Girl student protests may snowball into bigger challenge for state govt

Geetanjali Gayatri

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 23

Already battling mindsets in the patriarchal Haryana, girls across the state are now in a war of a different kind. What began as a desperate attempt to be heard has virtually turned into a revolt against the system that denies them the chance for higher education.

Girls of Government High School at Gothda Tappa Dahina village in Rewari set the ball rolling on May 10 with a demand that their school be upgraded to Class XII. The government, taken aback by the first-of-its-kind protest for upgrade, finally gave in to the demand of the girls.

Since then, locking of school gates and dharnas have spread like wildfire, with at least five more schools embracing such tactics. Girls are leading the charge, forcing the government to sit up and take note of their demands.

If girl students of a government school in Panipat’s Nangal Kheri locked the school gates to push for the upgrade of their school since their demand had been gathering dust for six years, the girls of the government school in Rewari’s Rajgarh want their school upgraded to senior secondary.

Girls at a school in Bhiwani’s Bidola locked the gates, while students at Gurugram’s Kadarpur and Jind’s Rohar also followed the suit. Girls of Jaffarpur in Ambala also locked the gates to protest against teachers’ vacancies.

Girl students, backed by their parents and forced to fight for education in a state from where Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao” programme, does not sit well for the Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP government.

Even as this fight threatens to snowball into a bigger challenge, especially since a number of MLAs keep putting in requests for upgrade of schools, Parminder Dhull, INLD MLA, today submitted yet another request for the upgrade of four schools in his constituency, Jullana, after no action was taken on previous applications.

The School Education Department, with its hands tied by the rules that govern the upgrade and the limited availability of teachers, has upgraded 44 schools in the last one year.

According to information provided by the department, 10 schools middle and 34 high schools have been upgraded, while two new schools have been opened.

Out of 408 cases to upgrade, 332 cases were not even considered while only 12 out of 187 CM announcements were found feasible. “We have norms governing the upgrade of schools, though these have been relaxed for difficult areas like Mewat and Morni. The department processes requests on the basis of the rules,” said PK Das, Additional Chief Secretary, School Education.

Though there is a feeling that the growing protests by the students are “instigated” and may have been triggered by political interests, the government is hoping the summer vacation beginning on June 1 will quell such demonstrations.