On August 15, 2026, India will mark its 80th Independence Day. Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), wants the anniversary to begin with a concrete promise: improving government schools in villages. He announced on Monday, August 10, 2026, that the CJP would launch a nationwide campaign on Independence Day. The initiative asks parents, citizens, and village leaders to work together on what the organisation calls the “neglect of rural educational infrastructure.”

The CJP began as an online satirical platform and later moved its campaigns to the streets. It gained wide attention with a 36-day agitation at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, a well-known protest site, against examination irregularities. That protest ended on July 25 after the resignation of then Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Earlier in August, the CJP held a two-day strategy meeting at Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar in Maharashtra and decided to continue as a youth movement instead of entering electoral politics. It also announced a “Kya Bolti Public?” campaign for nationwide outreach.

In a video message, Dipke said he would launch the initiative from his own village, Hingoli in Maharashtra, by approaching the village head with a request to improve local government schools. He framed the campaign as a response to decades of neglect.

The coming 15th August is our 80th Independence Day. But, if anything has been neglected or ignored the most in the last 80 years, it is the government schools in our villages.

Dipke questioned why infrastructure achievements in national capitals have not reached rural classrooms.

We have made a new Parliament, a new PM house. Why have we not been able to build new schools in our villages? Do we not consider the children of farmers and labourers the future of our country?

He described conditions that many village children still face, including long walks to school and missing basic facilities.

Even today, village children have to walk a long distance to go to school. After going there, they don’t find water or toilet facilities. I feel that on this 15th August, if we should pay attention to anything, if we should make a new start, we should start by improving our government schools.

Noting particular difficulties for girls, Dipke emphasised that access to functional washrooms must be a priority. His message framed the campaign as a direct response to years of inaction, turning the symbolism of Independence Day into a call for tangible change.

The Sarpanch Challenge

As part of the campaign, the CJP has issued an appeal to sarpanches, the elected heads of village councils, across the country to take up the task of improving government schools. Dipke said he would personally approach the village head in Hingoli and urged other village leaders to do the same.

The organisation described this part of the campaign as a “Sarpanch Challenge.” Under the challenge, the CJP will publicly recognise village heads who improve their schools by sharing before-and-after photographs on its social media platforms. Credit will be given to the sarpanches concerned.

We will give you credit so that after seeing you, after seeing the schools that you have improved, many other village heads also start improving schools in their villages.

A Citizen-Led Social Audit

Beyond appealing to village heads, the CJP wants ordinary citizens to check conditions on the ground. The organisation announced a citizen-led social audit of government schools. A social audit is a review of public services by the people who use them. Parents whose children study in government schools have been asked to visit the institutions and check for electricity, clean drinking water, functional washrooms, and mid-day meals, the cooked lunch programme meant for schoolchildren.

Dipke urged parents to document what they find.

You go to your children’s schools and see if basic facilities are available. See if there is electricity, water… Do your children get washroom facilities? Do they get mid-day meals? If not, you make videos of it. Because your children’s schooling should be good. That is your fundamental right.

The CJP also said it will soon issue a printable audit form through which citizens can record available and missing facilities. The form will be shared through a link on campaign videos on the CJP’s official social media platforms.

Campaign Participation

Completed forms and video evidence can be emailed to

The campaign’s stated goal is to ensure that children of farmers and wage labourers studying in village schools have access to facilities comparable to those available to children in cities.

Dipke closed his video with a direct appeal.

Let us all make a promise to the children who live in villages that we will improve their schools. Together, we can do this.

He ended with the message “Real India lives in villages.”

The campaign now shifts attention to whether local leaders and parents can use public documentation and recognition to create pressure for better school infrastructure. In the days before the launch, Dipke had also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to use his Independence Day address to speak to the country’s youth. With the CJP remaining outside electoral politics as a youth movement, this schools campaign becomes one of its most visible attempts to turn online energy and street protest experience into a sustained civic push.