Population criteria for new Eklavya schools ‘impractical’, says Parliamentary Committee

The criteria is leading to problems in land identification, acquisition but government insists on pressing ahead

The Tribal Affairs Ministry intends to go ahead with its plan to build new Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS) on 15 acres of land in all sub-districts which have Scheduled Tribe communities of more than 20,000 people, who make up at least 50% of their total population, despite a Parliamentary panel saying that this criteria is “impractical”.

Earlier this year, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment recommended immediate review of this criteria, pointing to significant difficulties in identifying and acquiring lands in several districts, especially in forested or hilly areas where a contigious 15-acre plot is hard to find. This criterion would also deprive scattered ST populations of the benefit of the Eklavya schools, the panel said.. 

However, the Tribal Affairs Ministry is pushing ahead, with officials in the National Education Society for Tribal Students (NESTS) saying that there is no process as of yet to even review the guidelines as suggested by the Standing Committee. Tribal Affairs Secretary Anil Kumar Jha told The Hindu, “These criteria were decided and finalised by the Cabinet and we intend to go ahead with it.”

In keeping with the government’s intent, President Droupadi Murmu is set to lay the foundation stones for seven more such Eklavya schools in Jharkhand on Janjatiya Gaurav Divas on November 15. 

While Ministry officials said that 688 EMRSs have been sanctioned so far, of which 392 are functional, only a total of 230 schools are functioning from their own buildings. The rest function from makeshift spaces made available for them in sundry government buildings. Of the total sanctioned schools, 234 remain under construction and 32 schools are having trouble finding land, a senior Ministry official said. 

However, as per data presented by the government to the Standing Committee as of the end of 2021-2022, a total of 232 sanctioned EMRSs were yet to begin construction.

The government had submitted that in many areas where the population criteria is met, suitable land is not available for constructing the schools and even if the land is available, the legal acquisition of the land is taking time. Further, it said that in several areas where land was identified, “several discrepancies also been noticed”, which it is taking time to resolve.