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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | From bombs, it’s back to books -Kumud Jenamani

From bombs, it’s back to books -Kumud Jenamani

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published Published on Apr 23, 2013   modified Modified on Apr 23, 2013
-The Telegraph


Jamshedpur: A school is a primary lesson in going away from fear and towards power, feel the CRPF.

Last year, the paramilitary force reopened a government-run primary school at Thalkobad at Saranda's Manoharpur block in West Singhbhum. Maoists had partially bombed the school in 2004, causing it to become one of the many Maoist-styled cradles in the area that drilled anti-democratic ideologies and taught practical lessons on bombs, guns and landmines.

Last year around December, CRPF battalion No. 197 decided the area was cleansed to an extent where the primary school is to return to its original avatar.

It engaged three teachers, including a woman, and started serving hot midday meals to 40-plus tribal children.

Commanding officer Nadeem said they were doing all they can. "We provide study materials to children too. They now seem to like school. The wider social outcome is that the community trusts us," he said.

CRPF personnel, being men of action, also haven't wasting time trying to make sense of contrary claims. Regulars say the lone government teacher Kandulona Prakash has not been seen "for a long while". District education department superintendent of education Veena Kumari claims Prakash teaches at the school "regularly".

But even Kumari admits the CRPF has done a lot.

"The paramilitary personnel helped ensure Thalkobad primary schoolchildren get educated by engaging villagers as teachers, though I can't say if the inductees are being paid salaries by the paramilitary forces," Veena told The Telegraph.

A senior police officer at West Singhbhum gave the real picture.

He said when the primary school building was blown up, it had stopped being a cradle of learning.

"A generation grew up without books and learnt about bombs. Only after CRPF started paying attention to the local problem last year that the primary school reopened," he said. "Over 40 children, between 10 and 13, are now not just getting educated on the three Rs, they are also being served one full meal everyday."

The senior police officer, not wishing to be named, said Maoists had held the area hostage for years.

"Who knows it better than us? The Maoists razed the forest guesthouse, panchayat and school buildings at Thalkobad. By 2007, Maoist rebels forced children of Thalkobad and other rebel-hit adjoining villages to attend their school of thought. It was an ideological warfare, which we busted," he said.

Kumari said the education department planed to set up number of residential cradles for tribal students at Manoharpur block with the help of an Odisha-based NGO.

Till that happens, it is only Thalkobad that's walking the talk.


The Telegraph, 23 April, 2013, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130423/jsp/frontpage/story_16816262.jsp#.UXaY0Urcing


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