Textbook Strike

By Gladson Dungdung
TEHELKA.COM
8 August, 2008

In a Bokaro school, children demanding textbooks make themselves heard by organising a sit-in and refusing entry to grown-ups

Free and compulsory education is one of the constitutional rights of children and the State is duty-bound to realise it. The Centre and State governments provide free textbooks, uniforms, midday meals, scholarships and other facilities to the poor children who cannot afford it. For this very reason, when the children of Utkramit Madhya Vidhyalaya in Chandipur of Bokaro district (Jharkhand) were denied these rights, they started relentless resistance against the authorities. Subsequently, they managed to get themselves heard.

The problem of unavailability of the textbooks began with the introduction of the CBSE curriculum in 2002. The state government’s promise to provide free textbooks to the children up to class eight was never fulfilled. The children did not get the books in 2003. While in 2004, the books reached the schools in the month of November, the session passed away without books in 2005. A copyright dispute between the state government and the NCERT meant the children got their books just in time for their annual exams of 2006. It is August 2008 and the last time the children got a fresh set of books was in October 2007. No wonder children of Chandipur School were anxious.

A child rights organization “Dhara” organized “Bal Sansad” (children’s parliament) in the district on June 13, 2008 where the children discussed the issues of unavailability of textbooks, midday meals, scholarships and bicycles. Then a delegation of 15 children in led by Vinod Kumar (12), Kartik Kumar (13) and Raju Kumar (10) of Chandipur School met Alku Das the Block Education Officer (BEO) of Kasmar on June 20. Das assured them that the books would be distributed on July 15 as per the directions of Bandhu Tirkey, the Education Minister of Jharkhand. But when he failed to meet the deadline, the delegation again met the BEO in his office on July 16. In an alarming development, an upset BEO threatened to have the children put behind bars. ‘Stop politics and get back to school. Otherwise I’ll throw you behind the bars,’ is what the BEO told the children. Adding fuel to the children’s anger, the incident pushed them to a strike till they get the books.

Mobilising their classmates, they locked the main gate of the school. They started shouting slogans “Bhikh Nahi, Adhikar Chahiye” (we demand our rights, not charity) and “Khichdi Nahi, Kitab Chakiye” (we need books, not mixed-rice). The children’s agitation continued for four days. Durga Das Mahto, the head teacher of the school got into the act threatening to expel them from the school.

Bhagwat Mahto the chairperson of the ‘Village Education Committee’, who oversaw midday meals in school, put pressure on children and convinced their parents to get their children to call off the agitation. Most of the parents succumbed to the pressure but fortunately, the members of ‘Mahila Samiti’ recognised the children’s concerns were genuine and backed them. The chairperson of the Samiti, Basanti Devi said, ‘Shame on us because we did not support our children’s demand. We cannot even understand the fact that the children cannot study without books.’

Finally, the matter caught the attention of the District Superintendent of Education (DSE) Shivnarayan Shah. On a July 22 visit to the school, after his request to unlock the gates was heard, he conducted a meeting in its premises with children, parents and teachers. Representing the students, Vinod Kumar complained about the BEO’s response when they approached him. He was informed that the scholarship has not been offered for the last three years, that the girl children are not given bicycles and the mid day meals are also not being served properly.

Furious about the state of affairs, Shah had the head teacher Durga Das Mahto transferred. He dissolved the Village Education Committee and ordered the constitution of a new committee within a week. Books were to be provided immediately, five sets of them to the children of class 8. He also ordered an investigation into the matter of scholarship and distribution of bicycle to girl children. ‘The officers will be punished if found guilty,’ he said. BEO Alku Das apologised to the children in the presence of the DSE. Blaming the inaction of the BEO and the head teacher of the school for the debacle, he said, ‘They did not do their job and also failed to report to me.’

The children were inspired to assume the mantle of the elders by the activists of ‘Dhara’ through various training programmes, where they are being taught about their rights recognised by the United Nation Convention on Rights of the Child 1989, ratified by the Government of India on 12 November 1992. Vinod Kumar explains, ‘Here, we learn about our rights – rights to development including right to education, participation and protection”.

According to Jeevan Jagarnath the director of Dhara, the children in every village form ‘Bal Akhra’ (children group); organise various training camps, ‘Bal Sansad’, cultural programmes and they go on field trips, where they learn about their rights, issues and redressal mechanisms. ‘We are committed to making sure that the children enjoy their rights, to the extent promised by the government of India,’ he said, adding, they had approached the parents first but it was the children who set about exercising their rights—a good sign of things to come.

This successful campaign of children for books has inspired the children of other schools in the district. The children of Baraikala and Baraikhurd middle schools have also started agitations demanding books and other facilities. Bablu Kumar (10) of Utkramit Madhya Vidhyalaya, Baraikhurd sounded a warning. ‘We will also resort to an agitation if the books do not reach us by the end of July’.

There are 44058 government and government-aided schools in Jharkhand, 1740 schools in Bokaro district alone but not one of them has received the textbooks four months into the new academic year. Neither are textbooks available in the market. Herein lies the question mark on the children’s right to education.

Gladson Dungdung is a Human Rights Activist associated with the "Child Rights and You". He can be contacted at: gladsonhrights@gmail.com

Killing Christians to stop Tribals and Dalits from developing and achieving dignity

By P. Augustine Kanjamala, Svd
An expert sociologist talks about the motives behind the ongoing waves of violence against Christians—conversion to Christianity, education and emancipation allow Tribals and Dalits to escape slave-like conditions. Hindu fundamentalism is against the search for greater justice and wants to stop ongoing social transformations.

On 24 December 2007, while the Christians were getting ready to celebrate the birth of Lord Jesus Christ, Swami Laxmananda Saraswati, a member of a Hindu fundamentalist organization (Vishwa Hindu Parishad) and his supporters attacked and destroyed many churches and prayer centres. A large number of Christians were injured and made homeless in the communally sensitive district of Kandhmal, in Orissa state, eastern India.

Exactly eight months later, on 23 August 2008 when the same seer and the Hindu community were preparing to celebrate the birthday of Lord Krishna (Janmashtami) in Jalespata ashram (monastery), he and four of his disciples were gunned down by tribal revolutionary Maoists.

That it was a premeditated attack is evident from the fact that he was warned in advance and that government authorities were aware of it. A local TV Channel reported that the murderers left a note on the spot of the murder that this was a revenge killing for the last December attack on the Christians.

Hindus were quick to accuse the Church of masterminding the murder of their revered religious leader, who was in his 80s, rather than accept the government’s view that the attack had a Maoist colour.

A meeting of Hindu leaders took place on the following day in Rourkela, also known as Steel City, where a decision for an immediate and violent retaliation was taken. The total success of the dawn to dusk strike in Orissa on 25 August is clear evidence of the shocking reaction. The simultaneous unleashing of violent attacks on 35 Christian centres in Orissa on the evening of 25 August further confirms that the plan was organized.

All bomb attacks were directed at Christians and their institutions. The rampaging mob, seeking revenge for the Guru’s murder, destroyed the pastoral centre of the archdiocese of Bhuvaneshwar with a bomb. A priest and a nun working there were beaten up, stripped and paraded naked in order to humiliate them. Four other priests were severely beaten—one suffered severe burns and is now in critical conditions in Burla Medical College, in the district of Sambalpur.

The mob also ransacked a church-run orphanage near Burgarh, and the caretaker, Ms Rajni Maji, was set ablaze and burned to death.

A large number of churches, prayer centres, convents, hospitals, dispensaries and vehicles were attacked and torched. Some nuns received warned by mobile phone and either ran into the jungle or escaped by jeep to the neighbouring state of Chattisgarh.

A few lay people lost their lives while thousands ran for theirs into the forests; more than 200 houses were set on fire.

The radical Hindu mobs defied the curfew and forced everyone and everything to shut down, bringing life to a stand still and the state virtually to its knees. The official death toll of 20 reported by the controlled media is totally false.

With 40 per cent of the population made up of Tribals and Dalits (outcasts) Orissa is one of the most underdeveloped states in the country.

The Kandhamal district, which has seen high levels of anti-Christian violence in the last decade, is also where a significant number of Christian conversions have taken place in the same period. As Dalits who embrace Christianity achieve socio-economic progress, many Tribals have followed them in that path in recent times. Thus while Orissa's Christian population is less than 2 per cent, the Christian population in the district doubled in the last decade to reach the 5 per cent mark.

In January 1999, the Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons were burned to death by a mob led by one Dara Singh (convicted in 2003).

Objecting to missionary activities, the murdered Hindu sage recently said: “The sooner Christians return to the Hindu fold the better it would be for the country.”

Orissa was the first state in the country that passed legislation against religious conversion in 1967, followed later by other states.

While Christian missionaries firmly assert that serving the poor and the marginalized is their missionary vocation, the anti-conversion law is based on the view that these services are inducements and fraudulent means to abet conversions.

Another factor also generates opposition to Christians. It is becoming increasingly clear that where Christian missionaries operate, important social changes take place. People develop, acting and living with greater dignity. Thus, as a result of education, even basic education, Tribals and Dalits are no longer willing to be used as cheap labour in farming. Their sense of dignity and their education have given them the courage to protest against their exploitation and oppression.

In addition to such changes over the past two generations, Tribals are now moving in great numbers to the big cities. In Mumbai alone there are some 100,000 young Tribals or Adivasi from Orissa, all working in domestic service or small industrial plants. It is obvious that these changes are transforming Orissa’s socio-economic structure.

Soren takes oath as Jharkhand chief minister

Ranchi : As he starts to rule the Tribal State again, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) chief Shibu Soren will hope he does not land into trouble - as it has happened whenever he became minister or chief minister.

Soren became a minister in the Manmohan Singh government in May 2004, but had to quit two months later as a warrant against him surfaced. The warrant related to the killing of 11 people, including nine Muslims, at Chirudih in 1975. Soren went into hiding but had to surrender in the Jamtara district court following a Jharkhand government directive. He remained in jail for two months.

Guruji, as he is known among his supporters, was again given a berth in the central ministry in October 2004 but he quit in March 2005 to become chief minister of Jharkhand. However, his luck ran out soon and he was forced to step down within 10 days as he failed to prove majority in the assembly.

Soren returned to the central cabinet in 2006. He also became chairperson of Jharkhand UPA when Madhu Koda became chief minister in September 2006. However, he did not last long in the central government and was forced to resign in October 2006 after he was convicted and awarded life term for the murder of his personal secretary Shashinath Jha.

The Delhi High Court acquitted him in the Jha murder case in 2007. He also stands acquitted in the Chirudih massacre case. But there is one more murder case pending against him in the Giridih district court.

When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reshuffled the cabinet earlier this year, JMM supporters wanted to see Soren back in the ministry but he was not inducted. Soren's next opportunity came when the Left parties withdrew support to the central government, reducing it to minority and necessitating a trust vote. In the confidence motion of July 22, JMM supported the Manmohan Singh government and soon Soren expressed his wish to become Jharkhand chief minister again.

With the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) backing him and independent legislators making up the necessary number for majority, Soren should not have any trouble in completing the term till 2010.

But given his track record, his supporters will be keeping their fingers crossed. And ofcourse, we Tribals will also be doing the same for the welfare of Jharkhand.

5 more seats for tribals in Meghalaya med college

Shillong: After threatening to discontinue the MBBS course at North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) in Meghalaya if the Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) continued to pressurise the Union Health Ministry for 30 per cent seat-reservation for tribals, Union Health Secretary Naresh Dayal agreed to grant five more seats to placate the students’ body.

NEIGRIHMS has 50 MBBS seats of which 24 seats will be reserved for students from other northeastern states which do not have medical colleges.

In a meeting held in New Delhi on Tuesday, Dayal reportedly told Meghalaya Chief Secretary Ranjan Chatterjee that the Centre was willing to discontinue the MBBS course in NEIGRIHMS if the KSU tried to armtwist the Government into conceding to its demand of 30 per cent seat reservation for tribals.

The KSU had earlier stalled the MBBS entrance examination that was to be held in Shillong on August 3 to pressurise the Ministry into conceding to its demand. The Ministry then decided to hold the entrance examination in Guwahati but the KSU had protested.

Is Scheduled Caste = Scheduled Tribe?

By Samir Bhagat

We all know that the answer is big NO. However people from mainstream do not think so. For them both SCs and STs are same.

After India achieved independence and formal constitution was adopted, they(ruling class) inadverdently clubbed both SCs and STs toghether. This has generally led to dilution of our (STs) identities as well as giving rise to lots of misconceptions among the mainstream society. Foremost among these are/were untouchability, STs belonging to the lowest strata of the society, general feeling of despise etc.

Somewhere down the line we, as a homogeneous groUp, could not assert our identities. We could not carve out our separate identities. Maybe we failed to understand our own culture. Therefore we could not popularize our indegenious culture, which is infact separate from the towering image of SCs.

We need to assert ourselves and tell the mainstream media that SCs and STs are two separate group. Why don't we ask mainstream newspapers to have a separate matrimonial column for TRIBALS and not to club them with SCHEDULED CASTES??

This could be the starting point and only a very small step towards a long journey for regaining our own identities.