Gadchiroli snakebite tragedy puts Maharashtra’s aided ashram school safety system under scrutiny as government orders statewide audit and acts against Japatlai school
By Vivek Bhavsar
Mumbai: Three tribal girls died after six students were bitten by a venomous snake while sleeping on the floor of a government-aided ashram school in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district. The tragedy at Japatlai in Dhanora taluka has now triggered action extending far beyond one institution. The Maharashtra government has permanently withdrawn the school’s affiliation, ordered students to be shifted elsewhere, initiated action against those responsible and announced a third-party audit of aided ashram schools across the state.
The incident has also reopened a basic question that successive policies on tribal residential education have attempted to address: Why should any child living in a residential school still have to sleep on the floor?
The question assumes greater importance because Maharashtra has, over the years, undertaken large-scale programmes to improve residential facilities for tribal students. One such initiative was Kayapalat Abhiyan, implemented earlier in government ashram schools and government hostels under the Tribal Development Department.
Additional Chief Secretary Manisha Verma, who had headed the Tribal Development Department during that period, recently recalled the programme in a personal article published on LinkedIn.
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7493727473952759808
Her account is referred to here only as a historical record of an earlier administrative initiative and not in connection with the present Gadchiroli inquiry or as a comment on the current Tribal Development Department.
The Gadchiroli Tragedy
The Japatlai ashram school is a government-aided residential institution. Reports after the incident said students were sleeping on mats spread on the floor when a snake entered the premises and bit six girls. Three of them subsequently died. The absence of beds immediately became one of the central issues in the government’s examination of the tragedy.
Tribal Development Minister Ashok Uike said the school had received financial grants and that provision for beds formed part of the allocation. If beds were not provided despite this, he described it as a serious breach of the prescribed norms. The government also questioned earlier inspections of the institution.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis directed permanent cancellation of the school’s permission and action against the official who had reportedly submitted a favourable inspection report despite deficiencies. He also called for a comprehensive mechanism to inspect ashram schools, including those located in remote areas.
Departmental Inquiry Finds Serious Lapses
Subsequent developments have made the case even more significant. A departmental inquiry found serious deficiencies in student safety, staff attendance, residential arrangements, food quality and overall administration at the Japatlai institution.
The inquiry also found that the institution had allegedly inflated student strength to obtain grants in violation of rules. Following the inquiry, the Tribal Development Department permanently withdrew the school’s government affiliation and ordered its remaining students to be shifted to other ashram schools.
An FIR was also registered against the headmaster and two hostel superintendents in connection with the deaths. The state’s response therefore indicates that the issue was not regarded merely as an unavoidable snakebite incident. It has developed into an examination of the school’s residential conditions, inspection system and institutional accountability.
Statewide Audit of 553 Aided Ashram Schools
The government has now ordered a third-party audit of 553 aided ashram schools across Maharashtra, with a 90-day deadline to identify deficiencies. Tribal Development Minister Ashok Uike has said institutions found lacking in basic facilities could face closure. The audit is also expected to be compared with an earlier third-party survey conducted in 2017.
The government has indicated that inspections will focus on whether aided residential schools are actually providing the facilities for which grants and permissions are given. Officials have also been directed to strengthen inspection of institutions in remote areas rather than confining visits to schools located along easily accessible routes.
During his visit to the Gadchiroli school, Uike inspected sleeping arrangements, bedding, kitchen facilities, drinking water and hygiene. He directed that mesh screens be installed in hostels to prevent snakes, scorpions and mosquitoes from entering and that grass and bushes surrounding residential premises be cleared regularly. The minister also announced that ashram schools across Maharashtra would be inspected at least twice a year, with visits photographically documented.
An Earlier Maharashtra Effort: Kayapalat
The present action against aided ashram schools comes against the backdrop of Maharashtra’s earlier efforts to improve infrastructure in government-run tribal institutions. In her LinkedIn article titled “Kayapalat (Transformation)”, Manisha Verma recalled how, during her tenure as head of the Tribal Development Department, the state undertook a mission-mode programme for government ashram schools and government hostels.
According to her account, the programme eventually covered 502 government ashram schools and 491 hostels, serving nearly 2.5 lakh students. She stated that the programme required nearly ₹200 crore, which was secured through Central Assistance from the Government of India. The initiative involved physical surveys of schools and hostels by 125 field teams comprising around 400 officers and employees.
According to the LinkedIn account, the exercise included repairs, modernisation and procurement based on actual institutional requirements. The department procured 30,809 large desks, 37,104 small desks and 22,135 bunk beds, besides dining tables, chairs, cupboards and other furniture through the Government e-Marketplace.
The guiding idea behind Kayapalat was simple: children in government ashram schools and hostels should not have to sleep, eat or study on the floor. Verma has stated that the programme was completed before her transfer from the department.
That historical account is important because it shows that Maharashtra had already recognised, years earlier, that beds, desks and proper dining arrangements are not optional facilities in a residential educational institution.
Two Different Systems Must Not Be Confused
There is, however, a crucial administrative distinction. Kayapalat covered government ashram schools and government hostels. The Japatlai school in Gadchiroli, where the snakebite deaths occurred, is a government-aided ashram school operated by a private institution. The two cannot be treated as the same category.
The Gadchiroli tragedy therefore cannot be presented as evidence that Kayapalat itself failed. Nor should an earlier programme implemented in government institutions be retrospectively linked to deficiencies at one aided institution.
What the incident does raise, however, is a separate public-policy question: Are minimum residential standards uniform and effectively enforced across all institutions in which tribal children live, irrespective of who manages the school?
The present statewide audit of aided ashram schools is intended to answer precisely that kind of question.
Beds Were Already Recognised as a Basic Requirement
Five days before the Gadchiroli deaths, the Tribal Development Department issued a consolidated policy for its government-run tribal hostels, requiring every eligible student to be provided with a cot, mattress, blanket, pillow and bedsheets. That August 5 policy applies to government hostels and not to aided ashram schools such as Japatlai. Yet the distinction once again highlights a wider issue.
Whether a tribal residential institution is run directly by the government or by an aided private management, a safe sleeping arrangement is a basic requirement, not a privilege. The government itself has said that the aided Japatlai school received grants and that beds were part of the facilities expected to be provided. The focus, therefore, shifts from whether rules existed to whether those rules were followed and properly inspected.
The Inspection Question
The Gadchiroli incident has also exposed the importance of field verification. A favourable inspection report had reportedly been submitted despite deficiencies at the institution, prompting the Chief Minister to order action against the inspecting official. That raises a question wider than the availability of beds.
How are aided ashram schools inspected?
How often do officials physically visit residential dormitories?
Are sleeping facilities, kitchens, toilets, medical preparedness and staffing checked on the ground, or only through records?
And when a school receives public grants for particular facilities, who verifies that those facilities actually reach students?
These are now matters for the government’s audit and inquiry mechanisms to establish.
From One School to a Statewide Review
The Gadchiroli tragedy has already resulted in a chain of administrative actions: cancellation of the school’s affiliation, criminal proceedings, relocation of students, action over inspection lapses and a statewide review of aided ashram schools. That makes the coming 90-day audit particularly important. It must do more than count buildings, beds or furniture.
It will need to establish whether institutions receiving government support comply with residential and safety requirements in practice. The audit also presents an opportunity to examine whether inspection systems are sufficiently independent, regular and capable of identifying deficiencies before they result in tragedy.
Maharashtra’s earlier Kayapalat initiative showed that large-scale improvement of tribal residential infrastructure was administratively possible in government institutions. The present challenge is different.
It is to ensure that every residential institution entrusted with tribal children—government-run or government-aided—actually provides the basic facilities and safeguards prescribed for those children.
The Question After Three Deaths
The three deaths at Gadchiroli should therefore be examined on their own facts and through the findings of the present inquiry. The responsibility for what happened at Japatlai must be determined by the competent authorities on the basis of evidence. But the broader policy question cannot be avoided.
If beds and safe residential facilities have long been recognised as essential, and if government grants were available for such facilities, how did dozens of children at one aided ashram school still end up sleeping on the floor? The answer does not lie in linking the tragedy to an earlier government programme that covered a different category of institutions. It lies in establishing what happened to the funds, facilities, inspections and accountability mechanisms at the school concerned—and whether similar gaps exist elsewhere in Maharashtra’s aided ashram school network.
The state government’s audit of 553 aided ashram schools now has an opportunity to answer that question. For the families of the three girls who died, that scrutiny has come too late. For thousands of other tribal children living in residential schools across Maharashtra, what the government finds—and what it does after finding it—could prove far more consequential.
Editor’s Note
Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this report referred to a LinkedIn article by Additional Chief Secretary Manisha Verma while examining the Gadchiroli ashram school tragedy. The presentation could have created an unintended impression that her recollection of the earlier Kayapalat initiative constituted criticism of the present Tribal Development Department, its minister or its officials.
The article has been revised to clarify that Verma’s LinkedIn post is cited solely as a historical account of Kayapalat, an initiative implemented in government ashram schools and government hostels during her tenure in the Tribal Development Department. The Gadchiroli incident occurred at a government-aided ashram school, which is a separate category.
TheNews21’s examination of the Gadchiroli incident, present-day deficiencies and institutional accountability is based independently on the facts of the incident, subsequent government action, departmental inquiry and the statewide audit ordered by the Maharashtra government.
