Maharashtra agrees to tribal students’ demands; 17-day hunger strike ends

Under pressure from the Bombay high court and following an open letter by Rahul Gandhi urging CM Devendra Fadnavis to intervene, the state government on Saturday stepped in to resolve the indefinite hunger strike by tribal students. Fadnavis held a meeting with representatives of the protesting students and accepted all their demands, leading to the strikes in Pune, Nashik and Nagpur being withdrawn.

Tribal development minister Ashok Uike also met the protesters on Saturday with written assurances on their demands. “The CM has also promised the students that a review meeting will be held after three months to take stock of the progress on the demands and ascertain whether they have been implemented. The students have agreed to withdraw their hunger strike,” he said.

The students had begun the agitation on August 13 over changes to government tribal hostel rules. Their demands subsequently expanded to include hostel facilities and safety, tribal reservations, recruitment to vacant posts, appointments under the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, caste validity certificates and compensation for the families of three tribal girls who died of snakebite at an ashram school in Gadchiroli.

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Shweta Irnak, a student who was part of the hunger strike at the Manjari tribal hostel, said that Uike gave them a written draft of the assurances and they were thus ending their strike. Nisha Sable, who raised the issue with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during his Pune visit, told HT, “Our demand for a central hostel will take more time than the other demands, but we have been assured that it will be addressed within a month.”

Minister Uike said that he had held an encouraging discussion with CM Devendra Fadnavis on the students’ demands on Saturday. “These are children of a society with a rich culture and glorious history. The CM reacted favourably to the demands,” he said.

One of the students’ key demands pertained to government jobs being obtained by those with fake Scheduled Tribe certificates. Student leader Saurabh Bande alleged that more than 12,500 such jobs had been secured by such bogus candidates. Other students said that some of these employees had been recruited in 2018 and 2019 but had failed to submit their caste validity certificates despite the stipulated six-month deadline. Fadnavis assured the students that the government would collate data on such cases and initiate prompt action against the offenders.

The student representatives also thanked Rahul Gandhi, NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar and the National Students Union of India, saying their support had helped bring media attention to the issue and, in turn, compelled the government to accept their demands.