Abhijeet Dipke, the founder of the Citizens Justice Partnership (CJP), has launched the “School Thik Karo” campaign, a grassroots initiative designed to confront the systemic decay of infrastructure within government-run schools. The movement seeks to move beyond policy discussions and direct political accountability toward the physical state of public education facilities, demanding that the state provide safe, functional, and dignified learning environments for students.
The campaign arrives amid growing concerns over the disparity between official educational goals and the ground reality of school maintenance. By focusing on the tangible failures of school infrastructure—ranging from dilapidated buildings to lack of basic sanitation—the CJP aims to highlight a pattern of institutional neglect that disproportionately affects students from marginalized and lower-income backgrounds.
The Campaign Framework
The “School Thik Karo” (Fix the School) initiative is structured as a public accountability movement. Dipke and the CJP are calling for a comprehensive overhaul of how government schools are maintained and monitored. The campaign argues that the current state of many public schools is not merely a result of budget constraints, but a consequence of systemic indifference from political leadership across the spectrum.
Central to the campaign is the accusation that political parties have historically neglected public education facilities in favor of more visible, short-term political wins. Dipke asserts that while political rhetoric often champions the “right to education,” the actual physical spaces where that education occurs are frequently left to crumble. The CJP intends to use the campaign to document specific failures in infrastructure and pressure local and state administrations to implement immediate repairs and long-term maintenance schedules.
The movement encourages community participation, urging parents, teachers, and local citizens to identify and report infrastructure failures. By creating a public record of neglect, the CJP intends to make it impossible for administrators to ignore the physical deterioration of these institutions.
Why It Matters
The significance of the “School Thik Karo” campaign lies in its focus on the “delivery gap”—the space between a government’s stated policy and the actual experience of the citizen. In India, the Right to Education (RTE) Act mandates a certain standard of schooling, yet the physical reality in many rural and urban government schools often falls short of these legal requirements.
When schools lack basic infrastructure—such as functioning toilets, clean drinking water, or structurally sound classrooms—the impact extends beyond aesthetics. Infrastructure failure directly correlates with higher dropout rates, particularly among female students, and creates an environment that is not conducive to learning. By framing the lack of maintenance as a failure of political will, the CJP is challenging the narrative that these issues are inevitable results of poverty or lack of funding.
Furthermore, the campaign highlights the class divide in education. While private institutions maintain high standards of infrastructure, the public system—which serves the vast majority of the population—is often left to decay. This creates a tiered system of citizenship where the quality of a child’s physical learning environment is determined by their socio-economic status.
Background and Context
The Citizens Justice Partnership has established a track record of challenging institutional inertia and demanding transparency from state actors. The launch of “School Thik Karo” represents an expansion of this mandate into the realm of social infrastructure.
Public education in many regions has long suffered from a cycle of “construction without maintenance.” Governments frequently announce the building of new school wings or the distribution of tablets and textbooks, but rarely allocate sustained funding for the upkeep of existing structures. This leads to a scenario where new facilities quickly deteriorate, and older buildings become hazardous.
Historically, accountability for school maintenance has been buried under layers of bureaucracy, from the district education officer to the state ministry. When failures occur, the blame is often shifted between different levels of government or attributed to local contractors. The CJP’s approach seeks to bypass this bureaucratic obfuscation by bringing the failures into the public eye and demanding direct accountability from the political representatives who oversee these budgets.
Analysis: A Strategic Pivot Toward Social Auditing
The CJP’s decision to launch “School Thik Karo” suggests a strategic pivot toward the auditing of basic social service delivery. By targeting the physical state of schools, the organization is shifting the battlefield from abstract legal or policy debates to the undeniable physical reality of institutional decay.
This strategy is particularly effective because infrastructure is empirical. A leaking roof or a collapsed wall is a visible, indisputable fact that cannot be countered with statistical claims of “improved enrollment” or “policy success.” By focusing on these “hard” failures, the CJP is forcing the state to defend its performance based on evidence rather than rhetoric.
Moreover, the CJP’s stated intention to expand this model to the public healthcare sector indicates a broader ambition to create a comprehensive “infrastructure audit” of the state’s social contract. If the organization successfully applies this model to both schools and hospitals, it will be targeting the two most critical pillars of public welfare. This dual focus suggests an attempt to map the systemic failure of the state to maintain the basic tools of survival and advancement for its most vulnerable citizens.
What to Watch Next
The immediate success of “School Thik Karo” will depend on the CJP’s ability to mobilize local communities to document and report failures. Observers should watch for whether the campaign can translate public awareness into specific administrative actions, such as the release of frozen maintenance funds or the initiation of emergency repairs.
Additionally, the upcoming expansion into the healthcare sector will be a critical test of the CJP’s scalability. The public health system often faces even more complex challenges than the education system, including acute shortages of medical equipment and critical failures in sanitation. A similar “Fix the Hospital” movement could create significant pressure on health ministries to address the disparity between urban “super-specialty” hospitals and the crumbling primary health centers in rural areas.
Finally, the reaction of the government will be telling. Whether the state responds with genuine reform or attempts to dismiss the campaign as politically motivated will reveal the current administration’s willingness to accept external scrutiny of its social service delivery.
Conclusion
The “School Thik Karo” campaign is more than a call for repairs; it is a demand for a fundamental shift in how the state views its responsibility toward public infrastructure. By highlighting the neglect of government schools, Abhijeet Dipke and the CJP are asserting that the right to education is meaningless if the environment in which that education happens is unsafe or undignified. As the movement grows and potentially expands into healthcare, it stands as a challenge to the entrenched political culture of neglect, demanding that the state be held accountable for the physical reality of the services it provides.
Sources:
The Hindu – National (https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/dipke-set-to-launch-school-thik-karo-campaign-accuses-parties-of-neglecting-govt-run-schools/article71348483.ece)
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Story synopsis gathered from: The Hindu – National — source
