India's 'Cockroach' Movement Opens New Front: Campaign for Public School Reform

New Delhi, India – On August 13, Abdul Hafeez, 26, returned to his former primary school in Karisunda village, Bankura district, West Bengal, eastern India. His visit was part of a campaign by the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), a prominent Indian pressure group, to inspect the country's underfunded and dilapidated public schools.

The CJP recently succeeded in forcing Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to resign in July after 37 days of sit-in protest in New Delhi, sparking a wave of Gen Z youth protests nationwide. However, the incident in Bankura turned tragic.

According to Hafeez, hours after his school visit, local workers of the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi allegedly came to his home and assaulted him and his father, Mohammad Mafik. Two days later, the 51-year-old father died from severe injuries.

In response, Suvendu Adhikari, a BJP leader in West Bengal, called the attackers “criminals not linked to the BJP” and promised action. But a day after burying his father, Hafeez told Al Jazeera he remained steadfast in his demand for accountability and reform of the public school system.

“We will fight for justice for my father, but these attacks will not stop us from demanding a better education,” Hafeez said.

“Fix the Schools” campaign

The painful incident marks a new front for the CJP. The group has urged supporters, who previously joined protests in New Delhi, to inspect schools near their homes. They issued a four-point checklist for the “Fix the Schools” campaign: drinking water and functioning toilets; electricity and usable classrooms; boundary walls and campus safety; and midday meals and teacher attendance.

Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the CJP, said: “Abdul went to check the public school in Bengal where he once studied. I am truly angry that people are being killed just for demanding better schools.”

Ashutosh Ranka, co-coordinator of the CJP, was moved after meeting Hafeez's family. He said the group planned to press the government for compensation, but Hafeez proposed naming a school after his father. In Rajasthan, where Ranka lives, the group faced other challenges. On August 14, he joined a sit-in with primary school students in Alwar district demanding more classrooms, clean toilets, and drinking water; local media reported that authorities accepted the demands. However, the BJP-led state government imposed restrictions on outsiders entering public schools and taking photos or videos, citing student privacy, after Ranka announced that CJP volunteers would conduct surveys in multiple places.

Alarming state of affairs

Samina Bano, an education policy expert who has advised several Indian states, said the public education system is “no longer working effectively for people.” She said over the past decade she had found “drunken teachers during surprise checks,” fake contracts in rural areas due to many teachers not wanting to go there, and other systemic failures prevalent in public schools.

“Education in public schools is a sad state. It needs a drastic change,” Bano said, praising the CJP for bringing reform demands into mainstream politics. “They are bringing the issue into discourse, but once people start demanding, real institution-building is needed, which is a different task. It requires the will to reimagine public education in India.”

Media strategy

After the Gen Z protests in New Delhi concluded, the internet was flooded with videos of students from various states complaining about school conditions. They blocked roads, surrounded local government offices, and argued with officials. The CJP is capitalizing on this momentum to launch a new phase in its savvy advocacy strategy, according to political analyst Asim Ali in New Delhi.

“This taps into their strength: social media. They don't need as many volunteers as a traditional political party; they can delegate ground tasks to their social media followers,” Ali explained. “By leveraging social media power, which now reaches the remotest parts of India, the CJP has significantly reduced the organizational costs of a movement.”

However, Ali warned that the approach relying on volunteers lacking political skills, protest experience, or institutional support also makes them vulnerable to violence, as in the Hafeez family case.

Despite this, the bloodshed in the eastern state has not dampened the CJP's resolve. On August 18, Ranka announced on X that several venues in Kolkata had canceled or refused to host CJP meetings with students. “This only reinforces the reality that the BJP is afraid of cockroaches. The Bengal cockroaches will continue to go to public schools and push the government to fix them. The more you obstruct, the stronger we grow,” he wrote.