One Killing Too Many In The Name Of Religious Diversity

I cannot fathom what made 25-year-old Sheikh Abdul Hafiz, a member of the Cockroach Janta Party, enter a government primary school in Karisunda to get a first-hand account of the basic amenities provided for students. Hafiz is a representative of the ‘School Thik Karo’ campaign, which was launched by CPJ convenor Abijeet Dipke from his own native village in the Hingoli district of Maharashtra on August 15.

Dipke made it a point to visit a zila parishad school in Santuk Pimpri village, which, he found, lacked basic amenities, such as water supply in toilets, proper windows, and enough benches for students. He further announced CPJ members would prepare a checklist for government schools across the country and make it public. He also questioned the growing disparity between facilities available in private schools and government schools and felt a proper audit was needed as to where the government money in the educational sector was being spent.

Fair enough. But for Hafiz to go alone to his own primary school in Karisunda, where he had studied, to prepare a checklist of what amenities the school was providing was foolhardy, to say the least. West Bengal has a history of political violence spanning decades across successive governments, and the present Chief Minister, Suvendu Adhikari, is an offspring of the same culture.

Attack On Hafiz’s Family

Hours after his visit, his family was attacked in their home, and his father, Sheikh Mohammad Mafik, died of injuries on August 15. The police have arrested eight people, including a BJP leader. Mafik’s killing has sent shock waves around the country. What could be more heinous than killing an innocent man simply because his son wanted to check on infrastructure gaps in schools? The fact that he belonged to a minority community is a reflection of his vulnerability.

It is no secret that our government schools are in a dismal state. Not that a large number of our private schools are any better. Niti Aayog recently released a report highlighting how around 94,000 government schools have been closed in the past decade. This works out to an average of 25 schools a day, contributing to a 2.26 crore decline in government school enrolment. Shockingly, the government schools’ share of total enrolment has fallen from 71% in 2005 to 49.24% in 2024-25. All these closures are taking place under the guise of rationalisation.

India’s Education Crisis

The picture is bleak. Thousands of public schools lack reliable electricity, clean drinking water, and functional toilets alongside single-teacher staffing and broken classrooms. Over 1.19 lakh schools lack power connections or functional electricity, while nearly one lakh schools operate without proper girls’ toilets. A common practice amongst government school teachers in our villages is to have a proxy teacher, often a young, untrained college student who is paid a pittance, while they pocket the rest of their sizeable remuneration.

The worst-performing states in this field include J&K, West Bengal, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttarakhand, and Chhattisgarh. Eighty years is not a short time to make it possible for all children to receive a decent education till Class 10. In that respect, India has failed dramatically. Some states have fared better than others, for example, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Himachal Pradesh, where the value of elementary education was recognised early on. They are now reaping the benefits of their investment in this crucial field. They are way ahead in their social indicators in terms of health and other social welfare programmes.

Several activists have also got together and prepared reports on just how dismal the state of education is. One survey was a joint effort of nearly 100 volunteers across the country, with the report being prepared by the coordination team comprising Nirali Bakhla, Jean Drèze, Reetika Khera, and Vipul Paikra. The findings are heart-rending and highlight how millions of kids are at risk of being permanently left out of formal learning.

Learning Gaps Among Children

Speaking on this subject, Drèze highlighted how only 25 per cent of kids in Grade 3 were able to read only a few words. This is way below the findings that came up in earlier surveys. The indicators are even worse for Dalit and Adivasi children and those belonging to underprivileged communities.

I am writing this piece from the village of Communigy, located close to Geneva, where my own granddaughter attends a free public school, as do 99 per cent of the children in this country. In contrast to India, the state of private schools is pathetic in Switzerland, and parents who make the mistake of putting their kids there, as did my daughter, soon opt out to join the public school system. Two things that the Swiss have worked hard for are, first, providing a solid educational framework for their kids; and, second, ensuring no individual or business group is allowed to destroy their environment.

A Call For Better Schools

We have failed on both counts. Instead of encouraging an initiative to improve the state of our schools, BJP leaders in Bengal seem to have opted for the contrary. In the case of Hafiz, the government offered compensation to his family for the death of their sole earning member, but he turned it down, asking that a better way to remember his father would be to have a school named after him.

In an interview published on a media website, Hafiz stated that his overall aim was to ensure the boys and girls of his village received a good education. “For a lot of children, a government school is the only option. So, I think it is perfectly natural to ask what is happening inside that school. Are the teachers present? What is the standard of teaching? Is public money being spent properly?

“That is how I ended up in movements around education and how I ended up at Jantar Mantar. Thousands of young people had gathered there demanding better education. After seeing that, I understood that sitting at home and criticising is not enough. You have to go out, identify the problem, and then demand a solution.”

Hafiz went on to state words that should bring a sense of remorse in all anti-Muslim baiters: “I have always believed the country comes before the individual. For as long as I live, I want to work for this country and its people. If education falls behind, the future cannot be secured. So instead of personal compensation, I want a whole generation’s future to be built.”

For anti-Muslim bigots, his words should bring a deep sense of shame. A young man who has just seen his father being brutally attacked and who himself was a victim of a physical attack continues to have so much faith in the country and its people. Despite his obvious poverty, Hafiz is ready to make all manner of personal sacrifice in order to improve the conditions of our schools so that poor children receive the only chance they have to improve their lot.

Rashme Sehgal is an author and an independent journalist.

Published on: Friday, August 21, 2026, 09:16 PM IST