Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke on Sunday, September 6, raised the issue of tribal students’ safety in Maharashtra’s residential schools, alleging that more than 590 tribal students had lost their lives in the state’s ashram schools over a two-year period and the state government was not taking the issue seriously.
In a social media post, Dipke said the compensation the state government extends to the grieving family of each dead student was a mere ₹2 lakh, which he said was disproportionately small when measured against the scale of the tragedy. The compensation, he said, was “probably less than what some politicians spend on their pets in a year”.
“Is this what an Adivasi student’s life is worth to the state?” asked Dipke, speaking on the issue three days after he had met tribal students in Nashik who have been on a hunger strike for 12 days. “The vast disparity in the facilities, food, and education they receive is completely unacceptable. This led to death of 590 tribal students within two years. I urged them to call off the strike for their health, but they must keep fighting until their demands are met. If necessary, we will march to Mumbai together,” Dipke had said on September 3 after his visit to Nashik.
Tribal students protesting in Pune, Nagpur and Nashik are demanding the recruitment of Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates in government jobs and improvements in the condition of residential schools for tribal children. The protests began after three tribal girls died allegedly due to snakebites at a residential school in Gadchiroli district. The protesters also demand insurance coverage of Rs 10 crore for every student studying in tribal residential schools and living in tribal hostels.
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Dipke extended his critique beyond Maharashtra’s borders, pointing out that similar patterns of institutional failure persist in Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha. In his view, tribal students across these regions continue to face conditions that no child should be subjected to.
“Things are no different in Jharkhand, MP, Chhattisgarh and Odisha. Adivasi students cannot be made to eat stale food cooked at midnight and served the next afternoon. They cannot be made to sleep on floors because the authorities failed to provide beds. These students deserve dignity, proper care and quality educational infrastructure. These are basic rights, not privileges,” wrote Dipke in a subsequent X post on September 6.
“In Madhya Pradesh’s Balaghat, 30 Adivasi (tribal) children have reportedly lost their lives to various illnesses. Local tribal communities believe that bauxite mining in the area may be affecting the health of their children. I was also told that hospitals were reluctant to conduct proper post-mortems to determine the actual cause of these deaths. Thirty children have died. Their families deserve to know why,” Dipke added.
Public discontent has been rising in Maharashtra over how the state government has handled the safety of tribal students in the residential schools. Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, had met a delegation of the protesting tribal students during his visit to Nashik a day before Dipke’s.
Gandhi expressed support to the tribal students’ cause and wrote on X: “Every student has the right to a respectful, safe and conducive environment for their studies. Students from marginalised communities should not face neglect from the system; they need its support and every possible assistance. Education is not a privilege—it is the right of every student in India.”
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Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Aditya Thackeray visited the protesting tribal students a day before. “Visited Nashik today to meet the 3 young students from Adivasi samaj who are fasting unto death with their basic demands. The demands aren’t big, very basic, but the BJP regime is ignoring them. I asked those fasting, to not fast, instead to build strength and protest on a large scale! We, @ShivSenaUBT_ fully support them and will stand by them till their demands are met!” wrote Thackeray in an X post on September 2.
