NMDC's CSR funding supports its infrastructure and continued operations. Aastha Gurukul is transforming lives in Dantewada.

***** From Conflict to Classrooms: How  Aastha Gurukul Is Rebuilding Lives in Dantewada alone reaching around Rs 3.5 crore.  ****

DANTEWADA: In a region that has lived through decades of violence and disruption, a residential school in Jawanga’s Education City is offering children a different route into adulthood — through education, stability and the possibility of a life far removed from the circumstances that shaped their childhood.

Aastha Vidya Mandir, also known as Aastha Gurukul, is currently home to around 1,300 students from Class I to XII. Located in Education City at Jawanga in Dantewada district, the state-run residential school has become an important educational institution for children from communities that have borne the brunt of prolonged conflict. More than half of its students are estimated to have been directly or indirectly affected by violence associated with Left-wing extremism (LWE).

The school gives priority to children orphaned due to such violence, children whose parents were involved in the insurgency and students from affected areas, particularly in Dantewada and the wider Bastar region.

For some students, the impact of the conflict is established even before they enter a classroom.

Principal Ravindra Panigrahi said the school relies on official documentation while admitting children under the special priority criteria. Police certification confirming that a student's area has been affected by LWE activity and FIR records relating to the death of a family member are among the documents considered.

The objective, however, goes beyond providing accommodation and access to schooling. The school has attempted to create an environment where children who have grown up amid violence can recover, learn and imagine a future beyond the circumstances they inherited.“Those who have been affected by violence are given counselling sessions from experts. Accomplished persons like IAS officers also provide special lectures and interact with the students to inspire them,” Panigrahi said.

The school follows the CBSE curriculum, while classrooms are equipped with smart-screen systems to incorporate technology into teaching. For students coming from remote villages, some of which have experienced prolonged conflict and limited access to educational infrastructure, the facilities represent a significant change in their learning environment.

“The operations are funded by NMDC CSR and administration is with the state government in the Education City. The classrooms are equipped with smart-screen systems to teach students using state-of-the-art technology,” Panigrahi said.

Aastha Gurukul was launched in 2013, with NMDC providing CSR support for the development of its infrastructure. The campus includes separate residential buildings for boys and girls and an auditorium with a capacity of more than 1,000 students.

The financial commitment has continued well beyond construction. NMDC's CSR funding supports the school's operations, with annual operational expenditure alone reaching around Rs 3.5 crore.

The arrangement has created a public-corporate model in which the school remains a state-run institution, with its administration under the state government, while NMDC's CSR funding supports its infrastructure and continuing operations.

For a child who has lost a parent to violence, grown up in a village caught in conflict or been born into a family touched by the insurgency, the significance of a residential school can extend well beyond education.

The campus provides a structured environment, formal schooling, counselling and exposure to people and opportunities that may otherwise remain distant for children from remote parts of Bastar.

More than a decade after its launch, Aastha Gurukul has become part of a broader effort to address the consequences of conflict through education. Its classrooms are now filled with children studying under the CBSE curriculum, its residential buildings house students from across the region, and its campus offers a daily routine far removed from the violence that affected many of their families.

In Dantewada, where the legacy of conflict has often been measured in lives lost and communities disrupted, the school's longer-term impact is ultimately being seen in what its students are able to do after they leave Jawanga — and that education gives them the freedom to choose a future defined not by where they came from, but by where they want to go.