Raipur: 'Is this all mine?' wondered 10-year-old Sustram Vellal, when handed a set of books and stationery. Without waiting for an answer, the boy from Duseli village in Narayanpur district of Chhattisgarh clutched the bundle and, placing it on his head, walked back home with a spring in his steps.
Sustram is among many such children who are the first generation in their families to ever attend a school. The sparkle in the little eyes of tribal children of Abujhmarh that comes on seeing textbooks, pencils and school bags for the first time is because of the 'School Keinta' ('School is Calling') campaign, focusing on enrolment drives.
For decades, the region had been the heartland of Maoist insurgency, where gunfire was the only sound that punctured the silence in abandoned classrooms. Now, the villages are echoing with giggles, morning prayers and the scratch of pencils on paper. The classrooms have started filling with the cackle of children and the ringing of school bells.
'Ten schools that had been defunct for years — victims of both inaccessibility and Maoist insurgency — have been reopened, bringing 250 children back into classrooms. Besides, 24 new primary schools have been established in habitations that had never seen formal education infrastructure. For nearly 500 children just enrolled, this is their first experience of schooling. Taken together, over 800 children have been brought into the fold — numbers which, in isolation, may seem modest, but in Abujhmarh's terrain, represent a structural breakthrough,' Narayanpur district collector Namrata Jain told TOI.
This would have been near impossible a few years ago, Jain said. 'Earlier, access itself was the biggest challenge — both for administration and for communities. With access to security and road connectivity, facilities are now reaching places it could not before,' the collector added.
A recent door-to-door survey across 22,364 households in 83 gram panchayats identified 2,965 out-of-school children. Of these, 1,360 had never been enrolled, while another 1,605 had dropped out as they had to walk at least 7-8 km to reach the nearest porta cabins or residential ashrams, which functioned as schools.
With the 'School Keinta' campaign, 'the silence of neglect is being replaced by the voices of children in classrooms', said chief minister Vishnu Deo Sai. 'As Maoist influence recedes, our priority is clear — to ensure that governance reaches every last village and education reaches every last child,' he stated.
Identifying every out-of-school child, strengthening anganwadis and ensuring community participation are key steps in this transformational effort. Forty-nine new anganwadi centres have been made operational to cater to over 1,200 children in the 0-6 age group, combining pre-school learning with nutrition. By integrating anganwadi centres with primary schools, the district is attempting to build a seamless 0-18 education continuum — ensuring children don't just enrol, but stay, officials said.
Local youths are being deployed as 'shikshadoots' (education ambassadors) — bridging cultural and linguistic gaps that often hinder formal education in tribal areas.
Yet, challenges remain. Seasonal isolation, teacher retention and sustaining attendance in deeply forested pockets will test the durability of these gains, going forward.
Change begins at 'shala' where Reds schooled kids
Among the schools reopened is 'Bhumkal Shala', once run by Maoists where left-wing extremist ideology was imparted to children. 'Bhumkal', in Chhatisgarhi, means uprising, the term referring to a significant 1910 tribal rebellion against the British Raj in Bastar. The school was abandoned by Maoists after crackdown intensified, and handed over to the villagers.
