Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke addresses a press confrence, in Nagpur, Maharashtra, on September 16, 2026.
| Photo Credit: PTI
Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke on Wednesday (September 16, 2026) alleged that tribal schools in India faced government apathy over the last 80 years, and announced the launch of his group’s ‘Adivasi School Thik Karo‘ campaign from Gadchiroli in the State from September 17.
Addressing a press conference in Nagpur, Mr. Dipke said the campaign is aimed at drawing the Government’s attention towards the problems and discrimination faced by tribal students.
A month back, the CJP launched the ‘School Thik Karo’ (Fix the Schools), a nationwide campaign aimed at improving the condition of rural and urban public schools.
Mr. Dipke said, “Schools in tribal regions across India have been neglected by all governments in the last 80 years. Therefore, we are starting the ‘Adivasi School Thik Karo‘ campaign from Thursday [September 17, 2026] in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra.” As part of the exercise, CJP representatives will visit tribal schools and inspect the facilities and infrastructure, he said.
“Almost all governments have ignored tribal students…Political parties build their party headquarters in every district by spending crores of rupees, but they don’t have funds to give to tribal residential schools that are mostly operated from rented properties,” the CJP convenor said.
Mr. Dipke called for focusing on students and schools in tribal belts, saying they have a lot of potential. “The government will have to prioritise the tribal community as it has a very big population. Just claiming a 7.8 GDP growth rate or talking about becoming a $5 trillion economy is not enough,” he said.
“We request all the government to focus on tribal schools and tribal students and students from the rural areas across the country, because these tribal and rural students also are the future of the country just like students from big cities and private schools,” he said.
According to Mr. Dipke, more than 590 tribal students died in Maharashtra in the last two years. “Many tribal students die of snakebites. But these deaths fail to elicit any response from the government. Had these deaths occurred in Pune or Mumbai, it would created a furore across the country,” he said.
More 30 tribal students died in Balaghat, a tribal belt in Madhya Pradesh, in last two months. Deaths of tribal students also took place in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Uttarakhand, he said.
The families of deceased tribal students do not even get honourable compensation, according to him. In Rajasthan, the families of deceased tribal students were given goats, while in Madhya Pradesh, ₹4 lakh were given, he claimed.
Mr. Dipke also raised concerns over Eklavya Modern residential schools and alleged that 477 out of the 720 of these schools are non functional. “Where will these tribal students go to study?” he asked.
Tribal students only have a 22.8% enrolment rate in higher education, he said, adding that just 130 Scheduled Tribe (ST) applicants got admission in IITs. “Why is the number of admissions and faculty in IITs so low? This is nothing else but outright discrimination,” he alleged.
Dipke tears up copy of MoU between Maharashtra govt., trust over tribal hostels
Mr. Dipke on Wednesday (September 16, 2026) tore up a copy of an MoU between the Maharashtra Tribal Development Department and the Late Lakshman Mankar Trust in connection with tribal hostels in a symbolic act of opposition.
He was informed about the MoU during an interaction with tribal students. Supporting the demand for the cancellation of the MoU, he tore up a copy of the agreement.
The tribal rights group Adivasi Adhikar Bachhav Kriti Samiti had earlier this month alleged that the Maharashtra government had handed over the operations of nearly 490 tribal hostels to a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-linked trust.
A senior official from the Tribal Development Department had termed the allegations “totally baseless”, stressing that no such handover of the hostels can take place. The MoU had been signed with the trust a year ago for facilitating personality development of students, he had said.
Published – September 16, 2026 03:24 pm IST
