Five days before three tribal girls died of snakebite in a residential school in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district, the Devendra Fadnavis government had issued an order saying every tribal hostel should have cots, mattresses, blankets and pillows. The girls had none.

On the night of 10 August, six girls at the Japtalai Ashram School in Dhanora taluka were bitten by a poisonous snake while they were sleeping on the floor. Three died. The other three were hospitalised and one of them, 14-year-old Samruddhi, is still critically ill. She was moved to a hospital in Nagpur.

Within a fortnight, the state government cancelled the school’s licence and ordered an audit of more than 500 government-aided tribal residential schools.

Infuriated by the turn of events, the tribal students hit the streets, taking their cue no doubt from the cascade of student protests witnessed of late. Their demands went way beyond compensation for the families of the dead students. For 17 days, Adivasi students sat on hunger strike at Manjari in Pune. Students in Nagpur, Nashik and other parts of Maharashtra joined the agitation in their respective cities.

The protest grew in size and got more strident — and on 29 August, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis accepted all their demands and gave a written assurance that he would review the implementation of his commitments within three months.

The Gadchiroli tragedy is not an isolated story. Officials have since disclosed that 584 students have died in two years — causes ranging from illness and accidents to snakebite and suicide — in Maharashtra’s government-run or -aided ‘ashramshalas’.

The students have withdrawn their strike for now, with a stern warning that they will hit the streets again if the government fails to keep its promise. Their resentment has........

© National Herald