Sabotaged Schooling

Sabotaged Schooling Naxalite Attacks and Police Occupation of Schools in India’s Bihar and Jharkhand States Copyright © 2009 Human Rights Watch All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 1-56432-566-0 Cover design by Rafael Jimenez Human Rights Watch 350 Fifth Avenue, 34th floor New York, NY 10118-3299 USA Tel: +1 212 290 4700, Fax: +1 212 736 1300 [email protected] Poststraße 4-5 10178 Berlin, Germany Tel: +49 30 2593 06-10, Fax: +49 30 2593 0629 [email protected] Avenue des Gaulois, 7 1040 Brussels, Belgium Tel: + 32 (2) 732 2009, Fax: + 32 (2) 732 0471 [email protected] 64-66 Rue de Lausanne 1202 Geneva, Switzerland Tel: +41 22 738 0481, Fax: +41 22 738 1791 [email protected] 2-12 Pentonville Road, 2nd Floor London N1 9HF, UK Tel: +44 20 7713 1995, Fax: +44 20 7713 1800 [email protected] 27 Rue de Lisbonne 75008 Paris, France Tel: +33 (1)43 59 55 35, Fax: +33 (1) 43 59 55 22 [email protected] 1630 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 500 Washington, DC 20009 USA Tel: +1 202 612 4321, Fax: +1 202 612 4333 [email protected] Web Site Address: http://www.hrw.org December 2009 1-56432-566-0 Sabotaged Schooling Naxalite Attacks and Police Occupation of Schools in India’s Bihar and Jharkhand States I. Summary ......................................................................................................................... 1 Attacks on schools by Naxalites ..................................................................................... 2 Occupation of schools by security forces ........................................................................ 3 Barriers caused to education .......................................................................................... 6 The broader context ........................................................................................................ 8 II. Recommendations ........................................................................................................ 10 To the Communist Party of India (Maoist) ...................................................................... 10 To the Indian central government .................................................................................. 10 To the Bihar and Jharkhand state governments .............................................................. 11 To the Special Representative to the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict ...... 13 To the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) ............................................................. 13 To foreign governments and intergovernmental bodies ................................................. 14 III. Methodology ................................................................................................................ 15 IV. Context and Background ............................................................................................. 18 Poor education baseline in Bihar and Jharkhand ........................................................... 18 The Naxalite movement ................................................................................................ 23 V. Case study: Tankuppa High School, Bihar ..................................................................... 28 VI. Case Study: Belhara High School, Jharkhand ............................................................... 30 VII. Case study: Dwarika Middle School, Jharkhand .......................................................... 34 VIII. Attacks on Schools by Naxalites .................................................................................41 Methods ....................................................................................................................... 42 Motivation for attacks ................................................................................................... 43 Slow government response ........................................................................................... 51 IX. Occupations of Schools by Security Forces .................................................................. 53 Methods ........................................................................................................................ 53 Motivation .................................................................................................................... 64 X. Barriers to Education .................................................................................................... 70 Endangering lives of children........................................................................................ 70 Witnessing police violence ............................................................................................ 72 Increased student dropout rates .................................................................................... 72 Lower enrolment of new students .................................................................................. 74 Overcrowding ................................................................................................................ 75 Increased truancy ......................................................................................................... 76 Lower quality alternative sites for schooling .................................................................. 77 Gender-based harassment of girl students by police ..................................................... 81 Police intimidation and harassment of students ........................................................... 83 Atmosphere hostile to children and education ............................................................. 84 Reduced provision of “mid-day meal” scheme ............................................................. 85 Reduced access to toilets ............................................................................................. 85 Police blocking access to recreational facilities ............................................................ 86 Detriment to non-students ............................................................................................ 87 Appendix.......................................................................................................................... 88 Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................ 103 I. Summary This school has been badly damaged... The whole building has been ruined, the windows are smashed and blown, and the floor is cracked, as are the walls and the ceiling. Even the door is broken. The wall outside that connects to the veranda is also destroyed, everything is in ruins. — A 16-year-old student whose school in Jharkhand was bombed by Naxalites on April 9, 2009 Sometimes [the security forces] bring culprits back to the school and beat them... I feel very bad when they beat them. —Indira Parkesh, 16 years old, whose school in Bihar was partially occupied by State Auxilliary Police, as of June 12, 2009 The education of tens of thousands of India’s most disadvantaged and marginalized children is being disrupted by the ongoing conflict between Naxalite insurgents and police and other security forces in the eastern states of Bihar and Jharkhand. Security forces are occupying government school buildings as bases for anti-Naxalite operations, sometimes only for few days but often for periods lasting years. Meanwhile, the Naxalites—a longstanding, pan-Indian Maoist revolutionary movement—are directly targeting and blowing up government schools, including those not used or occupied by security forces. The government’s failure to promptly repair damaged schools enhances the lasting negative impact of these attacks. The Naxalites claim that their attacks on schools cause no disruption to children’s education because, they assert, they only target schools being used by state security forces in counter- Naxalite operations. Human Rights Watch’s research suggests this claim is false. Our research suggests that many schools that have been attacked were not being used by the security forces at the time. Deficiencies in government monitoring make it difficult to get clear information on the extent and pattern of Naxalite attacks. Nonetheless, a combination of Human Rights Watch’s own on-the-ground investigations and a survey of public news sources suggest that at least 25 of the schools that were attacked in Bihar and Jharkhand during the year between November 2008 and October 2009 were undefended and not in use by security forces at the time. The Naxalites appear to be attacking government schools because they are often the only government building in the remote rural areas where the Naxalites have their greatest influence and ease of movement. Moreover, undefended 1 Human Rights Watch | December 2009 schools are a high-visibility, soft target—attacking them garners media attention and increases fear and intimidation among local communities. While the Naxalites do not appear to be targeting students directly, attacks on schools that are not being used for a military purpose are violations of both international humanitarian law and Indian criminal law. As part of their counter-insurgency operations, police and paramilitary forces are occupying school buildings either temporarily or for extended periods. The security forces may take over entire school facilities and campuses, completely shutting down the school, or occupy part of school buildings, forcing classes to continue in the reduced space and alongside the armed men. Some of these occupations last only days at a time and

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