CJP announces nationwide campaign to improve government schools in villages

Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke on Monday announced a nationwide campaign to improve government schools in villages, calling on parents to conduct social audits of basic facilities and sarpanches to take responsibility for improving educational infrastructure in their respective areas.

The campaign will be launched on August 15, with the CJP urging citizens, parents and village leaders to work together to address what it described as the “neglect of rural educational infrastructure”.

In a video message, Dipke said he would begin the initiative from his village in Hingoli, Maharashtra, by approaching the village head with a request to improve government schools there.

“The coming 15th August is our 80th Independence Day. But, if anything has been neglected or ignored the most in the last 80 years, it is the government schools in our villages,” Dipke said.

“We have made a new Parliament, a new PM house. Why have we not been able to build new schools in our villages? Do we not consider the children of farmers and labourers the future of our country?” he asked.

Dipke said children in villages continue to travel long distances to attend school and often encounter institutions without basic facilities such as drinking water and functional toilets.

“Even today, village children have to walk a long distance to go to school. After going there, they don’t find water or toilet facilities,” he said, highlighting the difficulties faced particularly by girls.

“I feel that on this 15th August, if we should pay attention to anything, if we should make a new start, we should start by improving our government schools,” he said.

CJP issues ‘Sarpanch Challenge’

As part of the campaign, the CJP has appealed to sarpanches across the country to take up the task of improving government schools in their respective villages.

Dipke said he would personally approach the village head in Hingoli and urged other sarpanches to undertake similar initiatives.

The organisation has termed the initiative the “Sarpanch Challenge”. Under it, the CJP plans to publicly recognise village heads who improve schools by sharing before-and-after photographs on its social media platforms and crediting the sarpanches concerned.

“We will give you credit so that after seeing you, after seeing the schools that you have improved, many other village heads also start improving schools in their villages,” Dipke said.

The CJP has also announced a citizen-led social audit of government schools, asking parents whose children attend such institutions to inspect the availability and condition of basic facilities.

Parents have been asked to check whether schools have electricity, clean drinking water, functional washrooms and mid-day meals.

“You go to your children's schools and see if basic facilities are available. See if there is electricity, water… Do your children get washroom facilities? Do they get mid-day meals?” Dipke said.

He urged parents to record videos wherever these facilities were unavailable.

The CJP said it would soon release a printable audit form through which citizens could record facilities available at schools as well as those that were missing. The form will be shared through links accompanying campaign videos on the organisation’s official social media platforms.

Completed forms and video evidence can then be submitted to the CJP.

Campaign follows 36-day Jantar Mantar agitation

The organisation said the latest campaign was intended to ensure that children of farmers and wage labourers studying in village schools have access to facilities comparable to those available to children in urban areas.

“If not, you make videos of it. Because your children's schooling should be good. That is your fundamental right,” Dipke said.

“Let us all make a promise to the children who live in villages that we will improve their schools. Together, we can do this,” he added, concluding his video with the message, “Real India lives in villages”.

The CJP, which began as an online satirical platform, subsequently expanded its activities into street-level campaigns.

Its 36-day agitation at Jantar Mantar in Delhi against examination irregularities was called off on July 25 following the resignation of then Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

Amid speculation over its future course, the CJP held a two-day strategy meeting at Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar in Maharashtra earlier this month and decided to continue as a youth movement rather than enter electoral politics.

The organisation also announced its “Kya Bolti Public?” campaign as part of a nationwide outreach programme.

Dipke had earlier urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to use his Independence Day address to speak directly to the country’s youth on issues including education, unemployment and the cost of living.