Can an adarsh bal vidyalaya exist?

When Abhijeet Dipke visited a school in his village, they got benches installed for students for the first time. PICS/INSTAGRAM@abhijeetdipke

There are about 12.1 crore students enrolled in government schools in India as of the fiscal year 2024-25. In Mumbai alone, the Praja Foundation, in collaboration with the BMC, estimated that roughly 44 per cent of total student enrollment comes from municipal schooling systems as of 2026.

"And yet, you and I may have never been to a government school, but we know the conditions there aren't good," says one of our sources. This dissonance is exactly what the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) captures with its new "School Thik Karo" campaign. On August 15, founder Abhijeet Dipke launched the movement where volunteers can download "audit forms" from CJP's website, which list checkboxes from clean washrooms to Mid-day meals. They can then submit these forms to local authorities and demand improvement.

The movement has just begun taking shape in Mumbai. Actor and filmmaker Divya Unny made a post on Instagram calling for people who would like to join her in audits. The post has now reached 22 million views. When the movement began, Unny was watching videos of audits closely.

"Abhijeet [Dipke] put up a Reel from a school in [Chhatrapati] Sambhajinagar. When he visited the school, for the first time they finally put benches for children to sit on," says the 40-year-old, "Every time you make a complaint about something in this country, it takes months and years for that thing to fructify. But with this movement, not just people, but even authorities are taking note."

Chaitali Doshi is a volunteer who's been auditing schools. PIC/SATEJ SHINDE

And so she decided to take on the project herself. She's the admin of a group of about 170 volunteers who have been very systematically visiting schools in Mumbai. "All of us look at schools that are within a 5-7 km radius of our homes," she explains. A group helps them coordinate efforts better and avoid visiting the same school multiple times.

"We go to schools and inform them that we are here from the School Thik Karo movement. We are using a very non-aggressive, non-invasive approach," she says, "There are so many schools, maybe the BMC doesn't even know that something so bad is happening in schools. We just want to fill up a form and share it with our ward officer."

Till now, they've shortlisted close to a 100 BMC schools that are in need of great help. Some report severe infrastructural damage, others have walls that are on the brink of collapse, the volunteers allege. We reached out to the BMC for comment, but we didn't hear anything back till the time this went to press.

Actor and filmmaker Divya Unny is the admin of a group of 160 people who have been volunteering for social audits

"We just had a meeting with [the Deputy Education Officer (Central) for the Primary Education Department at the BMC] Kirtivardhan Kiratkudve. We have placed a request from the citizens group. We have told him that we want to do this properly, with permission from the BMC, in tandem with the teachers. He has asked us to submit the application, and asked for a week to discuss with his authorities and come back," Unny adds.

Chaitali Doshi is a Borivli resident. Masters in Gujarati literature from SNDT Women's University. "I am a pure Ambedkarite. This is Babasaheb's dream. Education is the only thing that will make a difference. It is a fundamental right. But kids coming from underprivileged backgrounds don't have food, shelter, or access to proper education. And what are we doing by not giving them education? We are cutting their hands."

Poonam Lalwani

Some schools have been welcoming. "Some principals are supporters of the movement, so they welcome us," she says, "Others ask for permission letters before they let us in."

Unny adds, "As a citizen of India, it is my right to know this [what is going on in government schools]. But can I just actually physically walk in and just start demanding information, especially in a school, where there are minors? I don't think so. They are not comfortable with that, which I feel is a fair ask. Now, to immediately start insinuating that there's something wrong with the school, that is why they don't want to give us information, that will be high levels of jumping-to-conclusions."

This is one of the many criticisms thrown at the movement. How can strangers enter schools? What authority do volunteers have to audit schools? What happens when random goers audit schools?

"We do not do this at random," says Doshi, "We have a WhatsApp group where all of us have divided areas among ourselves. All of us are in the loop about who goes where, and we maintain databases of the information we find." "We respect schools who do not let us in," Doshi says, "If not from the school itself, we can collect information from parents."

We ask Doshi what gives volunteers the authority to audit schools. "We are citizens of the country. Government schools are public infrastructure. Iss desk ke bachche, jo hamare bachche hai [The children of this country, who are our children] go here. I am a mother and a concerned citizen. If not us, then who?"

Doshi also clarifies that they do not audit these schools according to haphazard standards. "We have audit forms that give clear instructions of what we have to check. These include [but are not limited to] the standards of infrastructure, standards, school supplies, teachers, Mid-day meals, sanitation, and so on.

I am going into very economically well-to-do zones right now. So the BMC schools over there are very well-equipped, with computer labs, libraries, outdoor gyms, and digital writing boards. Some of the BMC schools which are in areas like Andheri, Oshiwara, Jogeshwari, Goregaon are running very well," Unny says. "Admission in BMC schools is completely free of cost. A private school comparitively charges about R2 to R3 lakh," Unny adds.

The BMC school is a stalwart institution in the city. "Students get a kit with 27 supplies, from pencils, school bag, rain coat to three kinds of sandals. They don't have to buy a single thing. BMC schools run in several languages. All those who migrate to the city need Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati, Telugu medium schools. If these schools aren't there, there won't be any place left for kids," says a government teacher who chose to remain anonymous.

"Many kids come for Mid-day meals. Because their mothers go to work at 6 am, so they come and eat in schools. When it rains, kids come and sit in schools because the roofs in their homes have collapsed. A BMC school is much more than a centre for education. It is a haven that provides food and shelter. Which is why they need much more advancement," she says.

Poonam Lalvani, who's the founder of the LIFE Foundation has been working with Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) schools for the last 23 years. "A lot has changed in MCGM schools durning this time but there is still a lot left to change," Lalvani says, "The infrastructure, facilities, and toilets have improved a lot. There are 22 MCGM schools in the city that are in excellent condition. These are 19 CBSE schools, one IB, one ICSE, and one Cambridge school. But there's serious work left to be done in the other ones," she says.

Lalvani says that redevelopment schemes have affected schools a lot. "Those who used to live in South Bombay have migrated to the suburbs and beyond. As a result the SoBo schools are completely deserted," she says, "On the other hand, suburbs like Govandi and Mankhurd are overflowing." She's also found that, "we're nowhere near the quality of public education delivered in Chennai or Kerala."

Still, MCGM schools are a paramount resource in the city. Lalvani says, "One thing we don't talk about enough is that the MCGM runs 19 schools dedicated to specially-abled children, the only municipality in the country doing so."

‘It's the bedrock for working class'

Founder of Mark Your Presence, Chaitanya Prabhu talks about what could be our next steps

Chaitanya Prabhu is the founder of the youth organisation Mark Your Presence. "BMC schools form the bedrock of education for the urban poor and the working class of our city," he says, "The kind of talent that BMC schools have is unparalleled. If you ever speak to the kids here, you will realise that despite their economic constraints, their aspirations are comparable if not better than those who come from relatively-better off families. Even within the system, kids realise that they need to upgrade themselves work hard to move to better BMC schools." "It's high time that citizens start treating all the facilities that are paid for by taxpayers as very much their own," he says.

Chaitanya Prabhu

"This is the key distinction between public infrastructure and public accessibility. Government schools are public infrastructure, but can anybody walk in? Maybe not," the lawyer clarifies, "Get a permission letter before you go. If you don't get permission, the recourse can't only be that there is a video on social media that talks about how you were stopped. You have to keep pursuing. Meet parents in the catchment area and build a consensus. If that falls short, make the people file an RTI. If even mass RTI applications don't work, they form the base of the contents of your petition and you can file a PIL in the courts."

"We are doing this to change the education system of our city, our country. So, I think the best way to do it is to start by cooperation," Prabhu says, "If they don't cooperate, then we have to figure out 10 other ways to make sure that they do. It's not like teachers and principals don't want to do good. But they work under constraints, and if you quote them on anything, their jobs are gone."

Prabhu suggests this solution: "There should be an independent committee set up by the BMC. It should be somebody from the education sector, a sociologist, former IAS of impeccable credentials, or a former citizen activist." he says, "We have 227 wards, so we could have a apex panel of 20 people, and then that panel audits schools and gives a report to the BMC. And this could be a citizen report, where some prominent citizens are involved."

12.1 cr
Number of students enrolled in government schools in India