Hyderabad: Since the formation of Telangana in 2014, as high as 26 schoolchildren have died in government-run tribal residential schools.
Minister of state in the ministry of tribal affairs Mansukhbhai Dhanjibhai Vasava presented this figure in Parliament recently in a reply to a question by four Members of Parliament. The reasons given for such deaths were casually mentioned as “illness, accident, snake bite, drowning etc”.
Officials from the Telangana state tribal welfare department remained completely oblivious of the statistics. When asked about the minister’s reply in the Lok Sabha, some even denied the possibility of such a large number of children dying in residential schools, and they could give no break-up of the deaths nor the reasons for them.
Former students had plenty of testimony to provide. Mr Mohan Dharavath, a tribal student leader from Hyderabad who recently finished his PhD from the English and Foreign Languages University said, “Students in tribal residential schools suffering from illness, and even dying from it, is not surprising as there are no medical experts there. The warden turns doctor and usually gives the sick child a paracetamol to pop. The dal and curries are watery and lack nutrition; eggs are rarely served. There is no clean drinking water available and many students are crammed into a single room in the hostels.”
Mr Bhaskar Naik, a Telangana Rashtra Samithi Vidyarthi Vibhagam tribal student leader from Warangal, said, “It was only 10 days ago that a 15- year-old student at a tribal residential school in Khammam died due to scorpion bite. It didn't shock any of us nor the government authorities. We do protest; and sometimes, the person responsible for such an incident is suspended and reinstated later. The situation in tribal residential schools is pathetic. Most of them have dilapidated buildings; dogs and pigs get into the premises, attracted by the accumulated filth; and the caretakers are never accessible to students. Tribal students are an ignored lot.”
