The Punjab government has ordered to rename 56 state-run schools that had reference to any caste or community in their existing name.
The move, by state education department, comes a month after Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains asked for a list of government schools, which were named after a particular caste or community or had any objectionable word in its name. As per the report compiled by the education department following inputs received from districts, 56 such primary schools have been identified. The orders have been issued assigning them a new name by dropping the reference to caste or community.
An analysis of the list shows that majority 28 schools had ‘Bazigar’ attached to their names, mainly because they are located in colonies inhabited by the population from Bazigar community. Bazigar is a notified Scheduled Caste community in Punjab.
However, two schools, one each in Ludhiana and Muktsar, have written to the department that their village panchayats do not want the school to be renamed and want to continue with ‘Bazigar Basti’ reference in their name. The department has put renaming of these two schools on hold.
Other castes and communities which found mention in names of schools, based on the localities where they were located, include — Balmiki basti, Sansi vehra, Sikligar, julaahey, Boriya basti, Marasiyaan and Julaahey basti — all of them being notified SC communities in Punjab, the state with the highest SC population in the country.
Of 56 schools which have been renamed, highest 12 are in Patiala, seven in Mansa, six in Nawanshahr, four each in Gurdaspur and Sangrur, three each in Bathinda, Barnala, Muktsar and Fatehgarh Sahib, two each in Faridkot, Ludhiana, Malerkotla, and one each in Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, Moga, Pathankot and Mohali.
