find the report at given link
Use Monitoring, Redress Mechanisms to Keep Pupils in School
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What India Should DoDevelop clear indicators to detect and address discrimination in schools; lay out appropriate disciplinary measures.Create a system to track every child from enrollment through completion of grade VIIITrain teachers to develop methods for greater interaction among children of varied socio-economic and caste backgrounds.
“India’s immense project to educate all its children
risks falling victim to deeply rooted discrimination by teachers and
other school staff against the poor and marginalized. Instead of
encouraging children from at-risk communities who are often the first in
their families to ever step inside a classroom, teachers often neglect
or even mistreat them.”
(New Delhi) – School authorities in India persistently
discriminate against children from marginalized communities, denying
them their right to education, Human Rights Watch said in a report
released today. Four years after an ambitious education law went into
effect in India guaranteeing free schooling to every child ages 6 to 14,
almost every child is enrolled, yet nearly half are likely to drop out
before completing their elementary education.
The 77-page report, “‘They Say We’re Dirty’: Denying an Education to India’s Marginalized,” documents
discrimination by school authorities in four Indian states against
Dalit, tribal, and Muslim children. The discrimination creates an
unwelcome atmosphere that can lead to truancy and eventually may lead
the child to stop going to school. Weak monitoring mechanisms fail to
identify and track children who attend school irregularly, are at risk
of dropping out, or have dropped out.
“India’s immense project to educate all its children risks falling
victim to deeply rooted discrimination by teachers and other school
staff against the poor and marginalized,” said Jayshree Bajoria,
India researcher and author of the report. “Instead of encouraging
children from at-risk communities who are often the first in their
families to ever step inside a classroom, teachers often neglect or even
mistreat them.”
Detailed case studies examine how the lack of accountability and
grievance redress mechanisms are continuing obstacles to proper
implementation of the Right to Education Act. Human Rights Watch
conducted research for this report in the states of Andhra Pradesh,
Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Delhi, interviewing more than 160 people,
including children, parents, teachers, and a wide range of education
experts, rights activists, local authorities, and education officials.
The Indian government should adopt more effective measures to monitor
the treatment of vulnerable children and provide accessible redress
mechanisms to ensure they remain in the classroom, Human Rights Watch
said. According to the government, nearly half – over 80 million
children – drop out before completing their elementary education.
In drafting the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, the central government recognized exclusion of children as the “single most important challenge in universalizing elementary education.” But many education department officials at state, district, and local levels have been unwilling to acknowledge or accept that discrimination occurs in government schools, let alone attempt to resolve these problems, Human Rights Watch said.
In drafting the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, the central government recognized exclusion of children as the “single most important challenge in universalizing elementary education.” But many education department officials at state, district, and local levels have been unwilling to acknowledge or accept that discrimination occurs in government schools, let alone attempt to resolve these problems, Human Rights Watch said.
“The teacher tells us to sit on the other side,” said “Pankaj,” an
eight-year-old tribal boy from Uttar Pradesh. “If we sit with others,
she scolds us and asks us to sit separately. The teacher doesn’t sit
with us because she says we ‘are dirty.’”
Marginalized groups continue to face discrimination in India despite
constitutional guarantees and laws prohibiting discrimination, Human
Rights Watch said. School authorities reinforce age-old discriminatory
attitudes based on caste, ethnicity, religion, or gender. Children from
Dalit, tribal, and Muslim communities are often made to sit at the back
of the class or in separate rooms, insulted by the use of derogatory
names, denied leadership roles, and served food last. They are even told
to clean toilets, while children from traditionally privileged groups
are not.
“Non-discrimination and equality are fundamental to the Right to
Education Act and yet the law provides no penalties for violators,”
Bajoria said. “If schools are to become child-friendly environments for
all of India’s children, the government needs to send a strong message
that discriminatory behavior will no longer be tolerated and those
responsible will be held to account.”
Most state education departments have failed to establish proper
mechanisms to monitor each child, and intervene promptly and effectively
to ensure they remain in school, Human Rights Watch said. Because there
is no common definition for assessing when a child is considered to no
longer be attending school, various states have different norms: in
Karnataka, students are regarded as having dropped out of school after
seven days of unexplained absence, in Andhra Pradesh it is a month, and
in Chhattisgarh and Bihar it is three months. This lack of a common
definition hinders efforts to recognize and address the problem.
The Right to Education Act provides that children who have dropped
out of school or older children who never attended school should be
offered “bridge courses” to bring them up to speed so they can return to
mainstream schools in an age-appropriate class. But state governments
do not maintain proper records of these children, provide the additional
resources needed for appropriate bridge courses, or track these
children through completion of elementary schooling once they are in an
age-appropriate class.
Children of migrant workers, many belonging to Dalit and tribal
communities, are most vulnerable to dropping out due to lengthy absences
from school while searching for work with their parents. Yet the state
governments do not keep track of these children in any systematic manner
to ensure that they continue their education. The labor departments at
state level are not properly carrying out programs meant for bringing
child laborers back to school. And state education departments are not
following up once a child is admitted to a mainstream school, which
often results in the child’s return to work.
Central and state authorities are not adequately supporting creative
community-based mechanisms envisioned under the Right to Education Act
such as “school management committees.” Parents told Human Rights Watch
that they do not have adequate representation on these committees, and
so they do not complain when there is injustice against their children
because school authorities ignore the complaints or even reprimand the
students. Guidelines adopted to address grievances have often not been
implemented.
India is a party to core international human rights treaties that
protect children and provide for the right of everyone to education,
including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. International law
also prohibits discrimination on the basis of religion, ethnicity,
social origin, or other status. The Convention on the Rights of the
Child obligates India to take measures to encourage attendance and
reduce dropout rates, and ensure that the rights of the children are
protected through effective monitoring.
Prior to the national elections in India in April 2014, the major
national parties made commitments in their election manifestos to
improve elementary school education. The central and state governments
should create clear indicators to detect and address discrimination in
schools, and to lay out appropriate disciplinary measures for those
found responsible, Human Rights Watch said.
The government should create a system to monitor and track every
child from enrollment through completion of elementary schooling, up to
Grade VIII. The government should initiate proper training of teachers,
so that they end exclusion and facilitate greater interaction among
children of different socio-economic and caste backgrounds.
“India’s political parties focused on education during the election
campaign,” Bajoria said. “But whoever takes office will need to do more
to ensure that children attend classes. An important law is set to fail
unless the government intervenes now.”
Selected Quotes The names and identifying details of interviewees have been withheld to protect their safety. All names of children used in the report are pseudonyms.
Selected Quotes The names and identifying details of interviewees have been withheld to protect their safety. All names of children used in the report are pseudonyms.
“Whenever the teachers are angry, they call us Mullahs. The Hindu
boys also call us Mullahs because our fathers have beards. We feel
insulted when they refer to us like this.” – Javed, a 10-year-old Muslim
boy, Delhi
“The teacher always made us sit in a corner of the room, and would throw keys at us [when she was angry]. We only got food if anything was left after other children were served…. [G]radually [we] stopped going to school.” – Shyam, a 14-year-old Dalit boy, Uttar Pradesh
“We were asked to massage a teacher’s legs. If we refused, he used to beat us. There was a toilet for teachers, which is the one we had to clean.” – Naresh, a 12-year-old Dalit boy, Bihar
“The teacher always made us sit in a corner of the room, and would throw keys at us [when she was angry]. We only got food if anything was left after other children were served…. [G]radually [we] stopped going to school.” – Shyam, a 14-year-old Dalit boy, Uttar Pradesh
“We were asked to massage a teacher’s legs. If we refused, he used to beat us. There was a toilet for teachers, which is the one we had to clean.” – Naresh, a 12-year-old Dalit boy, Bihar
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