Rajasthan school deaths Bhajan Lal Sharma's litmus test: What he must do

India Today

6 days ago

A crumbling school classroom roof in Piplodi village, in Rajasthan's Jhalawar district, crushing seven young lives has shattered all illusions about the upkeep and development of the governmental education set-up in the state. The July 25 tragedy, triggered by monsoon rains, has again highlighted how state-run schools continue to turn death traps year after year and pleas and warnings from parents, teachers and the local media go unheard.advertisementThat the ill-fated school is located in Harauti region, under which education minister Madan Dilawar's assembly constituency falls, makes the failure all the more glaring. Dilawar hails from this very region where, under the previous Congress government, thousands of crores were spent on creating an ornamental riverfront in Kota while critical infrastructure, such as school buildings, decayed. Critics say this misplaced priority continues despite a regime change to the BJP in 2023.Across Rajasthan, the story repeats: dilapidated schools, ignored pleas, absent accountability. Within four days since July 25, dozens of schools have witnessed minor to major collapses. Most glaring has been the collapse of a school gate on July 28, which led to the death of a seven-year-old student who was waiting for his sister. The acting principal of the school in Jaisalmer had informed authorities about damaged pillars and the gate in April, warning that things could turn fatal.
Even as children learn in school buildings on the brink of collapse, crores of rupees are sanctioned and sought in donations for 'world-class' stadiums. Deputy chief minister Diya Kumari's allocation of Rs 250 crore this year to repair 750 schools sounds impressive until you realise the requirement exceeds Rs 5,000 crore.Chief minister Bhajan Lal Sharma responded to the tragedy with directive of a state-wide school audit. He asked MLAs to earmark a fifth of their constituency development funds for school repairs and also ordered the immediate closure of schools whose buildings were unsafe.Critics see these as knee-jerk reactions that, unless followed by stringent implementation, risk becoming just another pile of unfulfilled directives caught in bureaucratic red tape.Eyebrow-raising was the speed at which the Piplodi school building was bulldozed—within hours of the bodies being pulled out. For any serious probe, the site should have been preserved for forensic examination so that blame could be fixed.Suspensions of officials have followed and Dilawar has also offered to resign, but is that enough? As education minister, his focus is seen to have been more on moral policing of teachers and ideological introductions to the curricula rather than attention to the crumbling infrastructure.advertisementThe rot runs deep. Rajasthan's fractured education policy swings wildly between the BJP's government school merger plan and, earlier, the Congress's populist push for hyper-local schools, what if without adequate staff or buildings. The result: a state riddled with broken schools, many run under conflicting schemes wherein even funding for repairs becomes a bureaucratic blame-game.The role of panchayati raj institutions in the construction of schools has also proven to be disastrous—marked by corruption, incompetence and lack of expertise. State agencies haven't fared better. Whether schools or hospitals, civic roads or drainage, Rajasthan's public infrastructure is in systemic collapse.The irony is that once the Piplodi outrage dies down, directives will lose steam, funds will stall, tenders will be delayed and cosmetic repairs will be passed off as progress.The tragedy has galvanised public anger. There have been instances of parents locking 'unsafe' schools, refusing to gamble with their children's lives. The outrage is all over. Social media has exploded with grief and fury. Hashtags demanding accountability from ministers and officials trended for days. The mainstream media, too, slammed the government for allowing state-run schools to fall into such dangerous disrepair while prioritising cosmetic projects.The blot is a damning reflection of decay. If chief minister Sharma wants to prove his leadership is different, this is his moment. He must strike at the bureaucratic rot, scrap vanity projects and put every rupee of funds where it matters. Anything less would mean more broken buildings and fearfully perhaps more bodies under their debris.advertisementSubscribe to India Today Magazine- EndsMust Watch