PFI Ban: What School Shutdown In Assam Means For Group’s Education Agenda

More emphasis was on distribution of scholarships and raising awareness on education rather than on opening schools.

All schools and centres established by the proscribed Popular Front of India (PFI) and its affiliates in Assam are expected to shut down within a few days, following a countrywide raid in which 109 members of the group were arrested by National Investigation Agency(NIA) and other agencies and a subsequent ban was imposed.

Police and security agencies are gathering information on all establishments set up by these banned organisations that include schools in remote riverine islands (chars) of the state.

“Action would be initiated against all centres set up by the PFI and its affiliates in Assam. Information is being compiled on all the establishments that were established over the years ever since these outfits became active in the state,” said State Police Chief Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta. The same was also confirmed by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

Crackdown Extends to Affiliated Education Centres

However, the number of schools that were set by these outfits and the number of children enrolled remain a matter of speculation. So far there is definite information about one school at Ravanar Char (riverine island) in the Barpeta district which was attended by a handful of students in the locality.

When this correspondent visited the riverine island two years ago, locals informed that all equipment in the school were transferred by the PFI owing to threat from river bank erosion. The school was not re-established till the time when the ban was clamped.

PFI in Assam: A Timeline Of Agendas

PFI was focussed upon education, health and creating awareness on vital issues soon after it was launched in Assam in 2014. Some zones inhabited by Bengal-origin Muslims were meticulously chosen for the work that was mostly in the districts of Western Assam.

In 2019, a decision was taken to support five ‘winnable’ non-BJP candidates in the state for the general elections as disclosed by some PFI functionaries.

All these schemes were part of an All-India programme implemented in many states simultaneously by the PFI and its affiliate organisations. A 10-page booklet in Assamese released in 2018 detailed all the projects that were being executed by these organisations in the country.

In education, the booklet begins with a reference to the UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report released in 2016 which mentions the deplorable conditions of schools in the country. It notes that “Popular Front of India has always attached importance to education. Every year two operations are executed from the central level every year. ‘School Chalo’ programme has been unveiled to ensure that not a single child is deprived from going to school…” the booklet said, adding that financial assistance have been offered to many deserving students.

During 2017-18, in the ‘School Chalo’ programme, Rs 1.28 cr was offered as assistance to 27361 students across 16 states in the country. Almost an equal amount was distributed to 1845 students who were identified as ‘brilliant’ in different states. A scheme called “Sarva Shiksha Gram Prakalpa’ was also launched in 11 villages in three states.

Does PFI’s Education Manifesto Add Up?

The booklet did not give the break-up for any individual state. A former middle-rung functionary of PFI in Assam’s Goalpara claimed that there would not be more than five schools that were started in remote locations where other schools did not exist.

A senior police officer engaged in compiling information on PFI and its affiliates in Assam was of the opinion that more emphasis was on distribution of scholarships and raising awareness on education by these organisations rather than on opening schools.

“Eventually, an infrastructure would have been created for identification of more students for scholarships and establishing more schools in remote areas which also means more funds flowing in from overseas destinations,” said the officer who did not wish to be named.

(Rajeev Bhattacharyya is a senior journalist in Assam. Views expressed are personal. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed are the authors' own.The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)