New Delhi: After three days of tussle and a social audit of the government school in his village, CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke finally managed to get chairs and benches for the students.
Under the Cockroach Janta Party’s School Thik Karo campaign, launched on 15 August, Dipke has been urging citizens and parents to check the availability of basic facilities in schools across India.
Dipke, who travelled to Hingoli, his village in Maharashtra, took to social media on Tuesday to announce the success of the campaign.
“Kids in my village finally have benches in their school,” he wrote on social media. He uploaded photos of kids smiling as they get to sit comfortably on chairs.
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“For the first time”
On Independence Day, Dipke launched the campaign on social media in a video message. He added that he is heading to his village to see the condition of the schools. In the video, he urged citizens to do the same in the schools in their locality.
In a series of posts on social media, especially on Instagram, Dipke showed how his efforts change the lives of the students.
On his first few visits to the school, he sat with the kids on the lawn. With a pen and notebook, Dipke can be seen jotting down all the points.
In the following reel, he pointed out the issues—no drinking water, no benches, dirty washrooms, broken windows, and no water supply.
Dipke posted the reel three days ago with the caption, “After 80 years, is this really how far we’ve come?” The video has more than one million likes on Instagram.
Dipke, who, after the CJP protest, has been pushing parents and village leaders to address ‘neglect of rural educational infrastructure’.
Posts shared on social media were visual documentation of the condition of the school.
In one of the posts, Dipke also drew a comparison between himself and Mohan from the movie Swades (2004).
Tagging Shah Rukh Khan in the post, Dipke wrote, “There’s one part that has always stayed with me. Mohan (@iamsrk) goes to meet Haridas and sees how he is struggling even to feed his family. On his way back, sitting on the train, he sees a little boy selling water at the station instead of being in school. As Mohan quietly sheds a tear, I did too. Every single time.”
“Ever since, somewhere in my heart, I wished that someday I could do something for my own village, just like Mohan did for Charanpur,” he wrote.
Dipke posted photos of the primary school of Hingoli getting a makeover. The building was painted and provided all basic facilities.
“School Thik Karo campaign has already started showing results on the ground. The govt school that @abhijeetdipke visited on Independence Day in his hometown in Hingoli has already started seeing some repairs taking place,” the caption read on the video posted from the Cockroach Janta Party’s official page.
CJP in the post wrote that it will continue to create pressure on the administration. And urged people to share their audit of local schools with CJP.
In the latest post, Dipke wrote, “For the first time in my life, I’m seeing children from my village sitting on benches in their classrooms instead of on the floor”.
He shared this news on social media as one of the ‘happiest and most fulfilling moments of my life’.
“Small changes can mean everything.”
Dipke also shared other success stories from Hingoli. When a video of an alcoholic principal surfaced on the internet. Dipke shared videos of talking to authorities.
Following this, the principal was suspended.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)