On Wednesday, a Station House Officer allegedly misbehaved with parents, including women, protesting a school shutdown in Lakshadweep’s Agatti island. Police briefly detained activists after they protested during a school reopening function attended by Vikranth Raja A, IAS, second link officer of the Advisor to the Administrator.
The protest staged by the School Management Committee (SMC) demanded the revocation of an order directing to shift of PM Shri Govt JB School (South) to the North school building. The order, dated 11 May 2025, says it is decided for “streamlining physical and human resources of educational institutions of various islands”.
Another school in Androth Island is also closed.
SMC states the move is in direct violation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, which directs that for children in classes I-V, a school shall be established within a walking distance of one km of the neighbourhood.
They are also angered by the lack of consultation by the administration with parents or representatives before making the decision.
Hussunul Jamhar, chairperson of the Agathi All Party Action Council, told Maktoob that now children in the south will have to travel four kilometres to get to the school. The decision will impact more than 200 students who have no time to make arrangements for the sudden decision.
Jamhar, who was briefly detained for leading the sloganeering during the protest, said the SHO manhandled parents for protesting and allegedly used abusive language towards women. A video accessed by Maktoob shows the officer pushing women with his batons in the absence of any female police personnel.
The SMC has filed a petition in the Kerala High Court against the shutdown of the school.
“We are only governed by executives,” the DYFI leader said, pointing out that no people’s representatives have been involved in decision-making in Lakshadweep.
Islanders have been in agony since the Indian government appointed Praful Khoda Patel, the first non-bureaucrat administrator in Lakshadweep’s history, in 2020. The close aide of Narendra Modi introduced a slew of policies that led to widespread outrage, gaining global attention in 2021.
Patel terminated hundreds of temporary government staffers, banned animal slaughter, closed schools, disqualified candidates with two children from contesting elections, lifted a decades-long liquor ban, and imposed a draconian detention law months after he took charge.
Earlier this week, Kerala High Court deferred the implementation of a government order mandating Hindi as the third language in Lakshadweep schools, depriving students of the option to choose Arabic or Mahal languages previously available to them.
During the hearing, the Court questioned the Lakshadweep Administration on whether any study had been conducted to assess the necessity and impact of changing the existing language options. In response, the Administration’s counsel admitted that no such study was undertaken before issuing the order.
