C. Vanmathi was attacked during a protest against a govt move to transfer money for meals to student accounts instead of giving them food in hostel.
New Delhi: C. Vanmathi, a young IAS officer posted in Maharashtra’s tribal dominated Nandurbar district, was allegedly attacked by students who were protesting against the implementation of the direct benefit transfer scheme in the tribal education sector, Monday.
The tribal students, who were protesting against a government move to transfer money for meals directly to students’ accounts instead of providing them with food at the hostel, also pelted stones at her car. However, she escaped unhurt.
Vanmathi (2015 IAS batch), currently serving as an assistant collector and project officer of the Integrated Tribal Development Project (ITDP) at Nandurbar, is one of the most celebrated officers of her batch, having worked her way up from once herding her family’s cattle in the Erode district of Tamil Nadu.
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“The car driver being an eyewitness to the incident has registered a police complaint. The police have started their investigation,” Dilip Jagdale, additional collector at Nandurbar, told ThePrint.
“Nandurbar being a small district, we have interacted with these students a number of times and they have always been very cordial. I don’t know why the situation went out of control on Monday,” Jagdale said.
Tribals account for 69.3 per cent of Nandurbar’s population, according to the 2011 census.
While Vanmathi did not suffer any injury, her driver, 35-year-old Yogesh Patil, suffered minor injuries, Jagdale said.
Vanmathi had resumed work after a maternity leave three months ago, the official added.
Condemning the incident, the IAS Association tweeted, “Highly condemnable incident of mob attacking of Vanmathi C, IAS, SDM, Nandurbar, Maharashtra. Strict action should be taken against the culprits. Government to should take firm steps to protect it’s officers on field working in challenging circumstances.” (sic)
Protesters climbed on officer’s car, broke windows
According to the police complaint, accessed by ThePrint, around 100 tribal students, including girls, were protesting outside the local ITDP office at Nandurbar around 1 pm. Vanmathi left her office for the district collectorate around 2 pm when the protesters ran towards her car, obstructing it, while some students climbed on her car, kicked the windows and windshield, pelted stones and smashed the glass.
While Vanmathi did not comment, officials close to her said she had interacted with the students patiently over their objections to the DTB scheme a number of times in the past and accepted a written memorandum of demands from them.
“The students’ demand of rolling back direct benefit transfer for various tribal education schemes is a policy decision and something that is not directly in the project officer’s hand,” said a source from the collector’s office.
“Even Monday, the officer said she was willing to meet with the protesting students, but they had come with a few politicians and she did not want the issue to get a political colour,” the source added.
Protesters, however, claimed Vanmathi refused to speak to them or meet them and said she had other more important things to do.
“We sat outside for more than two and a half hours, but no one, not even the project officer, came to speak to us,” said Kailas Vasave, one of the protesters.
“When some of our representatives ultimately went inside to ask her if they should come in to discuss their demands, she made some caste-based remarks about tribal students creating trouble and dismissed them saying she has somewhere to go,” Vasave added.
Vasave, who used to be a resident of a tribal hostel once and is currently pursuing his postgraduate education, said the protest was completely non-political.
“The deputy chairperson of the zilla parishad, the husband of the zilla parishad chairperson and a former municipal council president were present, but they too are tribals from Nandurbar and have a stake in the matter,” he said.
Some students were angered by Vanmathi’s behaviour, but the actual scuffle around her car lasted for just about a minute before the situation was brought under control, he said.
Outrage over direct benefit transfer
There have been small waves of protests over direct benefit transfer by groups of tribal students for some time. The main trigger was a government resolution issued by the tribal development department on 5 April, which said the government will transfer money for meals directly to students’ accounts rather than providing them with food at the hostel.
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“The government says this will end the contractors’ lobby in the tribal development department but we are against it,” said Yadav Dudule, a Pune-based tribal activist.
“Students from distant villages come to these tribal ashramshalas. Are they supposed to focus on studying or going out to find food for themselves?” he asked.
There is also the issue of safety of girl students, Dudule pointed out.
“How are they expected to go out after dark to search for places that will sell them food? Areas where these ashramsahalas are located don’t have too many eating options outside,” he added.
Dudule said tribal students have been protesting since July and even had various rounds of meetings with the principal secretary of the tribal development department, tribal commissioner, minister and so on, but have had no relief.
“On 6 August, we had planned district-level protests in various parts of the state. At Nandurbar, when the officer point blank refused to meet students, it angered the students who were already frustrated,” he said.