COMMENTARY

Neglect and Abuse in

the Name of Education
Prateek Goyal

Maharashtra has had ashram

shalas or tribal boarding schools
for many decades now. However,
much is wanting in the way these
schools are run and the conditions
in which the tribal children are
made to live and study. The
periodic cases of abuse and
corruption gain media attention
for a few days but no long-term
improvement or concrete action
plans are forthcoming.

Prateek Goyal (Prateek11goyal@gmail.com) is

a journalist who has reported extensively on
tribal issues.

12

he cases of rape and sexual abuse

of minor girls that came to light in
November at the Nimbaji Kokre
ashram shala (boarding school for tribes)
at Khamgaon in Buldhana district of
Maharashtra, have once again raised questions about the administration of ashram
shalas. However, these questions will
remain unanswered. Ashram shalas were
started to provide education to tribal children in remote parts of Maharashtra but
have increasingly become hubs of abuse.
Cases of the kind in Buldhana are
periodically reported by the media and
even made much of for a few days.
Invariably, the abusers are members
of the staff including the warden and
superintendent, the very people who are
supposed to protect the children. These
are cases which have become public
because they were reported by the parents
or relatives of these tribal children but
activists working in the area say there
are many more that go unreported.
The Government of India initiated
the concept of ashram shalas on the
recommendations of the Uchharangrai
Navalshankar Dhebar Commission in
1962. The provision to start these schools
became a part of national programmes
in 1972. However, these schools were being run much earlier in areas which now
constitute Maharashtra. Their primary
objective was to provide boarding facilities to tribals who would find it difficult
to come and go daily to a day school.
Initially, voluntary organisations ran
these schools in the state but in 1972 the
state government took over with the aim
of improving the literacy rate of tribals
living in more remote areas. Unfortunately, the situation has not changed much
since that decade with the enrolment of
tribal students being rather low in the
state. At the level of primary schools it
hovers around 10% to 15% and is 8% at

the secondary level with the numbers

falling in the upper classes.
There are around 1,108 ashram shalas
in Maharashtra and they come under
the jurisdiction of the four additional
tribal commissioners located at Nashik,
Nagpur, Amravati and Thane. Around
552 of these tribal boarding schools are
run by the tribal development department of the state government while the
rest are government-aided and run by
non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
often sponsored by political leaders of
different parties. The annual budget for
these ashram shalas is around `300 crore
but poor infrastructure and pathetic living
conditions of students clearly tell a tale
of poor use of resources on behalf of the
tribal inmates.
According to a government resolution
of 1999, popularly known as the ashram
shala code book, there are provisions for
health and hygiene, teaching, library, laboratories, school discipline, extra-curricular
activities and staffing pattern for the
betterment of these schools. But the
actual standards are nowhere close to
these marks.
The classrooms have leaking roofs;
fans and tube lights seem to be a distant
dream and scarcity of water, inadequate
staff, etc, are common features of these
tribal boarding schools.
More than 4,000 staff posts are lying
vacant across the state, including in the
government and aided schools. More
than 50% posts of female wardens are
among these vacancies.
According to the rules, the superintendent or warden of the ashram shala
must stay with the children in the
school. But in a large number, the wardens or superintendents go back to their
homes in the night leaving the children
on their own.
According to the Maharashtra ashram
school manual, a tribal school should
have at least two hectares of land for its
premises. But more than 50% of these
schools are built in an area that is less
than two hectares and thus there are no
separate hostel facilities for the students
who end up using the classrooms as
their living and sleeping spaces as well.

DECEMBER 3, 2016

vol lI no 49

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Economic & Political Weekly

COMMENTARY

On 14 November 2014, on a reporting

assignment I visited the ashram shalas of
the tribal-dominated Nandurbar district.
On reaching the first ashram shala in
Dahel village of Akkalkuwa tehsil which
incidentally has the lowest literacy rate
among all tehsils of Maharashtra, I saw
a group of huts with children inside
and some young men who turned out
to be teachers sitting on a cot outside.
The children were in torn clothes, some
of which happened to be uniforms. I
approached two young girls who were
around 12 years old and were sweeping
the broken floor of a small room which
was a classroom as well as a hostel.

The children and the teachers who

worked there on a temporary basis informed me that they were waiting for the
school headmaster to celebrate Childrens
Day in the ashram shala. The children
had been waiting since morning and at
the time of my visit which was well past
the afternoon, there was no information
on the arrival of the headmaster.
After walking around the ashram shala
and talking to the teachers and children
I gathered that the ashram shala comprised four huts, three of which were used
as classrooms-cum-hostels and the remaining one served as the kitchen. The total
strength of the school was 280 boarders
(190 girls and 90 boys). These children
were living in five rooms of less than
350 sq ft which means 50 to 60 of them
were accommodated in one room.
The toilet was a roofless structure
which was anyway unusable. The girls
told me that they have to go to a nearby
river and streams for daily chores and
are teased by the local youths.
The rules say that there should be a
computer centre in every ashram shala
but there was neither electricity nor water
supply in the Dahel school. As per the
rules a nutritious diet comprising fruits,
vegetables, milk, eggs, nuts, rice and
chapatti should be given to the students
daily. But in reality they were served
poha and khichdi every day and fruits
and eggs only twice a month. They had
never been served milk.
The rule of a medical check-up every
three months was flouted at the Dahel
ashram shala which did not even have a
medical kit.
The ashram shala in Dahel was in
a remote area and there were hardly
any security measures. The children and a
teacher told me (on condition of anonymity) that the superintendent and warden
who as per the rules should stay with
the children always went home by
evening every day. However, there was a
night watchman.
The condition was no different at the
ashram shala in Sari village. Similar
conditions prevailed and the children
had to walk at least 1 km just to get
drinking water.
Almost all the eight to 10 ashram
shalas I visited had no power or water

Economic & Political Weekly

vol lI no 49

Around 50 to 60 students are crammed

in a room that barely measures 350
square feet (sq ft). There is hardly any
space for the headmasters office, staffroom, mess, kitchen or even a room for
times when the children fall ill.
According to a study by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) (2015) there
are 339 (31.5%) schools with the provision
of one bathroom for 20 girls whereas 278
(25.8%) schools have the same for the
boys. Similarly, 555 (51.6%) schools have
provision of one bathroom for 50 students
in case of both girls and boys. There are
182 (16.9%) schools where girls do not
have bathrooms and 243 (22.6%) schools
where the boys do not have bathrooms.
In such a situation the children go to
nearby rivers, wells or streams for their
daily ablutions. Most of the school toilets
are in abysmal conditions and are almost
unusable. Some do not even have doors
and roofs, thus posing a serious threat to
the health of the children. How can the
children, particularly the girls, be safe
from sexual harassment and exploitation
in such conditions? They are vulnerable
to predatory behaviour not just from the
staff but also from the local youth.
Drainage system and water purification
in more than 70% of the schools are neglected by the authorities and water-borne
diseases among students are rampant.
More than 50% of the tribal schools in
the state do not have a compound wall
and security guards. Anybody can walk
in or out of these at any time of the day
or night unquestioned.
An Eyewitness Account

EPW

DECEMBER 3, 2016

supply and suffered from inadequate

staff, unusable toilets and bathrooms,
unavailability of beds, congested classrooms, dirty surroundings and lack of
safety measures.
Children have to sleep on the floor as
there are not enough beds and there have
been incidences of snake bites due to this.
Children were locked up in their rooms
by the superintendents when they left
for their own homes in the evenings. In
such situations, many a time, the little
ones even defecated or urinated in the
rooms they were locked in and then had
to bear the wrath of the superintendent
or warden the next day. They were then
made to clean the rooms as punishment.
These ashram shalas are rarely visited
by officials who are meant to inspect
them and the children have a way of
complaining about their grievances.
Many a time they are threatened with
dire consequences and have to remain
silent. Most of the tribal children are
from poor backgrounds and do not complain of the abuse as they fear that they
will be thrown out of these schools.
Political Connect
There are around 556 ashram shalas in
Maharashtra which are run by NGOs on
government aid. Almost 90% of these
NGOs are run by politicians who indirectly are running these ashram shalas.
Ravi Talpe, a tribal activist, observed that
two students died in the school run by a
politician in Junnar but no action has
been followed. It was closed down for a
few days but was restarted with the
blessings of then influential politicians.
Deaths Due To Snake Bites
According to the Hemanand Biswal
standing committee on social justice and
empowerment in the Lok Sabha, the
report of which was presented in Parliament on 18 February 2014, Between 2001
and 2013, 793 tribal students studying in
ashram shalas across Maharashtra died
due to snakebites, scorpion bites and
minor ailments. The committee noted
that no compensation was paid in 340 of
the cases whereas as per the rules under
the ashram shala scheme, the family of
each deceased child should have been
given a compensation of `15,000.
13

COMMENTARY

The Comptroller and Auditor Generals

report for 2013 also pointed out the
shortcomings in the inspection of ashram shalas and arrears in the audit. The
performance audit conducted in 2005
for the period 19992004 also mentions
that no evaluation of the ashram shala
scheme was ever done by the government since its inception. The report also
states that no medical check-ups were
conducted between 1999 and 2004 even

14

though they are supposed to be done on

a quarterly basis every year.
Despite the `10 crore approved by
the centre for the purchase of 1,794
computers, 299 printers and 299 tables,
only 166 computers were bought for the
ashram shalas.
The state government has set up a
probe committee to look into the Buldhana
cases and also ordered an inspection
of all ashram shalas across the state.

Whether the report of this committee too

will go the way of previous ones is a
moot point. Meanwhile, the abused girls
and their families will have to deal with
the trauma as best as they can.
References
Tehelka (2014): Schools of Scandal, November.
TISS (2015): Status of government aided ashram
schools in Maharashtra sponsored by the Tribal
Development Department, Government of
Maharashtra, August.

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vol lI no 49

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