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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...
...insurgency's effect on education has been devastating. The Naxalite movement has been agitating for revolution in India's long-neglected rural interior 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...
...Indian police and paramilitary forces gear up for a big push against the Naxals planned for early next year, the impact on schools is likely to get worse. In remote areas, schools may be the only solid construction available to use as a base of operation. State education officials say the schools are occupied only temporarily, and that alternative sites are arranged, but residents of Naxal-affected areas say that many schools have been closed for months or years, permanently disrupting education. Burhan Soren, a farmer in Gurha, says one school in his village has been occupied since...
...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...
...Human Rights Watch is calling on the Naxal groups to stop targeting school buildings, and for state authorities to repair damaged buildings and provide viable alternatives for occupied schools more quickly. Its representatives will be meeting with Indian central government officials about the issue this week. In the meantime, thousands of students in the affected areas are missing yet another year's exams. "The government says it is in the interest of the children that the security forces stay in the schools to guard against Maoist activities," Bhattacharjee says. "The Maoists say they blow up schools because they are less...