Abhijeet Dipke announces nationwide campaign to improve govt schools

New Delhi: Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke on Monday, August 10, announced a nationwide campaign aimed at improving government schools in rural areas, urging parents to conduct social audits of basic facilities and sarpanches to take responsibility for upgrading schools in their villages.

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

In a video message, Dipke said he would launch the initiative from his village, Hingoli in Maharashtra, by approaching the sarpanch and requesting improvements to 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.

He questioned why the government could build a new Parliament and Prime Minister’s residence but had failed to provide new or improved schools in villages.

“Do we not consider the children of farmers and labourers the future of our country?” he asked.

Dipke highlighted the difficulties faced by rural students, saying many children still have to travel long distances to attend school and often find basic facilities such as drinking water and functional toilets unavailable. He particularly pointed to the challenges faced by girls.

He said Independence Day should be used as an opportunity to begin a fresh effort to improve government schools across the country.

As part of the initiative, the CJP has appealed to sarpanches to take up the responsibility of improving government schools in their respective villages.

Dipke said he would personally approach the village head in Hingoli and encouraged other sarpanches to follow suit.

The organisation has named the initiative the “Sarpanch Challenge”, under which it plans to publicly recognise village heads who improve their schools by sharing before-and-after photographs on its social media platforms and giving credit to the sarpanches involved.

Dipke said such recognition could encourage other village leaders to undertake similar improvements.

The CJP has also proposed a citizen-led social audit of government schools. Parents whose children attend government schools have been asked to visit the institutions and check whether basic facilities such as electricity, clean drinking water, functional washrooms and mid-day meals are available.

Dipke urged parents to record videos and document shortcomings if these facilities are missing.

The organisation said it would soon release a printable audit form allowing citizens to record facilities available at their children’s schools and those that are lacking.

The form will be made available through links shared with campaign videos on the CJP’s official social media accounts. Completed forms and video evidence can also be submitted to the organisation through email.

Dipke said the campaign seeks to ensure that children of farmers and wage workers studying in rural schools receive facilities comparable to those available to students in urban areas.

“If not, you make videos of it. Because your children’s schooling should be good. That is your fundamental right,” he 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,” Dipke added, ending his message with the slogan, “Real India lives in villages”.

The CJP initially emerged as an online satirical platform before expanding its activities to street-level campaigns.

Its 36-day protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi over alleged examination irregularities ended on July 25 following the resignation of then Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

Amid speculation about its future, the CJP held a two-day strategy meeting in Maharashtra’s Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar earlier this month, where it decided to continue as a youth movement rather than enter electoral politics.

The organisation has also announced a nationwide outreach campaign titled “Kya Bolti Public?”

Dipke had earlier appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to use his Independence Day address to speak to the country’s youth.