Not sure if you've been following the news about the recent uptick in Maoist violence in India, where the rebels are still vying for communist control of several states. My guess is you have not, because it isn't getting a ton of play in the news over here. Today, however, there was a flurry of stories, thanks to a new Human Rights Watch report, which seems to be showing that the conflict is taking quite a toll on schools as well.In the past month, 14 state-run schools have been attacked. In the past year? Forty two. Interestingly, this appears to be an example of both the human rights group and the rebels using schools to garner the attention of the media and the Indian government. The rebels know that if you come near a school in any conflict it raises the stakes considerably from a political and newsmaking perspective, and HRW knows that the ongoing violence from said rebels doesn't garner the kind of headlines that school attacks do.This is not to say that the Maoist' attacks are without consequences-they're clearly not-but it does seem to me that the current media message-that Maoists are sabotaging schools-might not be the most nuanced portrayal of what's going on in this four-decade-long conflict. It caught my attention, though.Map via
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