Pretending to help, helping themselves

Tribal schools or money-spinners? (The Hindu, November 24, 2002)
By Mahesh Vijapurkar
It is not only the profitable engineering and medical colleges, which are in the clutches of the powerful political elite in Maharashtra but also the ashram schools meant for tribal children. Most schools for tribals seem to be run for "profits" rather than for spreading education.

According to a report by the Tribal Research and Training Institute (TRTI), Pune, headed by the controversial IAS officer, Arun Bhatia, of the 484 non-Governmental ashram schools surveyed, 56 per cent were run by NGOs, headed by politicians. These schools cornered Rs. 23.9 crores of the total subsidy of Rs. 38.1 crores doled out by the State Government.

The TRTI report said, "We have to ensure that ashram schools give the poor access to education and do not degenerate into business ventures managed by the local elite for attracting Government funds." The institute was instrumental in exposing the deaths of tribals due to malnutrition in the State.

Maharashtra has 917 ashram schools for tribals — 410 are run by the Government and 507 by NGOs, which receive assistance from the State. Each NGO gets Rs. 500 a child — up from the Rs. 335 given earlier — and the expenditure on staff, rent of the buildings and books and stationery is also borne by the State Government.

The TRTI said it was a "common method" to inflate the number of students in such hostel-cum-schools to "obtain higher governmental assistance". During a visit, its "team members were frightened to do the checking because of the linkage between school managements and political authority".

The report claimed that the Tribal Department dithered when the TRTI sought data on the number of schools being run by politicians. "The information started trickling in only after officials were threatened with prosecution." Of the 507 aided schools, data was received on only 484.

The report said that 16 MLAs ran 28 schools, 30 former MLAs ran 71 schools and six MPs were either chairmen or secretaries of the trusts managing 23 schools. Ten schools were run by four ex-MPs. Nine Ministers and 11 former ones were also engaged in this practice. Twentynine office-bearers of political parties ran 33 schools. Institutions run by 28 MLAs received a grant of Rs. 3.08 crores a year, while those run by sitting MPs got Rs. 2.04 crores a year. An amount of Rs. 2.86 crores was being given as grant to schools run by Ministers and Rs. 8.47 lakhs to those run by junior Ministers.