AISA-RYA to organize Shiksha-Rozgar (Education-Employment) Yatra across Bihar
AISA and RYA held a press conference at Chhajubagh in Patna on 1 February 2021 attended by RYA National President and Agiaon MLA Manoj Manzil, AISA National General Secretary and Paliganj MLA Sandeep Saurabh, RYA State Secretary Sudhir Kumar, AISA State Secretary Sabir Kumar, Joint Secretary Akash Kashyap and Vikas Yadav.
Addressing the press conference MLA Manoj Manzil said that the issues that were being raised on the streets became election issues in the last Bihar Assembly election. Youth were seen to be specially active on these issues, and the resulting pressure led the NDA to make an election promise of 19 lakh jobs. Now the NDA is in power but the government has forgotten its promise on jobs. The unemployment rate in Bihar is even higher than the average unemployment rate in India (7.1). Lakhs of posts are lying vacant in government departments, from the education department to the health department. Thousands of young people are wasting their youth in contract-honorarium jobs from Panchayat level to State level, without any guarantee of social security. Young people agitating for jobs are being showered with lathis and the government is playing with their future and their aspirations. Meanwhile, the Modi government at the centre is intent on selling all government companies including the railways to corporate houses.
AISA General Secretary and Paliganj MLA Sandeep Saurabh said that under cover of the lockdown the Nitish and Modi government are pushing out the children of the poor from education. On the one hand schools, colleges, libraries and hostels are still closed, while on the other hand online education is being forcibly imposed on students. By bring the New Education Policy 2020 they are doing away with the public education system and privatizing education. Under this policy the government plans to close down thousands of government schools, of which more than 3000 schools in Bihar have already been closed down. Pointing out the derelict health facilities in Bihar, Sandeep Saurabh said that the Nitish government is making conditions in government hospitals pathetic and forcibly pushing the poor people of Bihar to expensive private hospitals. The health system in Bihar stood thoroughly exposed during the Corona pandemic. There are no District level emergency facities to fight serious illnesses and there is a dire shortage of doctors, nurses and health workers.
In the light of the above points, a Shiksha-Rozgar Yatra (Education-Employment Yatra) will be organized across Bihar from 8 February to 15 February and thousands of students and youth will march to the Bihar Vidhan Sabha on 1 March 2021.
