Nagpur: Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke on Wednesday announced a nationwide ‘Adivasi School Thik Karo’ campaign, with the first phase to be launched from Gadchiroli on Sept 17. Dipke said he will visit various ashramshalas to assess the conditions where tribal students study.Addressing media in Nagpur, he said the campaign would subsequently move to Nandurbar and Nashik and also cover Gujarat. “We don’t want to target anyone. Our agenda is that schools for these tribal students should be improved.”He alleged that the problems extended to Eklavya and ashram schools, claiming that several schools were functioning from rented premises and that many lacked permanent infrastructure. He also blamed what he called increasing privatisation of ashramshalas for some of the problems.Criticising successive govts, Dipke alleged that tribal communities had been neglected for decades despite their considerable talent and potential. He said the lack of a strong primary education foundation prevented many tribal children from reaching institutions such as IITs and IIMs.Dipke further raised concerns over deaths of tribal children, particularly those linked to medical negligence and snakebite incidents. He claimed that more than 590 tribal children had died in Maharashtra over the past two years. He also referred to reports from neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, claiming that several tribal children had died in Balaghat. “The issue needs greater scrutiny,” he said and asked why funds under PM CARES could not be utilised for strengthening tribal education and healthcare infrastructure.On education-related issues in Punjab and Kerala, Dipke questioned what BJP was doing as the opposition in those states.He linked vacancies in govt departments to the larger issue of youth unemployment. Referring to what he described as more than 28,000 vacant posts, Dipke said, “On one side you have unemployment and on the other side govt posts are vacant.”Dipke also linked the Maratha reservation movement led by Manoj Jarange to what he described as the govt’s inability to provide adequate education and employment opportunities across communities.
