Education in Bastar: How Good Samaritans, Adivasi youth are rebuilding schools

On a recent bright afternoon, after the midday meal, children at two primary schools, one in Sukma and the other in Dantewada, both districts carved out of Bastar, settled into their leisure time. Two young instructors handed out papers and sketches, and for others a few leaves lying nearby, asking the children to draw or arrange whatever they wished.

The instructors (Pranith Simha, and Ashish Kumar Shrivastava) recall that they expected reflections of Jal, Jungle, Jameen aur Khet (water, forest, land, and fields) which are the images that capture the beauty of undivided Bastar in Chhattisgarh, part of the Dandakaranya forest region south of the Vindhya mountains. Instead, the children sketched vivid scenes of conflict. Some used leaves to represent military camps or guns, while others dr