Education a casualty in Maoist territory
IN PERIL Often used as temporary shelters for CRPF personnel, schools in Bihar are blown up by Maoists, jeopardising the future of students
MAGADHZONE(BIHAR): The police record of a Maoist attack at Gaya district’s Dhangain, deep inside rebel territory along Bihar’s border with neighbouring Jharkhand, is short, but revealing.
“On 06.08.17, a group of armed CPI (Maoist) extremists exploded a community building in village Dhangain, under Barachatti PS and some portion of the building was set afire,” records Chetanand Jha, inspector.
The police note in the case number 471/17, registered under several sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC), Explosive Substances Act and other relevant acts, further states that the building, parts of which houses a school, was blown up for being a temporary CRPF encampment.
Instances of such demolitions are common in this Maoist area, and, usually, education is the biggest casualty.
Of the 150-plus acts of Maoist sabotage recorded since 2008, around 70 involve government schools; in Bihar, as in many other states, such schools are occasionally used by the government to billet troops on the move.
At Pathluka, the Rashtriya Buniyadi Vidyalay still bears testimony to a Maoist attack in 2011.
The school runs in the open, as it has just three newly-built rooms to accommodate its 535 students. The school has seven teachers. A single blackboard is suspended from a tree.
“One room is earmarked for the midday meal, another room for teachers and headmaster. That leaves us with just one room. It is better to teach in the open,” said a teacher.
Chandani Parveen, a class 6 student, said the students somehow manage under the trees during summer or winter, but that during the rainy season, the school is virtually closed.
At Chakarbandha middle school, the signs of violence are more evident.
Out of 500 students, only about 150 make it to the school on a given day from nearby villages such as Bhainsadwar, Mohraon and Kenuatand.
Any news of Maoist rebels on the prowl in the vicinity is enough to dissuade students from venturing out.
A primary school exists on the same campus in a newly-constructed building after the old building was badly damaged in a Maoist attack.
Only 50 of 500 students regularly attend classes. Even teachers at times fail to come to the schools.
At Barha, a rebuilt school was blown up in 2014. It has now just 45 students and no teacher.
At Dhangain, middle school teacher Satyendra Kumar says: “There is hardly space for students in any of the schools after they were blown up. I try to teach by segregating students of various classes and at times ask some to sit outside. If I am teaching students of class 1 or 2, others either listen, or do their class work. It is tough. Nobody from the education department even visits here for inspection out of fear.”
Maoists had blown up another school building nearby in 2012. A new building was sanctioned, but construction remains incomplete.
“The contractor fled mid-way after Maoists demanded a levy,” said a villager, Shamsher Bahadur (62).
In nearby Aurangabad district, the school administration lives in fear of the red rebels.
“There is no class in any school after 12.30pm for fear of the Maoists,” said teacher Rajendra Singh.
In the districts of Dhibra, Deo, Amas, Kutumba and Madanpur, which have witnessed sustained violence, many don’t even send children to schools.
“In many schools, children have dropped out due to fear,” said district education officer Pravesh Singh.
With sustained CRPF action in the districts to stop ingress and egress of rebels from Jharkhand, Maoists still occasionally make forays into the villages such as Maigra, Chakrabandha, Lalmatia, Tarchua, Langurahi, Khadauntola and Panchrukkhia, to trouble the forces and blow up schools and other community assets that could house troops.
Inspector Jha of Barachatti PS waves his hand in an arc. Across are hills amidst thick jungles, which at some points do not even allow sunlight to penetrate.
“Among the thickets and bushes are traps everywhere,” he says. “It requires a big, big force to even give a chase to the rebels.”
CRPF DIG K Sajnuddin also expressed similar views.
“Police and CRPF commandos have faced stiff odds in the woods, where every mile is interspersed with mines and booby traps. But we have been retaliating strongly and kept them [Maoists] on the run lately,” Sajnuddin said.
The CRPF has worked hard in the last three years to reduce the fear of Maoists in the minds of the common man through its relentless campaigns, he added.
But until security forces weed out rebels from the jungles to secure infrastructure in the trouble-torn districts, fear and uncertainty will continue to cloud the future of children
There is hardly space for students in any of the schools after they were blown up. I try to teach by segregating students of various classes and at times ask some to sit outside. If I am teaching students of class 1 or 2, others either listen, or do their class work. It is tough. SATYENDRA KUMAR, a middle-school teacher in Dhangain