Garbage, water shortages and broken fans: inside CJP’s ‘School Theek Karo’ campaign

The entrance to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) high school in South Delhi’s Chhattarpur, Bhatti Mines, lies in the middle of a garbage dump. During the monsoon, residents say the students have to make their way through accumulated garbage and floodwater to reach the campus. The school, which has a strength of about 2500 students, has another entrance, but it offers little respite. It is located through an abandoned park, beside half-built brick structures that residents allege are the other half of the school.

Inside the school, other problems remain. Questions about the unavailability of drinking water, functioning fans, and washrooms remain unanswered. For parents and residents in the area, these are not new concerns.

These are some of the issues that the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) documented through its ‘School Theek Karo’ (fix the school) campaign, which aims to improve schools across the country, ensure better access to education for children, and to encourage parents and local residents to demand better facilities in government schools.

The campaign was launched on August 15th by CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke at a government school in his native village of Santuk Pimpri in Maharashtra’s Hingoli district. As part of the campaign, CJP volunteers have been visiting government schools, upon requests from local residents, and documenting basic facilities through audit forms covering aspects such as drinking water, teaching staff, quality of mid-day meals and sanitation facilities.

On August 17th, CJP co-convenor Saurav Das and other volunteers visited two government schools in Sanjay Colony, Bhatti Mines- Municipal Corporation Delhi (MCD) Primary Co-ed School and MCD Co-ed High School.

A video posted by CJP showed broken washrooms, non-functional water taps and damaged roofs. A subsequent ground visit, however, revealed a more complicated picture.

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At the MCD primary school, water dispensers appeared to have been fixed, and the washrooms were functional. However, parents present at the site said access to drinking water remained inconsistent. They alleged that children often do not have drinking water and that parents sometimes receive calls from the school when their children need to use the toilet.

A member of the school administration, speaking on condition of anonymity, said water scarcity remained an issue because the school uses borewell water from the nearby temple. School staff also alleged that they had submitted multiple applications and complaints regarding the lack of water facilities but had not received a positive response.

Then there exists another concern that is harder to fix with a maintenance request: monkeys. Parents on site were seen taking their 7-year-old son to the doctor after he had been bitten by a monkey while trying to use the washroom. A staff member, who did not wish to be named, alleged that around two to three children are bitten or attacked by monkeys every month, including while trying to use the washrooms.

For CJP volunteers and Resident Welfare Association (RWA) members who accompanied the visit, the problems point to gaps that they say require government intervention. “A teacher’s job is to teach, but maintaining the infrastructure of a government school is ultimately the government’s responsibility,” said a member of the RWA who did not wish to be named.

At the neighbouring MCD high school, the concerns are far more extensive. The school has similar problems with washrooms, non-functioning fans, and a lack of water dispensers. The washrooms that were seen to be non-functional in CJP’s video, however, could not be independently corroborated during the ground visit because the school authorities did not allow inspection of them.

“As the fans are not functioning, many children faint in the heat,” said an RWA member who accompanied the CJP team.

Nikhil, an alumnus of the school, who now works with an NGO providing primary education to underprivileged children, said that the deterioration of the facilities took place over time. “Over the years, the facilities and overall condition of the school have deteriorated,” he said.

The school’s infrastructure problems are also tied to a long-running dispute over the land on which it stands. The land was notified as part of the Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary in 1991 by the Forest Department. The Directorate of Education (DoE), however, argues that the school has been functioning on the site since the 1980s and that the land was donated to the Delhi government by the Gram Sabha in 1986. The Forest Settlement Officer, in an order passed in September 2025, accepted the DoE’S claim regarding the land’s status and excluded 36 bighas from the proposed forest area.

However, according to the order, the land cannot be removed from the Wildlife Sanctuary through those proceedings, and the Education Department was directed to approach the competent forum separately. The construction of a permanent school building therefore remains unresolved.

For a school serving around 2,500 students, the legal dispute is only one part of the problem. Even getting into the school can become difficult during the rains, when the route through the garbage dump is flooded.

The same questions about the basic functioning of the government schools surfaced again in Delhi when CJP volunteers visited the Government Co-ed Senior Secondary School in Tulsi Nagar, Inderlok on August 24, 2026.