18 August,2026 04:57 PM IST | Hingoli (Maharashtra) | mid-day online correspondent
CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke said political leaders were able to arrange buses and trains for election rallies but had failed to provide even a single bus for poor children travelling to school. Pic/PTI
Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke on Tuesday urged Maharashtra ministers, MLAs and MPs to send their children to village schools for at least one day so they can experience the difficulties faced by rural students, many of whom walk several kilometres to attend classes, reported the PTI.
Dipke made the remarks during a protest in Maharashtra's Hingoli district over problems affecting schools in rural areas. He accused the Maharashtra government of failing to provide basic transport facilities for children from remote villages.
The CJP founder challenged ministers and elected representatives to send their children to village schools and make them walk to school like rural students.
He said such an experience would help political leaders understand the difficulties faced by children who have to travel long distances to access education.
According to Abhijeet Dipke, children in remote areas often walk between 7 and 10 kilometres to reach school. The journey becomes even more difficult during the monsoon, when roads can turn muddy and waterlogged, the news agency reported.
Taking aim at the government, Dipke said political leaders were able to arrange buses and trains for election rallies but had failed to provide even a single bus for poor children travelling to school.
He said the continued lack of basic transport facilities for rural students was unacceptable and accused successive governments of failing to address the problem, according to the PTI.
Dipke, who launched the 'School Thik Karo' campaign from his native village in Hingoli district last week, alleged that political discourse over the past decade had increasingly focused on caste and religious divisions.
He argued that fundamental concerns such as education and employment had been pushed into the background.
"People are being made to fight among themselves, while those in power are benefiting from it," Dipke said, adding that children were suffering because they were being denied proper educational opportunities and young people were struggling to find jobs.
Dipke also referred to recent deaths of students at tribal residential schools, including the death of a student in Melghat in Amravati and fatalities reported in Gadchiroli, as per the PTI.
He said the government had a responsibility to ensure that such incidents did not happen again and pledged to continue his campaign for tribal and economically disadvantaged children.
"The life of a tribal child should have the same value as the life of a minister's child," he said.
Explaining why he chose Hingoli for the protest, Dipke said he had personally witnessed his siblings walking to school when they were children.
He said that despite the passage of around 15 years, the situation in rural areas had not changed significantly, particularly for girls who still have to walk long distances to attend school.
Dipke clarified that his campaign was not directed against village sarpanches or residents. Instead, he said local communities should be involved in efforts to improve schools.
He pointed out that children of village sarpanches often attend the same local schools, unlike the children of ministers and MLAs, who may have access to better-equipped institutions.
"If the government cannot do it, we will do it with the help of villagers," he said.
Dipke also criticised the disparity between educational opportunities available to children of political leaders and those accessible to poor, tribal and working-class families.
He claimed that while children of politicians have opportunities to study abroad, many rural children continue to struggle simply to reach their schools, the news agency reported.
(with PTI inputs)
