Gaibandha Santal Community: Education of ethnic kids under threat
From the outside, the uncertainty that surrounds Shyamol-Mongal-Romesh Smrity Bidya Niketon in Gobindaganj upazila is hardly noticeable.
Like many other primary schools of the country, this free institution for the underprivileged Santal children of Madarpur and Joypur villages starts at 8:00am and ends at 3:00pm accommodating around 100 students in two shifts in a two-room tin hut.
But this stability may not last long, fears the school’s four teachers, who often work without pay.
Head teacher of the school Pricilla Murmu said Santal parents are too poor to pay any fees so the school entirely depends on intermittent charity from the district administration and non-profit organisations such as Gram Pathagar Andolan and Bangladesh Northern Evangelical Lutheran Church (BNELC).
Moreover, the school is currently situated on the ‘disputed land’ of Shahebganj sugarcane farm under Rangpur Sugar Mills.
According to testimonies given to the National Human Rights Commission by the Santals, in 1962 the then government acquired 1842 acres of land from the forefathers of the local Santal and Bangalee communities for cultivation of sugarcane to run Rangpur Sugar Mills.
The contract made with the mill authority stipulated that if sugarcane cultivation stopped there, the land will be returned to the government, who may decide to restore the land to its previous state.
When the mill authority breached the terms of the contract, a number of Santal families applied to the government to return their forefather’s land.
Backed by some politicians, they moved in a portion of the farmland in 2016 and started living there.
On July 01, 2016, the indigenous community opened a school for their children inside the farmland.
However, on November 06, 2016, a tripartite clash broke out between the indigenous Santals, labourers of the farm and police over the eviction of the indigenous people from the disputed land, leaving three Santal men --- Shyamol Mardi, Mongal Mardi and Romesh Tudu dead and 20 others, including nine policemen, injured.
During the clash, many shanties, including the schoolhouse, were set afire.
The Santal families were forced to find shelter in adjacent Madarpur village, where with help from Tangail’s Abdul Sattar, founder of Gram Pathagar Andolan, they restarted the school on January 27, 2017 naming it after the three indigenous men killed in the clash.
Recently, couple of families moved back in the farmland and shifted the school there, defying threat of eviction.
Under the circumstances, Philimon Baske, president of Shahebganj Bagda Bhumi Uddhar Sangram Committee, feels that the school’s future can be secured if it is nationalised.
However, Deputy Commissioner of Gaibandha Md Abdul Matin insisted that the government does not own any ‘khas’ land inside the Shahebganj farm and the Santal community can be rehabilitated in a cluster village in Fulhar under Katabari union, three kilometres from the farm.
A new school can be built there if the community wants but they are unwilling to move to the cluster village, he added.
Speaking for the Santals, Philimon demanded rehabilitation of the evicted families in their forefather’s land and construction of a government primary school for the ethnic children there.