The Madhesh revolt in 2015 began on late august and has continued till the first week of October. For weeks the schools, colleges, industries, transportations and offices have been badly affected, many beyond repairs. Already behind schedule after the 2015 Nepal earthquake, the educational institution are facing shortage of working days to complete their syllabus. It is an irony that even after being declared conflict zones, the educational institutions remained shut. In the aftermath of this quake the present strike is adding unwanted and unbearable consequences onto the educational institutions.
After 13 days of schools shutting down, some students decided to make do something against the injustice being done unto them. It all started when a group of students met at "The last Thursday" program organized by Bikalpa an alternative on 27th august 2015 to discuss about how to get the concerned authorities to reopen the schools that had been closed for 2 weeks. They decided to conduct an innovative sit-in protest infront of the District Education office as a symbolic protest.
Using social media, the students formed a Facebook Group under the name of "Biratnagar Students against Banda" and kicked off this innovative campaign and named the campaign "Udaya The Rising".
31st august onwards students from over 18 educational institutes and various civil society members gathered regularly at Traffic Chowk to form a solidarity chain. From there they marched to the District Education Office for the first three days. There they met with the Education Officer and urged him to be take proactive measures to open up the schools. They handed over a written notice to the Officer requesting him to ask the concerned authorities to take notice of the situation and act accordingly. Then they organized mock class room and extra curricular activities in the premises of the Office which was widely covered by the mass media nationwide. The main aim of this campaign was to show symbolic dissatisfaction to both the authorities and the agitating groups.
On the fourth day of the protest, the students went to the Chief District Office and handed over another letter to the Chief District Officer urging him to provide the necessary security to the Schools and the students. With an affirmative response from the Chief District Officer and likeliness of the schools resuming Sunday onwards, the sit-in protest was ended.
To utilize the other remaining days of the week the passionate students organized a leadership workshop and Elevator Pitch in association with Bikalpa an alternative and American corner. Large students turned out in the events, By now students from Secondary Schools to University level students from over 35 institutes had attended the events. In this way a solid platform had been built for students.
After the week long protests, few schools opened sporadically, but the Madhesh Strike took an ugly turn as the strike turned violent and curfew was imposed in many places. The group, upon the request of many students broadened its objective to work beyond the issues of Banda (Strike). Hence on 7th September, the group became "Students for Ideas" with an aim to initiate, incubate and implement ideas that have potential to bring about progressive change and accountability. Bikalpa an alternative provided the required resources and space for the nascent organization. In this way Students for Ideas transformed from a facebook group raising voice against general strikes to an Organization dedicated to ushering new ideas for change and accountability.
In just over of month since its inception, this Organization is budding with Ideas and opportunities. With two weekly programs namely Speakers Corner and Parliamentary Debate conducted in association with Birat College for Professional studies at their facility. Programs on capacity building including leadership and Public speaking workshop have also been organized. And we will be coming up with many more innovative ideas. For change. For progress.
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