In Chhattisgarh's Bastar, Mao’s ‘Little Red Book’ was the syllabus at one time. But times have changed and children today learn tables under a tree or in one of the sheds abandoned by Maoists when they retreated.
This no-walls school is the only hope for hundreds of children in the extremely remote part of Abujhmarh in Bastar.
The Maoists had their own rule of law in these parts and their so-called ‘Janatana Sarkar' ran ‘schools' to impart Maoist ideology to children.
Maoists began fleeing their strongholds when security forces pressured them. This open-air school is in one such region of Narayanpur district, some 300km from Raipur.
Once the insurgents fled in 2016, the school was abandoned for several years until a few educated youngsters volunteered to teach children of primary school age. They named it Bhoomkal — after the 1910 tribal uprising against the British.
Now, villagers of 12 panchayats want the government to take over the school. Some of them met the district collector on Friday and handed over a memorandum, asking that the school be affiliated to the state board and its young volunteer teachers be absorbed as ‘Shikshadoots', TOI reported.
TOI had visited this school, located on a hill, about 150 km from the district headquarters, a couple of years ago. At the time only some sheds with rickety structures that once held up planks to serve as benches were left.
Villagers were still wary of talking to outsiders, afraid that Maoists had eyes and ears in the forest as the school had seen the Salwa Judum days.
Covid-19 pandemic gave the school a new lease of life. When educated youth started returning home with their families during the lockdown, they were worried that their children would miss out on education. Some of them decided to resume teaching under the abandoned shed.
A proposal was passed by a dozen village panchayats that they would collectively pay salaries to teachers and arrange for food and books in 2021.
Today, the Bhoomkal residential school has 115 students from Class 1-5. In fact, it had 400 students four months ago, but a major encounter in nearby Rekavaya where eight Maoists were killed on May 23-24 forced the attendance go down.
These numbers can’t be ignored. Some villagers suggested shifting the School to the outer reaches of the region for better accessibility. But by now, it has turned into a symbol of pride.
Most villagers want the school to continue to run where it is. All they need is government affiliation because the students would have no future without board marksheets.
Sanjay Panth, state president of Bhartiya Kisan Union, speaking on behalf of the villagers, said that all ‘Janatana Sarkar' schools in Sukma, Bijapur and Dantewada districts should be taken over by government.
According to officials, the demand to affiliate Bhoomkal School is genuine but shifting it to a safer area can be immediately considered.
This region is barely 40 km from Thulthuli, the site of the biggest encounter in Bastar in which 38 Maoists were gunned down.
This no-walls school is the only hope for hundreds of children in the extremely remote part of Abujhmarh in Bastar.
The Maoists had their own rule of law in these parts and their so-called ‘Janatana Sarkar' ran ‘schools' to impart Maoist ideology to children.
Maoists began fleeing their strongholds when security forces pressured them. This open-air school is in one such region of Narayanpur district, some 300km from Raipur.
Once the insurgents fled in 2016, the school was abandoned for several years until a few educated youngsters volunteered to teach children of primary school age. They named it Bhoomkal — after the 1910 tribal uprising against the British.
Now, villagers of 12 panchayats want the government to take over the school. Some of them met the district collector on Friday and handed over a memorandum, asking that the school be affiliated to the state board and its young volunteer teachers be absorbed as ‘Shikshadoots', TOI reported.
TOI had visited this school, located on a hill, about 150 km from the district headquarters, a couple of years ago. At the time only some sheds with rickety structures that once held up planks to serve as benches were left.
Villagers were still wary of talking to outsiders, afraid that Maoists had eyes and ears in the forest as the school had seen the Salwa Judum days.
Covid-19 pandemic gave the school a new lease of life. When educated youth started returning home with their families during the lockdown, they were worried that their children would miss out on education. Some of them decided to resume teaching under the abandoned shed.
A proposal was passed by a dozen village panchayats that they would collectively pay salaries to teachers and arrange for food and books in 2021.
Today, the Bhoomkal residential school has 115 students from Class 1-5. In fact, it had 400 students four months ago, but a major encounter in nearby Rekavaya where eight Maoists were killed on May 23-24 forced the attendance go down.
These numbers can’t be ignored. Some villagers suggested shifting the School to the outer reaches of the region for better accessibility. But by now, it has turned into a symbol of pride.
Most villagers want the school to continue to run where it is. All they need is government affiliation because the students would have no future without board marksheets.
Sanjay Panth, state president of Bhartiya Kisan Union, speaking on behalf of the villagers, said that all ‘Janatana Sarkar' schools in Sukma, Bijapur and Dantewada districts should be taken over by government.
According to officials, the demand to affiliate Bhoomkal School is genuine but shifting it to a safer area can be immediately considered.
This region is barely 40 km from Thulthuli, the site of the biggest encounter in Bastar in which 38 Maoists were gunned down.
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