Ahmedabad govt schools' class one enrolment goes down by "more than 50%", alleges activist-turned-politician

By A Representative
Making a scathing attack on the BJP government in Gujarat, a well-known activist-turned-politician has said the recent state-sponsored child enrolment drive, kanya kelavni, is a “complete failure”, with more than 50 per cent drop in in the total number of children admitted in state government schools in Ahmedabad alone.
Talking with newspersons, Sukhdev Patel, formerly with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), said, “Ten years ago, about 31,000 children would be enrolled in the city’s municipal corporation schools; this has gone down to less than 15,000 today.”
Patel said, “The state government has been claiming per cent success in the child enrolment drive, but has, ever since it began with the kanya kelavni programme under Narendra Modi 14 years ago, refused to give the number of children getting admitted in class one.”
“The state government appears to have lost interest in government schools, whose quality has been progressively deteriorating”, Patel said, adding, “This has led to a situation where the poor parents are forced to admit their children to private schools. In fact, the Gujarat government is shedding its responsibility of supporting school education.”
Contending that the Gujarat government is refusing to implement the RTE Act in its letter and spirit, Patel said, under Section 9 of the Act, it is the responsibility of the local government authorities to collect all the statistical details of every child up to the age of 14.
“The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), under the BJP rule, has not cared to follow this section of the RTI Act”, Patel said, adding, “Even the Congress appears to be unaware of this provision.”
“What is worse”, he said, “Is that for quite some time there is no chairman of the Ahmedabad Municipal School Board, which should be response be responsible for collecting the information”, threatening to hold a child rights protest rally in the city.
Addressing newspersons ahead of AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal’s visit to Gujarat on July 9-10, Patel, who was earlier the party’s Gujarat convener, said, “This is not just true of Ahmedabad but of entire Gujarat. This suggests that the Right to Education (RTE) Act is just not being implemented in the state.”
Patel, who has been associated with the state’s premier child rights group, Gantar, is known to hvae initiated AAP in Gujarat during its formative stage three years ago. Early this year, he resigned from the party because of sharp differences over the selection of cadres for AAP, forming Sushasan Party.
On sidelines of the press conference, Patel told me, he has “no quarrels with the AAP ideology”, but as of today, he claimed, the party “does not exist in the state.” He added, “Its present leaders lack agenda or perspective. Many of them are former BJP members.”
Kejriwal’s decision to arrive in Gujarat, starting with Somnath, from where he will go to Surat, and the announcement that AAP will be fighting all the 182 seats in the December 2017 assembly polls, has already created political flutter across India, with Congress and BJP making frantic attempts to deny its very existence in the state.
AAP’s critics say, the party does not even have a permanent state-level office in Gujarat. “There is a temporary office in Dani Limda area in the house of a discredited builder”, a senior political leader alleged.

Comments

Academics urge Azim Premji University to drop FIR against Student Reading Circle

By A Representative A group of academics and civil society members has issued an open letter to the leadership of Azim Premji University expressing concern over the filing of a police complaint that led to an FIR against a student-run reading circle following a recent incident of violence on campus. The signatories state that they hold the university in high regard for its commitment to constitutional values, critical inquiry and ethical public engagement, and argue that it is precisely because of this reputation that the present development is troubling.

Was Netaji forced to alter face, die in obscurity in USSR in 1975? Was he so meek?

By Rajiv Shah This should sound almost hilarious. Not only did Subhas Chandra Bose not die in a plane crash in Taipei, nor was he the mysterious Gumnami Baba who reportedly passed away on 16 September 1985 in Ayodhya, but we are now told that he actually died in 1975—date unknown—“in oblivion” somewhere in the former Soviet Union. Which city? Moscow? No one seems to know.

UAPA action against Telangana activist: Criminalising legitimate democratic activity?

By A Representative The National Investigation Agency's Hyderabad branch has issued notices to more than ten individuals in Telangana in connection with FIR No. RC-04/2025. Those served include activists, former student leaders, civil rights advocates, poets, writers, retired schoolteachers, and local leaders associated with the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Indian National Congress.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan* “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

Asbestos contamination in children’s products highlights global oversight gaps

By A Representative A commentary published by the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS) has drawn attention to the challenges governments face in responding effectively to global public-health risks. In an article written by Laurie Kazan-Allen and published on March 5, 2026, the author examines how the discovery of asbestos contamination in children’s play products has raised questions about regulatory oversight and international product safety. The article opens by reflecting on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that governments in several countries were slow to respond to early warning signs of the crisis. Referring to the experience of the United Kingdom, the author writes that delays in implementing protective measures contributed to “232,112 recorded deaths and over a million people suffering from long Covid.” The commentary uses this example to illustrate what it describes as the dangers of underestimating emerging threats. Attention then turns...

Aligning too closely with U.S., allies, India’s silence on IRIS Dena raises troubling questions

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* The reported sinking of the Iranian ship IRIS Dena in the Indian Ocean near Sri Lanka raises troubling questions about international norms and the credibility of the so-called rule-based order. If indeed the vessel was attacked by the American Navy while returning from a joint exercise in Visakhapatnam, it would represent a serious breach of trust and a violation of the principles that govern such cooperative engagements. Warships participating in these exercises are generally not armed for combat; they are meant to symbolize solidarity and friendship. The incident, therefore, is not only shocking but also deeply ironic.

The kitchen as prison: A feminist elegy for domestic slavery

By Garima Srivastava* Kumar Ambuj stands as one of the most incisive voices in contemporary Hindi poetry. His work, stripped of ornamentation, speaks directly to the lived realities of India’s marginalized—women, the rural poor, and those crushed under invisible forms of violence. His celebrated poem “Women Who Cook” (Khānā Banātī Striyāṃ) is not merely about food preparation; it is a searing indictment of patriarchal domestic structures that reduce women’s existence to endless, unpaid labour.

India’s foreign policy at crossroads: Cost of silence in the face of aggression

By Venkatesh Narayanan, Sandeep Pandey The widely anticipated yet unprovoked attack on Iran on March 1 by the United States and Israel has drawn sharp criticism from several quarters around the world. Reports indicate that the strikes have resulted in significant civilian casualties, including 165 elementary school girls, 20 female volleyball players, and many other civilians.

India’s green energy push faces talent crunch amidst record growth at 16% CAGR

By Jag Jivan* A new study by a top consulting firm has found that India’s cleantech sector is entering a decisive growth phase, with strong policy backing, record capacity additions and surging investor interest, but facing mounting pressure on talent supply and rising compensation costs .

Search This Blog