NCPCR pulls up Kerala government for 'violation of children's rights'

The Kerala government is under the scanner of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) for the transfer of 1,700 students from the DAV-SCB Medical Public School to other DAV schools in Cuttack. 

The NCPCR has served a show-cause notice on the Principal Secretary, School and Mass Education Department, for not responding to its notices on a complaint regarding a violation of child rights in the shifting process based on allegations that the infrastructure facilities were not up to the mark in the schools that the children were shifted to, said a report by TNIE.

A complaint was filed with the NCPCR by the SCB Medical Public School Parents' Association Secretary Kanhayalal Sharma, claiming that the school building was demolished for the expansion of the SCB Medical College and Hospital and 1,200 students from LKG to Class VII were accommodated at DAV School, CDA. The remaining 500 students from Classes VIII to X were adjusted at DAV School, Gandarpur. The complaint says that the new schools were between five to eight kilometres from DAV-SCB.

The NCPCR has said that since the government has not furnished the reports it requested in the matter, it has decided to initiate an inquiry into the issue. According to the report in TNIE, the Commission said, "Take immediate action in the above matter and make available all necessary records within 20 days of receipt of this letter, failing which the Commission will be constrained to initiate summon proceedings."

"The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 prescribes the right of every child to be educated in their neighbourhood.  Moreover, the students' education is affected by shifting them to two far-away schools," said the association in its complaint.