Orissa: schools transformed into refugee camps, students risk losing year

(October 28, 2008) To the tragedy of the persecuted Christians, the devastated churches, and the burned villages, is added the "preoccupation" of students who risk losing the work of this academic year. In the district of Kandhamal, in the state of Orissa, four months before the exam scheduled for March of 2009, 40 schools are still closed or are being used by refugees and police officers as temporary housing. "There are around 300 students in our school. It is occupied by CRPF personnel and we have not been holding any classes for the last two months," says Bhagaban Das, headmaster of the Sarangada High School in Kandhamal. According to estimates provided by the education office in the area, more than two thousand students risk losing a year's work because of the interruption of their classes, and there is a clear atmosphere of "resignation" among students and parents who "do not know what to do." Meanwhile, after the press statement of Sr. Meena in New Delhi, the chief minister of Orissa, Naveen Patnaik, said that he has told police to speed up the investigation into her rape. Manmohan Praharaj, head of the local police, has appeared on television to announce that "we have offered to provide her all security and requested her to cooperate." This is in spite of the fact that Church officials in Orissa have confirmed to the media that at the moment, they have little faith in the local government, after the inadequate protection it offered during the violence. Even eminent leaders in the parliament have questioned the Orissa administration.