Save Bandhyali School

Update : Demolition Averted on 26th November

2006-12-01T07:29:00.000-08:00

From: Navneet at Digantar
Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2006 3:10 AM
Subject: Update on Bandhyali

Dear Friends,

As you all know that JDA planned to knock down the school on Sunday morning, 26^th November 2006. But after a long campaign and meeting people we managed to save the School for to days. We met District Magistrate, Joint Development Commissioner, Ex-Chief Minister Sri Ashok Gahlot, and JDA Commissioner but they expressed their powerlessness. We tried to Contact Ms. Sumitra Singh Ji, Speaker of Rajasthan Vidhansabha and she responded positively and managed to stop the demolition. The District Magistrate new the case and he was also aware about the facts regarding the discriminatory rates of the land. He also told us that the case has been sent to the government for reconsideration.

At 6:30 in the morning on Sunday, students of the school, members of the community, several representatives of various organizations, individuals and media persons gathered there at school on our alarm. All of us were there to protest peacefully against the JDA’s action but when we came to know that JDA has postponed his action, people gathered there organized a meeting. Finally it was decided to have a demonstration in the city under the banner of Bandhyali Bachao Samiti. We will inform you regarding the date and all later.

On 27^th November, our case was to be heard in the High Court. But we didn’t get opportunity to be heard. Now the next date is 30^th November. We hope to get relief from there.

Navneet Bedar
Digantar,
Todi Ramjani pura,
JAgatpura,Jaipur
0141-2750230,2750310 Fax- 01412751268 (Office)

Update: End of Status Quo

2006-11-25T08:49:00.000-08:00

School can be demolished any time now!!!

From: navneet at digantar.org [mailto:navneet@digantar.org]
Subject: Urgent: update on bandhyali 25th Nov

Dear Friends,

We have already shared with you the exorbitant price for the land that JDA is demanding from us that is Rs. 78, 24, 650/- per Bigha. We wrote a letter to JDA commissioner requesting reconsideration of rates in the light of the court order dated 03/05/06, which is totally ignored. We also sent them a legal notice for the same. JDA didn’t respond to it as well.

We filed two petitions in the high court, one for contempt, as the court order dated 03/05/06 is not implemented in its spirit, and other for discrimination against Bandhyali School as the price demanded from Digantar is 39 times of what is being charged from Mahima Shiksha Samiti. But the Judge is on leave and no hearing of the petitions could be held till date. The next date for hearing is 27^th Nov.

21^st was the last day of the status quo granted by the court. Which means the JDA can physically remove the school any time. It is quite possible that they may come to demolish school today or tomorrow (on Sunday). Our petition is coming for hearing on Monday (27^th Nov.) and we hope to get the status quo extended. We tried to meet the JDA commissioner but were unable to do so. We are also trying to propagate the case among media persons and planning to distribute pamphlets among the public. School teachers and the community are on alert and hope that JDA will not do anything rash, and if it does, we will certainly be peaceful and keep the children out of action; but will unlikely to allow physical removal of the school. We hope that you all will be present there for protest and support us. We will keep informing you about the status.

Right now we got the information that they may come tomorrow morning for forced eviction and demolition of the school.

With regards

Navneet, Vishwambhar

Navneet Bedar
Digantar,
Todi Ramjani pura,
JAgatpura,Jaipur
0141-2750230,2750310 Fax- 01412751268 (Office)

Press Note from Digantar

2006-11-03T13:23:00.000-08:00

Press Note

‘Universalization of Elementary Education’ is today an important aim which the nation is aspiring to achieve through various projects and schemes such as Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. These efforts assume significance in the context of Rajasthan as it is one of the most educationally backward state of the country where the situation of girl child’s education is grim. The Rajasthan Government is claiming that it is making special efforts for the education of the deprived, however, the actions of its departments particularly the JDA are otherwise. Apparently, there seems to be a dichotomy in the character of the state government, one part claims to be a Messiah of the downtrodden and the other part which is ready to crush the efforts being made elsewhere for the education of the deprived.

The Bandhyali School known nationally for its innovative curriculum and pedagogy which Digantar is running was established in 1992 with financial support from the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India which continued until 2003. The school was shifted to the present land in 1993 that was decided upon by the village communities of Kho Nagoriyan and Bhavgarh Bandhya. There are 325 children in this free school, more than 200 of them being girls. All of the children are from educationally and socioeconomically disadvantaged sections of society. Digantar had repeatedly applied to the JDA to allot the part of this land to the school from February 1993 to June 2003.

In June 2005 on receiving a half formed proposal from Mahima Shiksha Samiti for establishing a private university, the JDA promptly reserved the land for it, on which the Bandhyali School was running, even before the issue of letter of intent from the government for this proposed university. So, we petitioned to the High Court. Soon after, JDA sent a notice to Digantar asking to vacate the land without mentioning any reasons. Digantar obtained stay order from High Court and continued to run the school there.

JDA’s favouritism towards Mahima Shiksha Samiti for establishing private university and violation of public norms and constitutional values was criticized nationwide. Like-minded citizens joined hands to protest this move to demolish what is in fact a model in accessible education. People expressed their protest against this unethical and discriminatory favouritism of the state through online petitions, letters to Governor, CM, Vidhan Sabha Speaker, writing articles in the newspapers, holding public meetings. However, the government and the JDA remained oblivious to all these pleadings. Fortunately the Bandhyali School was saved by the Hon’ble High Court.

In its judgement on 3^rd May 2006, vide PIL 2502/2006 the Hon’ble High Court of Rajasthan ruled that:

1. Digantar should give an application to the JDA within one week and should also attach all the previous applications and documents.

2. The JDA should allot alternative land to Digantar within 2 weeks of receipt of this application.

3. The JDA should allot this land to Digantar free of cost or at nominal rates.

4. The court also suggested two sites where land could be allotted to Digantar.

The Hon’ble Court gave these orders, recognizing the fact that Digantar is a non profit voluntary organization which is working for the betterment of society.

However, after 20 weeks of this order (As against the Hon’ble High Court’s order of 2 weeks) the JDA sent a letter to Digantar for allotment of land at a rate of Rs. 78,24,650/- per Bhigha (Rs. 2760/- per sq. yards). The very same JDA also sent a letter to Mahima Shiksha Samiti for allotment of land for setting up private university at a rate of Rs. 2,13,783/- per Bhigha (Rs. 70/- per sq. yards) which is about 37 times lesser than the rates being asked from Digantar.

Insertion of Article 21A through 86th Constitutional Amendment has made free education for all children in 6-14 age group a Fundamental Right. The State or any of its agencies is under obligation to ensure that this Fundamental Right is not superseded by any of its decisions or steps in favour of a cause that is not covered by any of the Fundamental Rights. The decision of JDA, therefore, to give greater priority to “Mahima Shiksha Samiti” for setting up a private university than to Digantar for providing free elementary education through Bandhyali School amounts to a major violation of the Constitution, as it constitutes denial of Fundamental Right to education. JDA’s action is further aimed at promoting education as a commodity to be traded in the market, rather than supporting Digantar that has been acting since 1992 to develop education as a means of egalitarian social development in consonance with the Preamble to the Constitution and in fulfillment of Fundamental Right under Article 21A. Moreover the actions of the JDA are violative of the directives and the spirit of the ruling given by the Hon’ble High Court of Rajasthan.

The vacuous and moribund actions of the instrument of the Rajasthan State Government clearly indicate that the Rajasthan State Government fails to recognize the Fundamental Right to education. The Constitutional obligation of the state government of assigning priority to the Fundamental Right to free education for the children in the 6-14 age group stands blatantly neglected. Digantar and the Bandhyali School cannot afford to buy land from JDA at these rates and neither have the resources to pay an annual property tax of Rs. 30 lakhs. Digantar has no other option but to again seek the recourse of law.

Digantar solicits an active support of all the concerned citizens, organizations and media in this fight against injustice.

Final Court Hearing

2006-10-16T19:38:00.000-07:00

Here is an update about the final court hearing and the final court order on May 3rd, 2006 about the land for Bandhyali School.

A compromise was reached in the last hearing. The main points are:

1. Digantar has agreed to take up the option of flat land that is approximately 15, 000 sq. metres, about a kilometre away from their current location but in the centre of two villages - Khatipura and Bhavgarh Bandhaya. This is equal to the area asked for in their initial application for allotment.

2. Digantar has to submit a new application for allotment of this new land attaching the old application with it, within a week.

3. The JDA will allot the land within 15 days. It will consider allotting the land on concessional rates, as much as is possible as per rules.

4. Digantar will have to move within six weeks of allotment.

Update: Court hearings

2006-03-22T11:37:00.000-08:00

Email from Jyotsana
=======
Dear all

As you all know we are fighting three cases simultaneously.

1. Our petition in the High Court was rejected on March 7 and we were asked to appeal in the JDA tribunal. We had a hearing in the JDA tribunal today. We have asked for a stay order on the removal of Bandhyali School. We will get to know the decision of the Tribunal on March 24, 2006 i.e. whether we have received a stay order or not.

2. The hearing of the criminal case on Secretary, Digantar in the Court of the Judicial Magistrate is up for hearing on March 25, 2006.

3. Our petition for the contempt of court case was dismissed by single bench of the High Court. We have applealed against the decison in the Divisional Bench of the High Court.

We will keep you informed of further developments.

Best

Jyotsna

Cry, my beloved school

2006-01-15T11:44:00.000-08:00

A wide-cross section of academicians and civil society organisations have come together to express dissent at the threat of closure of a well known rural school in Bandhyali, Rajasthan. They are demanding that the government honour its own commitments to provide free, good education to all children, reports Deepti Priya Mehrotra.
http://www.indiatogether.com/2006/jan/edu-bandhyali.htm

Protest Demonstration at Rajasthan House on Jan 3rd

2005-12-20T09:46:00.000-08:00

A meeting of educationists, students , teachers and social activists was held at ANHAD on 20 December, 2005 to oppose the move of thew JDA to demolish BANDHIYALI SCHOOL. It was decided that a protest demonstration would be held at the Rajasthan House on 3 January , 2005 at 12 pm .It was also decided that a protest demonstration would be held in the first week of January , 2006 in Jaipur. Exact date and venue would be finalised in consultation with Jaipur friends.

It was also noted that the Jaipur High Court has fixed 9 january, 2006 as the next date of hearing of the petition filed by Digantar against the JDA move. Stay has been extended till 9 January.

NAFRE has taken the responsibility to mobilise political support and network related efforts.

You are requested to mobilise support for thse two actions.

In Solidarity,

Amar Negi( DIET),Amitabh Pandey(SPACE),Anshu Sinha( DIET),
Apoorvanand( D.U.), Archana Dwivedi (NIRANTAR),Archana(DIET)
,Asha Jonia( DIET), Asif( SRUTI), Babita Malhan(DIET), Deepika (LSR),Fr. George Kollashany( AMAN BIRADARI , YAR),Ishtiyaque( SRUTI),Jamal Kidwai(AMAN), Jatin Singh( DIET), Kamljeet Kaur(DIET),Khemanand( DIET),Mainak sarkar(NAFRE),Manasi Sharma(ANHAD),Manish Gupta( DIET),Mritunjay(JNU),Mukul Priyadarshini(LSR), Priya Dhawan(LSR), Purushottam Agrawal(JNU) Rajesh Chandra( AMAN BIRADARI),Ranjit Abhigyan, Sadashiv ( Dayal Singh College), Shailnder Singh( NAFRE),Sarita( DIET) Satyam Singh( Aman Biradari), Seema (DIET), Sonika Kaushik(JESUS AND MARY COLLEGE), Sudha Malik(LSR), Sunil Rathi( DIET),Veenu Raghav( DIET)

Bandhyali School Hearing - Next Hearing on Jan 9

2005-12-20T09:40:00.000-08:00

The next date for the court hearing is on Jan 9th. The case was not heard on Dec 19th.

Appeal to Join Protest for Bandhyali School

2005-12-17T17:34:00.000-08:00

This is a request to join protest at ANHAD ..

Dear friends,

This is an SOS on behalf of the 300 children of Rajasthan living near Jaipur belonging to extremely poor families of Muslim, Mali and Gujar communities, who would be losing their Constitutional Right to Education if The Jaipur Development Authority(JDA) is allowed to demolish their 13 year old upper primary school called BANDHIYALI SCHOOL to make way for a commercial and profit making educational shop called MAHIMA SHIKSHA SAMITI.

In 1993 villagers from Kho Nagoria and Bandhiyal identified a piece of community land on which they built up this school with the help of DIGANTAR , a Jaipur based organization , well known for its innovations in Educational philosophy and class room practices . Monetary support came from the MHRD, Government of India.

The JDA has issued a notice to Digantar asking it to vacate the 3 Bigha land on which Bandhiyali School stands as i t was secured by it for MAHIMA Shiksha Samiti. Fortunately for the children of the school , Rajasthan High Court has stayed the eviction order till 19 December. But it is important that all of us who believe in free primary education as an unalienable right of every child need to speak up loudly for Bandhiyali School as an institution which provide free education , including books and stationarynto the children of extremely poor background cannot be sacrificed in favour of a profit making enterprise. BANDHIYALI has also emerged as a model for all education students and pedagogues who are for a participatory approach towards education and who are striving to promote education practices based on group learning and cooperation through which children and teachers create delightful knowledge. Teacher educators have also been using BANDHIYALI as their laboratory all these years.

We are holding a protest meet on 20 December, 2005( TUESDAY)at 4.30pm at ANHAD premises( 4, Windsor Place, Ashoka Road, Opp. Hotel SHANGRILA) . This is to request you to join this protest and circulate this notice widely to mobilize wider support for the BANDHIYALI SCHOOL.

Kindly confirm your participation,
Anil Chaudhary
Apoorvanand
Dipta Bhog
Mukul Priyadarshini
Purushottam Agrawal
Shalini Advani
ON Behalf of EDUCATION DISCUSSION \nGROUP

Media Coverage

2005-12-16T13:16:00.000-08:00

These are links to media coverage we know of till now:
NDTV
Hindustan Times

Digantar's Legal Stand

2005-12-16T10:05:00.000-08:00

A new fact sheet explaing Digntar's legal stand and other background + a copy of PIL are uploaded.
Fact Sheet
Public Interesest Litigation

Some Excerpts from the fact sheet explaining the legal stand & other questions/clarifications:

The Fundamental Right to free education

Fundamental Right to “free and compulsory education” is granted to every child in the age group of 6-14 years under Article 21A, as a consequence of ‘The Constitution (Eighty-Sixth Amendment) Act, 2002’. Closure or dislocation of the school will lead to disruption of education of 325 children, and an end to education of more than 200, majority of whom shall be girls. In addition it would mean a lost opportunity to many future students.

“Neither the state government nor any of its agencies/ authorities can be allowed to supersede a claim under the Fundamental Right to education in favour of a claim that is not covered by any of the Fundamental Rights. A cause like allotment of land for a private university, as per JDA’s decision, is not covered by any of the Fundamental Rights since it is meant to provide commercialized education to students over 18 years of age and who will be”. (From Prof. Sadgopal’s letter)

Therefore, closure of a school in this case would be violation of the constitution of India.

Discrimination against Digantar

Even if JDA claims that all earlier applications were on plain paper and no application fee was paid for them the application of April 8, 2003 cannot be ignored, it was ‘complete’ in every respect.

This application mentions willingness to pay for the land at concessional rates that the government itself decides for the allotment of land to schools.

The school is free and all books and stationary is provided for free.

On what grounds then dose JDA allots land to a later applicant? Are such decisions based on the sweet will of the official of the day? Can they be arbitrary? Should not Digantar expect a fair treatment in this case?

I am informed there are Supreme Court judgments that imply ‘legitimate expectation to be heard’ for the applicant that applies first. And their application has to be judged on merit.

In addition Digantar will use the land for public benefit and not for private profit, that constitutes additional merit.

Is there a redressal in the law for this kind of deliberate discrimination?

The moral aspect of calling Digantar an encroacher

Partly dealt in the point above.

Encroachment in ordinary language means “entry to another's property without right or permission”

Digantar started the school with the active recommendation of the community, and sent an application to the legal authority that was responsible for the land one month or so before the building was started. No response came.

That does not give Digantar entitlement to the land, but it absolves Digantar of any land-grabbing intentions. Digantar has been informing through applications to legitimate authority about running of the school. They never asked to vacate.

Also there is a board next to the school that states that the land does not belong to Digantar, it belongs to the government. The board was put up by Digantar itself.

The legitimate authority dealing with land allotment (JDA) did not do what was expected of it (consider the application, accept or reject it) and by sear inaction made Digantar into an encroacher. This is injustice by inaction.

Legal aspect of possession of the land:

Even if JDA does not accept our arguments and intentions as expressed in two points above then they have to accept that school is running there for more than 12 years, there is plenty of documentary evidence.

A possession that old can be removed only by due process of law: that is the JDA should go to the civil court and get a decree from there. They cannot directly demolish the school.

I am informed that there is a JDA regulation to regularise all land that is occupied before 1994, there are more than a lakh of such cases in Jaipur. Then why not regularise Digantar. Discrimination again.

What do we want?

Our primary concern is running of the school. The school needs to be taken to the level of Senior Higher Secondary, to serve the cause of girls’ education properly.

We want to start an institution of education (for research in pedagogy and teacher education) that takes the pedagogical work being done further academically. Such institution can start with our best and biggest school only. But that would require more land (total about 7 acres) than what we have applied for, and that possibility is remote now.

The school would be free, and all ventures of Digantar are non-profit activities.

If the government gives this land to us on lease for a long period, for this specific purpose, it would be our first priority. We are not interested in ownership or making profit out of it.

Alternatively the government can allot the land with condition that we cannot sell it, cannot use for any commercial activity, and that the school shall be free.

If even that is not possible (but why?), then we are willing to buy the land at a price that is charged from free schools. We have already said that in our applications and written statements to JDA.

Answers to some other questions that were raised:

What are the options for students? Other Schools etc?

If we do not get the land we have to close down the school. Buying land in that area at the regular price is beyond Digantar at this moment, unless help is available.

Primary schools from two for the Dhanis are about one and a half km, and upper primary is more than two kms. If all 325 children of bandhyali land up in those schools they will not be able to accommodate them.

In any case most of the upper primary girls (about 160) will simply stop going to school. That was the precise purpose of starting upper primary section in the school. AND THAT IS THE REASON WE ARE VERY VERY RELUCTANT TO MOVE THE SCHOOL. THIS PROBLEM MAY BE SOLVED IN ANOTHER 7-10 YEARS BUT AT PRESENT GIRLS ARE UNLIKELY TO GO TO ANY OTHER UPPER PRIMARY SCHOOL.

Why did Digantar start school at this place?

The problem is that 13 years back it was not valuable property. The village community decided that this is a central place for all hamlets and so the school was started there. We informed the government before starting and requested reserving it for school, not for Digantar. The school kept on running for 12 years, mean while we tried to get them to say something on the land several times and they kept mum.

All this is from email/documents sent by Rohit - Digantar Co-ordinator.

Update for Dec 13 Court Hearing

2005-12-13T13:40:00.000-08:00

-----Original Message-----
From: Rohit Dhankar [mailto:rdhankar]
Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2005 8:11 AM

Dear Anita,
The court have given 19th December as the next date for hearing, because the state of Rajasthan did not respond so far. We have to keep the mobilisation on till the state files its response.

Professor Yash Pal and Prof. Ramakant Agnihotri have written to the Governor and the CM. Even Prof. Yash Pal's fax failed! he has sent it by post finally. I am attaching the text of both letters. Prof. Anil Sadgopal has given a public statement and faxed it to the governor. I do not have the electronic text of this one so can not email, but may be shall do so by tomorrow.

We feel very encouraged by Asha For Education's support and ...
Regards
Rohit

Update of Community Meeting

2005-12-13T12:24:00.000-08:00

-----Original Message-----
From: Rohit Dhankar [mailto:rdhankar]
Sent: Monday, December 12, 2005 2:08 PM

Friends, yesterday’s meeting (its already 12:30 am) was very good. The community’s support was clear through their number and what they said on as well as off the mike. Large number of NGO representative were there and what they said in support of the school in particular and Digantar in general was very heartening.

The meeting was chaired by Mr. Anil Bordia. The key issues that were emphasized were: (1) children’s fundamental right to education should not be allowed to be violated by the JDA, (2) a school for the poor should not be destroyed to facilitate a private university and (3) a voluntary organization doing good work should not be discriminated against.

There was good presence of the media, how well it will be coved will be known only in the morning. JDA commissioner sent two senior JDA officials who were there for the whole meeting. They seem to suggest that the JDA will not disrupt running of the school. Had to admit that the school is doing good work and that the government since encourages girls education it will support the school with majority of girl students. But they said nothing concrete.
A memorandum is prepared for the governor and chief minister, hope fully shall be able to give tomorrow, it had already been faxed.

The court hearing is tomorrow and I shall try to apprise you on the out come by tomorrow evening.
Regards
Rohit

Petition to save Bandhyali school

2005-12-13T10:38:00.000-08:00

Petition is at: http://new.PetitionOnline.com/Digantar/petition.html

E-mail from Rohit:

From: Rohit Dhankar [rdhankar@...]
Sent: Friday, December 09, 2005 9:06 AM

Dear Friend,

I am writing this letter in a crisis to enlist your support for Digantar. Perhaps you are aware that we re running four schools in outskirts of Jaipur. These schools were originally started under an MHRD project funded through its scheme for Support to Innovative and Experimental Programmes. Bandhali School, the name comes from the largest hamlet close to the school, is the largest and oldest of existing Digantar schools. It was started in 1992, moved to the present place in 1993 July and at present has a strength of 225 children, more than two hundred of them girls. The school is equivalent to an upper primary school.

On 2nd December 2005, Jaipur Development Authority (JDA) gave a notice to Digantar to remove the school and vacate the land within three days. Fortunately the High Court has ordered to maintain status quo till JDA files its response. To our mind JDA’s insistance on removal of the school would be:

1. a violent disruption of children’s right to education,
2. blatant discrimination against Digantar, and
3. destruction of a very good quality school for the marginalized to favour privatisation of education.

A short document explaining our position is attached. I request you to please read it. If you think we are wrong in out thinking, and our insistence on continuing the school is improper in any sense (ethical and/or legal) please let me know, we will definitely reconsider our position. But if you agree with me that we are on the right course, both ethically and legally, please help us save this school. We are organising a public meeting on 12th December 2005 at Bandhyali school itself. If you could participate in that it would be really very helpful. But even if you cannot participate, please write to the Governor, Chief Minister and Education Minister of Rajasthan as early as possible. If possible please encourage others to write to the above mentioned. Their fax numbers are given in the attached appeal titled Save Bandhyali School.

With best regards

Rohit