The Hindu : Assam's education programme for children of militants

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 05, 2004

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Assam's education programme for children of militants

By Sushanta Talukdar

Children of ULFA militants with their mothers crossing the border to enter India during the Royal Bhutan's Army's operation against the north-east militants. These children are still in relief camps in police custody . - Photo: Ritu Raj Konwar

GUWAHATI, FEB. 4. The Axom Sarba Siksha Mission, a society under Education Department of Assam, is devising a special mechanism for providing education to the children of the militants of the banned United Liberation Front of Asom and the National Democratic Front of Boroland, who have been handed over by the Royal Bhutan Government.

The State Home Secretary, B.M. Mazumdar, on Tuesday told The Hindu that the mission had been instructed to arrange for the education of all those children who were now living with their "combatant" mothers in jails.

The Royal Bhutan Government handed over 27 children, in the age group of two to 12 years, on December 24 following operation "All Clear" in which 30 camps of ULFA, the NDFB and the Kamatapur Liberation Organisation were destroyed. The Assam Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi, on December 30 announced that the Government would take full care of these children and provide them better education and health care.

The children, accompanied by their mothers and other combatant women, were brought to Tamulpur in Nalbari disrict in two buses from Bhutan's bordering district Samdrup Jongkhar, where the Royal Bhutan Army had kept them since December 15.

Mr. Mazumdar said that the Mission Director, Subhash Chandra Das, had been asked by the Chief Minister to work out a detailed programme for these children.

The Mission has "mainstreamed" 1.6 lakh "out-of-school" children in the age group 7-9 years into regular schools. It had prepared a bridge course — a condensed programme for accelerated learning of varying duration of three months to one year for "out-of-school" children in the age group 5-14 years of age.

Mr. Mazumdar said that since the militants' children could also be categorised as "out-of-school" children, it would be easier for the Mission to workout a suitable mechanism for providing education to them even while they live with their combatant mothers in jails.

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Assam's education programme for children of militants