![\"'New](\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-133141791,imgsize-84683,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/cjps-abhijeet-dipke.jpg\" "\\"CJP")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nNEW DELHI: Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke has announced a nationwide campaign to improve government schools in villages, seeking to address the “neglect of rural educational infrastructure”.The campaign will be launched on August 15, with the CJP calling on citizens, parents and village leaders to work together to improve basic facilities in government schools.Dipke said he would launch the initiative from his village in Hingoli, Maharashtra, by approaching the village head and requesting him to take steps to improve government schools there.\u201cThe coming 15th August is our 80th Independence Day. But, if anything has been neglected or ignored the most in the last 80 years, it is the government schools in our villages,\u201d Dipke said on Monday.\u201cWe have made a new Parliament, a new PM house. Why have we not been able to build new schools in our villages? Do we not consider the children of farmers and labourers the future of our country?\u201d he asked.Dipke said children in villages continue to face difficulties in accessing schools and basic facilities such as drinking water and toilets.\u201cEven today, village children have to walk a long distance to go to school. After going there, they don\u2019t find water or toilet facilities,\u201d he said, highlighting the difficulties faced by girls in particular.\u201cI feel that on this 15th August, if we should pay attention to anything, if we should make a new start, we should start by improving our government schools,\u201d he said.The \u2018Sarpanch Challenge\u2019<\/span>As part of the campaign, the CJP has appealed to sarpanches across the country to take up the task of improving government schools in their respective villages.Dipke said he would personally approach the village head in Hingoli and urged other sarpanches to do the same in their villages.The organisation has termed the initiative the \u201cSarpanch Challenge\u201d, under which it plans to publicly recognise village heads who improve their schools by sharing before-and-after photographs on its social media platforms and giving credit to the sarpanches concerned.\u201cWe will give you credit so that after seeing you, after seeing the schools that you have improved, many other village heads also start improving schools in their villages,” Dipke said.The CJP has also called for a citizen-led social audit of government schools.Parents whose children study in government schools have been asked to visit the institutions and check basic facilities, including electricity, clean drinking water, functional washrooms and mid-day meals.\u201cYou go to your children’s schools and see if basic facilities are available. See if there is electricity, water\u2026 Do your children get washroom facilities? Do they get mid-day meals?\u201d Dipke said.He urged parents to record videos if basic facilities were unavailable. The CJP said it would soon issue a printable audit form through which citizens could record the facilities available at their children’s schools and those that were missing.The form will be shared through links on campaign videos on the CJP’s official social media platforms and completed forms and video evidence can be emailed to the organisation.The campaign aims to ensure that children of farmers and wage labourers studying in village schools have access to facilities comparable to those available to children in cities.\u201cIf not, you make videos of it. Because your children’s schooling should be good. That is your fundamental right,” Dipke said.\u201cLet us all make a promise to the children who live in villages that we will improve their schools. Together, we can do this,\u201d he said, concluding his video with the message, \u201cReal India lives in villages\u201d.CJP backs Jharkhand protests<\/span>In a separate video, Dipke also extended his support to Jharkhand student leader Devendra Nath Mahto, who was hospitalised after his health deteriorated during a hunger strike over alleged irregularities in recruitment examinations.Calling the alleged police action against protesters \u201ccruel and inhuman\u201d, Dipke drew a parallel with student protests at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar. \u201cBe it Jantar Mantar or Jharkhand, such police brutality against students is cruel and inhuman,\u201d he said.\u201cCJP stands firmly with Devendra bhai and his struggle. He is a true hero. We salute his courage and strength!\u201d he added.Mahto has been at the centre of the ongoing JPSC-JSSC agitation in Ranchi over alleged irregularities in recruitment examinations. He had been on an indefinite hunger strike and joined the students’ Vidhan Sabha gherao march on Monday, arriving at the protest in an ambulance as his health deteriorated.<\/p>\n Share your thoughts in the comments<\/p>\n<\/div>\n