Nagpur: Abhijit Deepke, the founder of the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), has openly challenged governments over the woeful state of tribal‑run schools and the chronic administrative indifference that pervades the nation. In a press briefing in Nagpur, he warned that tribal education has been systematically abandoned for decades.
Deepke announced that the CJP will roll out a fresh initiative called ‘Fix Tribal Schools’ on 17 September, beginning in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district. The campaign is designed to shine a spotlight on the educational rights of tribal children, the glaring lack of basic facilities, and the myriad obstacles they confront from the bureaucracy.
As part of the effort, CJP volunteers will travel to schools in predominantly tribal regions to document the on‑ground reality of infrastructure, teaching resources, and student welfare. This follows the party’s earlier ‘Fix Schools’ crusade, which targeted the broader public‑school system.
Criticising political priorities, Deepke noted that parties lavish huge sums on constructing party offices while simultaneously claiming there is no budget for tribal residential schools.
He also challenged the narrative of India’s economic progress, insisting that the fruits of development must reach tribal communities. Deepke cited distressing data: more than 590 tribal students have died in Maharashtra over the past two years, including fatalities from snakebites, and over 30 children have perished in Balaghat, Madhya Pradesh, in the last two months alone.
Regarding compensation, Deepke accused several state governments of offering token financial aid instead of meaningful assistance and dignity to grieving families.
According to his figures, out of the 720 Eklavya Model Residential Schools sanctioned nationwide, 477 remain shut, depriving countless tribal children of formal education. He also raised concerns about the low enrollment of tribal students in higher‑education institutions and the under‑representation of Scheduled Tribe candidates in elite colleges such as the IITs.
Deepke called for an urgent, data‑driven inquiry into why tribal students and teachers are so sparsely represented in premier institutions, linking the issue to deep‑seated structural inequities in the education system. He urged the government to adopt concrete, actionable measures to reverse this trend.
