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dam-l PR: Manibeli Children Protest for their School



NARMADA BACHAO ANDOLAN

B-13, Shivam Flats, Ellora Park, Baroda
( Ph.0265-382232)


MANIBELI CHILDREN PROTEST FOR SCHOOL

WILL SUBMERGENCE TAKE AWAY THEIR 'JEEVAN SHALA'?

It was a protest of the dam affected - but the protestors were an
unusual lot and the police could not understand their demand. They shaved
off their heads in front of police as a mark of protest and later
gheraoed (encircled) the police for five hours. They were asking whether
their school would submerge in the rising waters of the infamous Sardar
Sarovar Project in the Narmada valley. " If our school is submerged
where do we study? What about our education? Did you think about OUR
future? " they asked.

While the Satyagraha against the submergence and displacement in the
Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) has been continuing at Jalsindhi (M.P.)
and Domkhedi (Maharashtra) villages far upstream, the children in "
Jeevan Shala" in Manibeli, harassed the police for over five hours on
Sunday (July 25). Before that, they picketed before the police
camp with their heads shaved in protest. They demanded that the
Collector should answer the questions regarding their school, their
village and its forest, river. The students from standard 1 to 4
along with their teachers and the accompanying villagers demanded
the complete information about the extent of submergence and wanted to
know what the ameliorative measures the Maharashtra government had
taken. The police reported to the headquarters that the children and
the villagers are bent upon vandalism. Therefore, on 25th, instead of
the Collector, additional police force came in the village to "cope
with situation".  The children then went up to the police camp and
encircled ( gheraoed) camp and jeering the  police and their officials.

School With A Difference

Such protest is not new for the these young PAPs (project affected
persons). They have seen their Jeevan Shala, which was earlier situated
in village Chimalkhedi, submerge in the monsoon of 1994. The school was
residential, nestling about 80 boys and girls from nearby tribal
villages. The children were huddled on the roof of the school,
witnessing the havoc wrought by the dam and the submergence. The
Chimalkhedi school, one of the seven schools and two residential
schools run by the Narmada Bachao Andolan for last eight years, then was
shifted to Manibeli in 1995. The other residential school is in
Nimgavhan, also threatened with this year's submergence, and rest of the
schools in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra  villages are day schools.

The schools have been striving for the alternative curricula and
organisation of education,though they have to follow the government
curricula in respective states. The indigenous Pavri, Bhili language
is a standard medium of 'instruction', with Marathi and Hindi relegated
to their appropriate place. The students learn about their villages,
their adivasi history and heroes, their forests, plants, animals, birds
and songs-stories in their language and their ancestral knowledge base
in medicine, house building and other crafts. There have been no
schools in the villages on the banks of Narmada when the people started
organising against the Sardar Sarovar Project. The government schools
were existent only on papers and the teachers, officials would make a
deal at the tehsil (block headquarters) place of Akrani and Akkalkua.
The people's movement in the valley decided to launch the " Reva Jeevan
Shalas" (Reva - a fond name for the Narmada - School of Life) at the time of
Manibeli Satyagraha. The children in these schools have been
participating in the protest against the police, officials, with their
spirited songs, open theatre and slogans.

Manibeli might have been faded in the memory, but the village has
created a history and the spirit of the daunty Bhil tribals is still
intact. It was the first post of the resistance against the submergence
and displacement, when the Narmada Bachao Andolan and launched the
unique Satyagraha with the slogan of "Doobenge par Hatenge nahin" (we
will drown but not move out), in the monsoon of 1991. For three years
the people of Manibeli braved the submergence, but never did they opt to
move out their ancestral land and go for resettlement. The spirit still
continues though the satyagraha place has now been shifted to the
upstream villages which would be submerged.

Sanjay Sangvai