Hostel houses SDO office

“My college was far away,” says Anjali. “For the first two weeks, I travelled on a friend’s cycle as I did not have one. It took one and a half hours to reach the college. Then my friend moved to a mess near the college. Since I couldn’t afford a cycle, I gave up my studies,” adds Anjali.

At a time when the Left Front government is trying hard to pacify tribal agitations through dialogues, a visit to Chachol, just 400 kms from Kolkata, shows the deep-root ed neglect of tribals and their aspirations in the state.

In 1995, Chachol College donated some of its land to the government for setting up a girls’ hostel adjacent to the college building so that the tribal girls from faraway places could get an accommodation. The foundation stone, the engravings of which have been erased now, was laid by MLA Upen Kisku. For the last seven years, the hostel meant for scheduled tribe (ST) girls is being used as SDO office — this when ST girls like Anjali are forced to drop out of the college for lack of accommodation.

“We had decided to have sixty seats in the hostel, where preference would be given to the ST girls. Unfilled seats would be then allotted to SC girls and students from other minority communities. We had decided to charge Rs 300 to Rs 350 per month,” says Shankar Kumar Sarkar, a teacher in charge of Chachol College.

The Comptroller and Auditor General, too, mentioned about the hostel in one of its reports. In its report for the financial year ending March 2007, the CAG stated: “One hostel for 60 ST girls at Chachol in Malda district constructed in June 1996 at a cost of Rs 12.13 lakhs was being utilised for accommodating offices of the sub-divisional officer and sub-divisional police officer.”

Initially, the college did not receive any application from tribal girls, so in 2001 the government set up the office of the SDO on some portions of the hostel area. “At first, we were told that it was a temporary arrangement. But a few years later, they took the remaining area also and constructed a treasury office and told us that the SDO office would be permanently located there,” Sarkar adds.

The non-availability of a hostel did not end Anjali’s dreams only. There were many tribal girls like her whose aspirations have been cut short.

Twenty-two-year-old Sumati Hansda was brought up in Kalapukurdanga village near Bolpur. “My father was a sanitation worker and my mother earned her living by gathering dry leaves. I used to go to Visva-Bharati University campus to gather leaves. When I saw the campus, I felt a great urge to study,” says Sumati. After completing her schooling, she made it through the Kalabhavan in Santiniketan, but had to quit after a year, as she had no money to buy art paper and colours.

“I was at home for a year but could not resist the temptation of studying further and left home to join the Chachol College to pursue an honours course in English,” says Sumati. She came with a hope that she could stay at the hostel but was shocked to find that the girls’ hostel had been turned into the SDO office.

“My parents refused to take me back and I had nowhere to go. I found a mess but they charged Rs 700 per month which I could not afford. Also, living in the mess meant walking 3 km everyday to reach the college,” she adds.

She was, however, lucky. Her close friend’s father was moved by her passion to study and agreed to give her Rs 1,200 every month to complete her studies. “I wish I had a hostel to stay in. I could have saved some money and take tuitions,” she says.

But a majority of tribal girls are not lucky as Sumati.

No wonder, of the 2,000 students attending the Chachol College, only nine are ST girls. The district administration seems largely apathetic to the problem.

“We took over the hostel site since there were no applicants, initially. We have held meetings with the district welfare committee to find an alternative site for the hostel,” SDO Debjani Dutta said.

Deblina Hembram, state Minister for Tribal Welfare, said: “Our government has done a lot for the development for tribals in the last 30 years. But in some places there is a room for improvement.”

The girls’ hostel at Chachol is not a lone case. A college meant for SC girls in Nadia district was being used as residence for police personnel. The structure was restored in September 2008 after a report was published in The Indian Express in April 2008.

The CAG report also notes that several such hostels have remained vacant. Eight hostels constructed between December 2001 and August 2005 were vacant for the want of superintendent, matron and other staff.

Five of these hostels did not have furniture, electricity and sanitation facilities. One hostel constructed at Asansol in December 1997 at a cost of Rs 21.25 lakh for accommodating 70 ST male students remained vacant as educational institutions in the area had their own hostels on the campus.