The Indravati River welds the Bijapur district and the Abujhmad region of the Narayanpur district in the South Bastar region of Chhattisgarh. This junction has been a spot for frequent skirmishes in recent years. In January 2024, a video was released where the security forces were seen firing at Maoists across the river. Security forces were firing from the Bijapur side while the Maoists were alleged to be on the Narayanpur side of the river. An Adivasi man had traveled to his aunt’s house in Tadopot village, just beneath the Indravati River in Narayanpur side to get a few poultries he was planning to serve in a religious function celebrating the birth of his daughter. He was stuck during the firing. After the firing had paused, he had thought to take a bath in the river and go back to his village to organise the religious function but was killed in cross-firing. Locals had alleged that the man was not associated with Maoists and was killed in cold blood by the security forces. A protest under the banner of Moolvasi Bachao Manch demanding accountability by the security forces has been launched in the Tadopot village since then.
Moving beyond Tadopot village takes us to the Abujhmad region which officially comes in the Orcha Block of Narayanpur district. We were driving through the disturbed forests which have been home to Adivasis for centuries. No security forces camps have been established in this region yet. We passed through Red coloured memorials erected by Maoists. Red-coloured flags with sickle and hammer signs were fixed in these memorials. Our local guide informed us that these memorials were destroyed by security forces during the summer but were re-fixed and re-painted by Maoists to commemorate the 20th Foundation Day of the CPI (Maoist) in October. The presence of memorials signifies the areas are under the hold of Maoists with the scarce presence of the Indian State. This region has been a Maoist stronghold also termed a liberated zone for years now. But from the summer months of May 2024, the movement of security forces in the region has substantially increased. In May 2024, multiple teams of security forces marched to Rekawaya village, around 30 km from Tadopot for an area domination exercise and 8 Maoists were killed in an encounter which had lasted for more than 24 hours. In October 2024, 31 Maoists were killed in an encounter at Thulthuli village, around 45 km from Tadopot. Gradually, the control over the region is shifting to the Indian State whereas the Maoists are being pushed deeper into the forests.
In 2024, as the war escalated in Bastar manifolds. With the launch of Operation Prahar after the advent of the new State Government in 2023, both the state and central security forces have joined up to combat Maoists. 185 Maoist cadres have been reported killed in 2024 alone. The protests by locals too have intensified as there are multiple contesting narratives and allegations of fake encounters. Multiple child rights violations and deaths of children in the crossfire have also been reported.
But amidst such an intensified bloody battle, the name of Rekawaya village has been making rounds for some other reason. After the encounter in Rekawaya village, a journalist who runs a YouTube channel visited the village in June. He had reported the existence of a Maoist-run school and children’s training centre in the village. He has substantiated his claims by the presence of bamboo-made training infrastructures, large quantities of blue-coloured ‘Paragon Chappals’ which he claimed to be used by Maoists, and large quantities of medicines. Security Forces had collected these materials from the school campus and had burnt them. This report had made stirs in the local media houses and in Raipur.
An international media house had broadcasted a documentary on Maoist-run schools in 2015. The documentary featured the existence of a Maoist school in an undisclosed location. The concerned reporter has now claimed that the school was in Rekawaya.
Contesting narratives
The locals of Rekawaya village had contested this claim by the media terming those allegations baseless. They have been claiming that the school is called ‘Bhumkal Chhatrawas (hostel)’ and is being run by the villagers of 13 Gram Panchayats without any influence by Maoists. They further claimed that the May encounter in Rekawaya village was held in the hill adjacent to the village and no Maoist had ever come to take refuge in the school campus. Moreover, since it was summer break in May, hence the school had no children which otherwise houses 115 children from grades 1st to 5th.
Each household in these 13 Gram Panchayats donates 2 KG of rice every month for the sustenance of this school. A yearly operational budget of 4 Lakhs INR per year is being raised by the villagers. Local educated youths have been appointed as teachers in this school and they are being paid a monthly salary of 4000 INR. The school has been following Chhattisgarh State’s curriculum and textbooks developed by the State Council for Educational Research and Training, Raipur.
Bassu Halami, a youth teaching in this school since 2024, has said that this school has been operational since 2022 and is being operated by 13 Gram Panchayats. He did mention that the school was also operational before 2022 but did not clearly say who operated it. He further claimed that he has studied at this school but doesn’t have a school leaving certificate.
Laxman Kumar Podiyam, another youth teaching mathematics in this school since 2024 has also claimed that he had studied from this school and has no school leaving certificate. He has chosen to be a teacher to educate children, he claimed.
It is to be noted that previously a young man and a woman were teaching in this school but this year they had left the job to join District Reserve Guards, a controversial state government’s force. Bassu and Laxman were appointed after they had left.
The villagers under the condition of anonymity too agreed that the school had been operational even before 2022 but maintained a silence upon asking who was operating it then. Upon asking Bassu and Laxman who were operating this school while they were studying here, they too maintained a silence.
From our visit to the school
The school in Rekawaya was operating from multiple tarpaulin sheds which are used by children for residence. Bamboo made beds and tables are installed in each shed. Children were wearing Chhattisgarh state’s school uniforms and were using the state's bilingual textbooks. Mosquito nets were supplied to each child in the school.
The kitchen shed had large vessels and the cook was busy cooking rice and dal in ovens using logs. A bamboo-made shed has stored minced smoked beef which was being smoked by using wood below the shed. A drinking water facility was installed by digging up 2 wells and children were served drinking water only after boiling.
Classrooms were conducted in the open air. Each classroom has children from diverse age groups. Children who seem to be teenagers also study in grades 1 or 2. Bassu said that since the children were out of school for a long time, they were made to study in grades 1 and 2 irrespective of their ages. A villagers’ committee has been constituted to manage the operation of the school.
A Government Boy’s Residential School existed in this village which was demolished during Salwa Judum and has been closed since then.
In war-torn South Bastar, Maoists, and the state frequently come up with strong opinions about each other, but the sandwiched Adivasis dwelling in this battleground choose to remain silent. Bassu, Laxman, and the villagers had chosen silence over answering the question of who was operating the school before 2022. Hence verifying the contesting claims is challenging and one is left with the option of only speculations.
Looking at the location of the school and considering the stronghold of Maoists through their Janata Sarkar (People’s Government) in the region till pre-COVID times, possibilities of an erstwhile Maoist school can’t be ruled out. But post-COVID, as the Maoists had suffered a huge setback by area domination by security forces, surrenders of their top-notch cadres, and choking off their supply channels, the school might have been closed.
Recently, the members of 13 Gram Panchayats had sat together and decided that they wanted the school to operate from the existing location and that the school operations be undertaken by the state government. An application was written and read out to all the members and a consensus was made.
On 20th October 2024, representatives of the 13 Gram Panchayats had gone to meet the Narayanpur Collector with the application requesting the Collector to let the state education department undertake the school. The application states that the villagers have been operating the Bhumkal Chhatrawas School in Rekawaya village. But they have been facing 3 primary challenges, first, the 115 children studying in this school will be left without any school leaving certificate as the school is not recognized yet. This will create challenges for them in the future to secure jobs. Second, as the villagers are in abysmal socio-economic conditions, it is challenging for them to manage the funds required for the operation of the school. Third, as the school is located amidst a conflict zone, hence it is risky for children for an unrecognised school to operate here, a Government School will provide a safe space for the children.
The application further states that the locally educated youths be appointed as teachers under the condition that they will pursue their Diploma in Elementary Education and graduation while on the job. As the local youths know the local language/s and mother tongue/s of children, it provides them an added advantage as per the National Education Policy 2020.
The application demands the Collector to undertake this school by re-opening the closed Government Boys Residential School that existed there before Salwa Judum. The same legal process as the re-opened schools of Sukma and Bijapur districts is to be implemented in this case. The application concludes with the villagers committing to extend every possible support to the district administration in the re-operation of this school. The Collector has received the application and assured of exploring ways to re-open the closed government school in Rekawaya.
A large number of the government schools in the South Bastar region were demolished during Salwa Judum by Maoists. Generations of Adivasi children were forced out of school. The Maoists claimed that security forces had occupied the schools and hence they were demolished. Government Residential Schools called ‘Porta Cabins’ were established near the towns and children from interior villages were stacked there. The primary objective of these Porta Cabins was similar to the ones of Canadian Indian Residential Schools. Multiple severe child rights violations and utter corruption have been reported from these port cabins over the years. Salwa Judum was banned by the Supreme Court in 2011, but the demolished schools remained closed until 2018 when the villagers of the ‘Maoist stronghold’ villages of Sukma came together to bring both the government and the Maoists to the same page for re-opening those schools. Today 105 out of 133 demolished schools are re-operational in Sukma where locally educated youths are appointed as volunteer teachers called Shikshadoots using the local DMF fund. Bijapur district too followed the same footsteps and in 2019 closed and demolished schools started re-opening in Bijapur. 226 out of around 400 demolished schools in highly sensitive villages of Bijapur are operational.
The villagers in Rekawaya are insisting the District administration of Narayanpur to re-open the Bhumkal Chhatrawas in the same line as Sukma and Bijapur. It is to be noted that Maoists still have control in Rekawaya through its local committee members even though the influence has reduced substantially. Hence, it cannot ruled out that likewise the Maoist influence in the decision to re-opening the government schools in Sukma and Bijapur in 2018 and 19, in Rekawaya too, the decision of letting the Government operate the Bhumkal Chhatrawas is not utterly without Maoist influence.
Operating closed and demolished schools in sensitive villages has let the villagers taste good governance for the first time in South Bastar. They have strengthened the democracy in the region where both the state and the Maoists have come to a common agreement. The case of Bhumkal Chhatrawas is also one such example. If re-opened, this will be the first re-opened government school in Narayanpur district. And if the allegations of this school being a Maoist school are true, this is the first Maoist School undertaken by the community.
Vinesh, a member of PUCL and a resident of Rekawaya village said, “We want the school to be in the village and the government to operate it from here as already a government school used to exist here pre Salwa Judum. We want the basic facilities of schools, Aanganwadi centers, and hospitals in our villages. But we strongly oppose the construction of security forces; and camps in our villages without the permission of Gram Sabha.”
Stepping up
The Collector of Dantewada said, “In Dantewada, not many schools were demolished during Salwa Judum, but we are facing a huge challenge of whooping dropout rate.”
The district administration of Dantewda has undertaken an initiative where learning centres (other than government schools) are being made in interior and sensitive villages. Local educated youths have been appointed as ‘Bal-Mitra’ (Children’s friends) to engage in multiple constructive activities like library activities, creative activities etc. They are being paid an amount of 8000 INR presently. The primary objective of these centers are to engage the drop out children and re-integrate them to the schools.
Sambit Mishra, IAS and the Collector of Bijapur said, “Recently 26 more closed government day schools have been re-opened in Bijapur district. We have also appointed head teachers in 50 schools to start with in addition to the Shikshadoots. We are also constructing residential high schools for children in their villages so that they don’t have to travel long distances to Porta Cabins. We are in the process of shifting children from Porta Cabins to their respective villages.”
During the Salwa Judum and after the Operation Green Hunt launched, for more than a decade the administration mostly concentrated all its resources and power in heavily militarising South Bastar without much emphasis on sustainable development initiatives. Children had only options to attend Porta Cabins or remain Out of School. Government Jobs aspiring youths had only the option to join security forces and detach themselves from their villages, cultures, friends and families.
The 2018 initiative of the villages in Sukma to re-open the closed and demolished schools in the utterly sensitive villages had set a narrative to establish the basic facilities of schools, Anganwadi and hospitals in sensitive villages while engaging more and more Adivasi youths in these jobs rather than the jobs in forces, among villagers and both the parties in the ongoing war. The efforts undertaken by the villagers in Rekawaya to own the Bhumkal Chhatrawas School, the initiative in Dantewada to engage youths as ‘Bal Mitras’ and the process in Bijapur district to send back children from Porta Cabins to their respective villages are largely a part of the narrative. All the efforts undertaken for restoration of public educational infrastructure in South Bastar is a part of this narrative.
Challenges pertain
A news report in an alternate media has quoted the Dantewada SP saying that DRGs have been given multiple perks including fast promotions to the ranks. A Police officer in a district of South Bastar region, who had joined as a DRG a few years back and has now risen to the rank as high as a Police Station Incharge.
Whereas the youths who were appointed as teacher volunteers, Shikshadoots, continue to toil under minimum salaries and uncertainty of their jobs. Shikshadoots have been teaching in sensitive villages under threats from both parties to the ongoing war. There are multiple instances where the shikshadoots have been detained and assaulted by the security forces in camps. They have been serving without any assurance of permanent jobs even after most of them have completed the minimum qualification needed to be a teacher. Though the district administrations in Sukma and Bijapur districts have written to the state ministry of education requesting to regularise the jobs of Shikshadoots, no response has been furnished yet.
Meanwhile, Maoists have been maiming and killing Shikshadoots under the suspicion of being police informers. Dudhi Arjun, a shikshadoot teaching in a re-opened school of the Jagargunda area in Sukma was killed by Maoists under the suspicion of being a police informer in September, 2024. A shikshadoot of Bijapur district under the condition of anonymity said that he has been threatened by Maoists and is currently staying away from his village, his school closed. Villagers in the Gangaloor area of Bijapur have alleged that Maoists have closed 2 re-opened schools in the area on August 15th.
In 2024, to date 10 children have been killed and 2 critically injured in crossfirings, IED, and mortar shells explosions by both parties in the war at South Bastar. A report in an alternate media reports that usage of child soldiers by Maoists is rampant. Many hardened Maoist cadres killed in encounters have been reported to be underage. The Police had allegedly reported their age to be ‘about 18’. Both parties have been maintaining silence on these issues of deaths of children and the usage of child soldiers only to occasionally allege each other using strong statements.
