In current weeks, college college students throughout the nation have launched protests in opposition to the poor circumstances of their colleges. The protests are being known as the “Gen Alpha” protests, a nod to the current “Gen Z” protests that broke out in Delhi and unfold round India.
Protesting college students have sat on the entrance gates to colleges and on roads, locked up employees members, and marched to the native authorities’ places of work to current their calls for. Their demonstrations have prompted the Cockroach Janata Social gathering to launch the College Thik Karo, or Repair the Faculties, marketing campaign.
College students and Cockroach Janata Social gathering activists have uploaded movies to social media, displaying dilapidated lecture rooms, some with plaster crumbling from the roofs, lacking benches and desks, clogged bogs and discoloured ingesting water.
The image rising from the protests is in stark distinction with India’s official information which states that 99% of presidency colleges within the nation have rest room services and 99.6% have ingesting water services.
The info is hosted on the Unified District Info System for Schooling, often known as UDISE Plus.
It contains particulars for every college, such because the variety of college students enrolled, the variety of lecturers on employees, the quantity and standing of lecture rooms, bogs, libraries and laboratories, and details about ingesting water services.
However activists and specialists say there’s a purpose why UDISE information doesn’t at all times correspond to floor realities: the platform collects information from college principals. “The employees feels the necessity to paint a brilliant image of the state of the college as a result of they really feel that their jobs could be in danger in the event that they admit to failures within the college,” stated Aektha Chanda, an activist from Rajasthan.
The mismatch in UDISE information and the bottom actuality turns into extra evident when seen on the stage of particular person colleges.
Scroll examined information from the platform pertaining to 5 of the faculties whose college students have been protesting, in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Whereas UDISE information offered a strong image of the faculties, video proof and testimonies from the protests confirmed that the state of affairs on the bottom was removed from passable.
Scroll despatched queries to the related district schooling officers and different officers, in search of their responses to those discrepancies. This story can be up to date in the event that they reply.
Alwar, Rajasthan
The info that the Authorities UPS Jodhawas college, in Alwar, Rajasthan, submitted to the official portal in 2025-’26 indicated the college had six lecture rooms, out of which just one wanted minor repairs.
The varsity administration additionally claimed that the college had two bogs and that each had been useful. The info additionally indicated that the college had a useful ingesting water system.
However protesting college students have claimed in any other case.
They started a sit-in protest after a slab of a roof in a single unused classroom collapsed in early August. In line with information studies, 174 college students needed to share three lecture rooms as a result of the remainder of the constructing was dilapidated. The scholars demanded that repairs be carried out to the lecture rooms and bogs, {that a} water filter be put in, and that extra lecturers be deployed on the college.
The protests obtained a filip after Ashutosh Ranka, a spokesperson of the Cockroach Janata Social gathering, visited the college to help the scholars. The go to drew specific consideration after he received right into a heated argument with Bharatiya Janata Social gathering staff, who allegedly tried to bar him from coming into. After the protests and Ranka’s go to, authorities promised to hold out the mandatory repairs.
A Class 10 pupil from the college, who spoke to Scroll on the situation of anonymity, stated that college students had suffered significantly in recent times on account of the poor infrastructure and services. “Each time it rained, the classroom roof leaked and solely three rooms had been usable, forcing us to cram in there,” she stated. She added that the college solely obtained electrical energy for 2 hours a day, rendering the followers ineffective more often than not. Additional, the college’s bogs had been unhygienic, and college students and lecturers needed to clear them.
The coed famous that repairs had begun now, however for the second, they’d to make use of the identical lecture rooms. “If they do not maintain their promise, we’ll protest once more,” she stated. “We fought for the appropriate causes so there is no such thing as a concern, so we’ll do it once more if needed.”
Jaipur, Rajasthan
The info filed by the administration of the Authorities Seth Anandilal Poddar Badhir Senior Secondary College, for speech and listening to impaired college students, indicated that the college had 28 lecture rooms for 599 college students, and that the lecture rooms didn’t want any repairs, main or minor. Additional, in line with the info, the entire eight bogs within the college had been in a useful situation, as was its ingesting water facility. The info additionally confirmed that the college had 50 lecturers.
However the college’s protesting student contradicted a few of these claims.
In line with information studies, earlier this month, one of many college students had been injured after ceiling plaster had fallen on them. The movies that college students posted on social media captured different issues, resembling crumbling, dilapidated buildings, and unhygienic and non-functional bogs. In line with studies, additionally they decried ingesting water shortages, in addition to a scarcity of lecturers.
Kishunpur, Uttar Pradesh
Within the information submitted to the federal government portal, the administration of Sarvodaya Inter College in Kishunpur had declared that it had 19 lecture rooms for a faculty energy of 1,883 college students, of which solely six wanted minor repairs. Additional, in line with the info, the entire 5 bogs within the college had been useful. The varsity additionally declared it had electrical energy out there on campus, in addition to a library.
However the college’s college students went on a protest concerning the dire infrastructure on the establishment. In a single news report, the district inspector of colleges lists a number of the college students’ complaints, together with that the college had damaged benches and chairs, leaking roofs, a scarcity of ingesting water, poor sanitation, a scarcity of followers and erratic electrical energy. The scholars additionally said that the college didn’t have a library. The inspector said that steps had been being taken to deal with the issues raised by the scholars.
One other college within the state, the Gangwa Ka Dera Main College, claimed that the college was approachable by all-weather street. The varsity’s college students, nonetheless, walked a five-kilometre stretch to the district Justice of the Peace’s workplace to demand a street to their college.
Gaya, Bihar
In line with the info submitted by the Simuara Center College, in Gaya, the college had 11 lecture rooms, out of which 4 wanted main repairs. The administration claimed that each the college’s bogs had been useful and that ingesting water services had been additionally useful.
However college students of the college marched 4 kilometres to the sub-divisional workplace and demanded that authorities repair the college’s issues – they stated these included dysfunctional bogs, poor electrical energy provide, lacking followers, poor water high quality and the poor high quality of their noon meals.
College students in different colleges, resembling in Kishunpur, had additionally talked about the issue of the dearth of followers, which left them in immense discomfort, notably by way of sizzling summer time months. Nonetheless, the federal government portal doesn’t embody any info on the supply of followers in colleges.
Chhatarpur, Madhya Pradesh
Within the information it submitted to the portal, the administration of the HSS Tatam College in Chhatarpur district, Madhya Pradesh said that the college was approachable by an all-weather street.
College students, nonetheless, conducted a 18-hour lengthy agitation and walked 40 km in the direction of the district headquarters to demand a street to their college. The scholars claimed that the street was severely uncared for, and have become notably unusable in the course of the monsoons.
Unreliable information
Previously, allegations have emerged about colleges being pressured to submit beneficial information. In 2023, for example, information was reported that schooling officers had been allegedly instructing colleges in Maharashtra to submit false information on the portal.
Jean Dreze, an economist who has surveyed colleges in Jharkhand, stated that information assortment on colleges was important, however argued that sure information factors on the portal had been tough to consider, such because the 2025-’26 determine of 99% for presidency colleges with rest room services. “In Jharkhand too, 99% of colleges supposedly have bogs,” he stated. “It’s bogus. If you pay a go to to the faculties, you possibly can clearly see that that isn’t the reality.”
Anil Roy, an schooling activist from Bihar, echoed these considerations. “For those who go examine the faculties, the bogs are mendacity unused as a result of there is no such thing as a one to scrub them they usually have stopped being useful,” he stated.
In Rajasthan, a state seeing a number of the most intense protests, crumbling college infrastructure has been a serious concern.
Final 12 months, in July, part of a classroom roof collapsed in a faculty in Jhalawar district, killing seven college students and injuring 27 different college students. In line with information reports, college students seen particles start to fall and warned lecturers about it, however had been instructed to stay quiet. At round 8 am, the roof gave manner, burying 35 college students.
The issue with the self-reporting information system is obviously obvious within the case of this college.
In its 2024-’25 and 2023-’24 information, the college had said that it had 4 lecture rooms, of which solely two wanted minor repairs. The varsity’s present information on the federal government portal signifies that each one the 4 lecture rooms are in good situation.
Chanda stated that after the July 2025 incident, the Rajasthan authorities compiled an inventory of colleges that had unsafe buildings, then determined to demolish 2,699 schools and make repairs to round2,000 schools. “After the incident, the federal government demolished many faculties, however not all colleges had been repaired,” Chanda stated. “Some colleges briefly moved to different spots, however aside from that, not a lot was achieved.”
Chanda stated that she had noticed that government-designated “mannequin colleges”, tended to have good infrastructure. “However you go one kilometre away and you will see a faculty that’s virtually falling aside,” she stated.
The absence of water and sanitation services had emerged as a key downside in her surveys of colleges, notably for feminine college students. She defined that many moms stated that they wished to ship their daughters to high school however that the dearth of bogs was a serious impediment. “They inform me the circumstances are usually not good. College students are having to go house to make use of the bathroom or to drink water,’ she stated.
Activists are hopeful concerning the protests. “I’ve at all times been of the assumption that the advance of colleges can solely occur as soon as it turns into a folks’s motion,” Chanda stated. “I believe that point has lastly arrived.”
