities.
"Had everyone received good job opportunities or good education, then this demand would not have arisen...Besides, I went to meet Jarange sir because he had visited Delhi and supported us (during the CJP agitation). Hence I met him and inquired about his health," he said.
"If the government does its job properly, then people will not have to launch hunger strikes and hit the streets," Dipke added.
The government on Tuesday introduced a 0.4 per cent fee on transfers worth more than Rs 2,000 made to merchants through UPI from October 15.
When asked about the move, Dipke said, "I feel that gradually they will start imposing charges on everything, even on one's breath."
To a query on NCP (SP) leader Rohit Pawar demanding removal of Maharashtra Public Service Commission chairman Vivek Bhimanwar, citing corruption allegations and exam mismanagement, Dipke said that the present MPSC chief does not deserve to occupy the post.