The Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) plans to turn a coaching centre for school students on Bhutni, an erosion- and flood-prone islet in Malda district, into a full-fledged school after two schools were reportedly swallowed by the Ganga. The proposal follows a sharp rise in enrolment at the centre, which now serves 160 students.
Dhrubajyoti Saha, the DYFI’s state secretary, visited Subodh Choudhury Pathshala in Hiranandapur on Wednesday, nearly a year after it was established. He distributed Durga Puja gifts to students and their families, while the People’s Relief Committee held a health camp to assess the physical and mental health of the children following the floods.
The centre currently provides regular tuition in reading, writing and arithmetic. It began with 50 students but has reached 160 in one year, according to Debajyoti Sinha, a Manikchak resident and the Malda district secretary of Citu, who oversees its daily operations.
“Severe riverbank erosion and recurrent flooding have taken a toll on education across the islet,” Saha said, according to the report. He said the Pathshala was started last year with limited financial resources to support underprivileged children affected by the calamities, and that the organisation now aspired to gradually convert it into a full-fledged school as enrolment and attendance continued to rise.
Sinha said the centre had initially been planned as a one-year initiative, but the conditions on Bhutni had led its organisers to consider a longer-term arrangement. He said demand for regular and structured education had increased among children from erosion- and flood-affected families. Discussions are under way with the DYFI’s state leadership on the possibility of establishing a school, he added.
The education disruption is linked to the islet’s exposure to riverbank erosion and flooding. According to the report, two schools have already been lost to the Ganga. The centre’s organisers say the expansion is intended to prevent education from stopping altogether when families and public facilities are affected by recurring calamities.
The proposed school would be named after Subodh Choudhury, a former English teacher at Mathurapur High School and a former minister of state in the erstwhile Left Front government. Choudhury was elected MLA from Manikchak three times and was also known for his research on Malda’s folk culture.
The proposal has drawn criticism from the BJP. Ajay Ganguly, president of the party’s Malda South organisational district, described it as too ambitious and alleged that it was politically motivated. He said the state administration had worked to keep education running in Bhutni through offline and online modes during the calamity, and claimed that the DYFI initiative was unlikely to materialise. The next step for the proposal will be discussions between the centre’s organisers and the DYFI’s state leadership.
