Unheard and unseen, these kids go to school in a class of their own

Unheard and unseen, these kids go to school in a class of their own
VIVEK DESHPANDE

Lakhapur (Nagpur), February 21: Around 115 km south-east of Nagpur, a nondescript village of 500 inhabitants is giving the district administration some lessons in protest. The gram sabha of Lakhapur village in Bramhapuri tehsil, Chandrapur district in Maharashtra, has rebelled against the Zilla Parishad school, set up a parallel school and even appointed its own teachers.

For the gram sabha, their actions are an expression of gram swarajya, village self-rule. The provocation can be traced to the alleged assault last year of a girl student by a Zilla Parishad teacher. According to villagers, on September 11 last year, Sanjay Kakde -- who has since been transferred -- first asked all 40 students of the school to punch nine-year-old Shima Devidas Bankar on her back and later himself asaulted the girl. Angry villagers gheraoed the school, and Kakde had to be evicted under police protection.

The villagers then locked up the school. When authorities asked them to unlock it for a Panchayat Raj committee's visit, they refused. ``Finally, the Block Education Officer forcibly opened the school on September 14 with the help of some goons and took away all the records,'' says Gokul Panse, the gram sabha president.

In retaliation, the gram sabha started its own school on September 19 with 25 students. On September 30, the ZP school too reopened, but with just 13 students.

The villagers allege that Kakde is being propped up by villagers who were part of a lucky draw scheme he had floated. ``Some documents that were taken away pertained to the lucky draw scheme,'' alleged Panse. ``Parents of some of the ZP school's students are part of the scheme,'' he says.

One such Kakde `supporter' is Rajesh Nakade, whose daughter Snehlata attends the ZP school. ``This is autocracy. There are 47 houses in this village which don't agree with gram swarajya. If Kakde has done anything wrong, let him face punishment. Why take things so far?'' he asks.

The area's Block Development Officer, Panchayat Samiti member and vice chairperson also tried to broker peace, but to no avail. ``We offerred to make peace on the condition that Kakde apologises in writing,'' said Panse. ``But he refused.'' On January 2, the gram sabha took its battle a step further: it demanded transfer certificates (TCs) of the 25 students from the ZP school. This, the authorities realised, would have meant shutting down the school since it cannot be run with just 13 students. The Block Education Officer said the matter could be decided only by the Education Committee of Chandrapur Zilla Parishad.

The Chandrapur ZP Education Officer Dhandode asked the villagers to give a written undertaking that they would be solely responsible for any loss to their wards in case TCs were to be issued.

``Kakde has since been transferred. We have also started an inquiry against him. What else do they want? If Kakde is not apologising, I'll do it. And in writing,'' says a harried Dhandode. ``But let peace prevail.''

None of this has moved the grama sabha. Its school is being run out of a room in Panse's own house. In Purushottam Borikar and Pramod Meshram, the gram sabha has found two dedicated teachers who're willing to work for free. Borikar pedals 16 kms down from his native village of Kinhi, stays in Lakhapur for the week and goes back to his village to earn his bread out of carpentry. Only to return again the next Monday.

The students have been provided books free of cost by a publishing company from Mumbai. ``Apart from teaching the regular curriculum, we will also teach them ground realities, as desired by Sane Guruji and Tukdoji Maharaj,'' says Borikar.

What if the school remains unrecognised? ``We will cross the bridge when we come to it,'' shrugs Panse.