Word: jharkhand
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...report released Dec. 9 by Human Rights Watch found that at least 39 schools in the Eastern states of Jharkhand and Bihar have been attacked by Naxals in the last year. That doesn't include schools that are occupied by state security forces, of which the total number is still unknown. "When we wanted to know of the exact number of schools that were being occupied by the security forces, the government refused to provide us the details," says Subrata Bhattacharjee, president of the Jharkhand chapter of the People's Union For Civil Liberties (PUCL), an advocacy group based...
...since 1967, and sees any government building as an emblem of the state it seeks to overthrow. Naxal attacks usually occur at night, when improvised explosive devices, known as "can bombs," are set off inside the schools. Human Rights Watch researchers visited a school in Dwarika, a village in Jharkhand where no classes have been taught since a can bomb explosion severely damaged the building in November 2008. The wooden doors were shattered, and the walls cracked, making the brick building unsafe for students. Of the 250 students, only 50 had families with enough money to send them...
...damaging is the occupation of all or part of a school building by security forces, who use them as camps or barracks. Students are squeezed into the remaining parts of the school, which in many cases stops functioning altogether. Megha, a high school student in the Mohulia district of Jharkhand, says two-thirds of her school is occupied by troops. "We cannot go to the toilets, as they are used by camp people," she said in an interview with TIME. Other students complain of harassment - the girls feeling leered at, and the boys grilled for information about suspected insurgents...
...government school systems in Bihar and Jharkhand were already abysmal well before Naxal activity picked up this year. Average class sizes in the two states are 75 and 65, respectively, for a single teacher, compared to the national average of 40. Literacy rates, too, are well below the national average of 65%. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has made development in Naxal-affected areas - including education - a priority, but the attacks and occupation threaten to undo what limited progress his government had made. In the Aurangabad district of Bihar, for example, the government approved about $28,600 to build...
...particularly bonded labor." According to a 2001 census, an estimated 185, 595 children are employed as domestic help and in small roadside eateries, a number that is believed to have grown today. Most child domestic workers in India are trafficked by placement agencies operating in poor states like Orissa, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The agencies pay families in advance for their children and then place them at jobs in cities, tying the child to the agency until he or she pays off the money given to his family. The June court statement issued out of Delhi was over...