'Pvt schools will face penalty for violating RTE'

New Delhi, Apr 1: Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal has said that all private schools

must reserve 25 percent seats in elementary education

for economically disadvantaged children.
Speaking to a television channel, Sibal said that it was obligatory to set aside a quarter of all seats for poor children from classes 1 to 8.Sibal further said that any breach of the Right to Education (RTE) act will fetch punishment.When asked if there will be penalty for not complying with the legislation, Sibal said, "It is now law, it can be statutorily enforced."He said both aided and non-aided schools across the country have to follow the legislation.The minister clarified that minority schools were not exempt from the act."We believe every minority institution would itself like to (go for the reservation). There are disadvantaged sections in minority communities too. The minorities will be part of the national endeavour," he said.The Right to Education act came into force on Thursday, Apr 1, as a fundamental right

http://righttoeducation.in/sites/default/files/legislation/rte_act_2009_hindi.pdf
http://righttoeducation.in/sites/default/files/legislation/rte-bill_amendment_20100416.pdf

Rehabilitate slum dwellers, rules court

NEW DELHI - Stressing that everyone has right to live a decent life, the Delhi High Court Thursday asked the government and the civic agencies to rehabilitate jhuggi (slum) dwellers even if they were encroaching on public land.
Pronouncing his last judgment of the tenure, Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah said: “Everyone has the right to live a decent life.”
“It is not uncommon that in the garb of evicting slums and beautifying the city, the state agencies, in fact, end up creating more slums. The only difference is that this time this is away from the gaze of the city dwellers,” Justice Shah said on his last working day.
“It cannot be expected that human beings in a jhuggi cluster will simply vanish if their homes are uprooted and their names effaced from government records. They are the citizens who help rest of the city to live a decent life and they deserve protection and the respect of the rights to life and dignity which the Constitution guarantees them.”
The court was hearing the plea of slum dwellers removed from the places where they lived for years. The government had issued them ration and election cards but was not rehabilitating them as they were encroaching on public land.
“The decision of the respondents (government and civic agencies) holding that the petitioners are on the right of way and are, therefore, not entitled to relocation, is hereby declared as illegal and unconstitutional,” the bench said, adding all those eligible for rehabilitation should be granted an alternative site as per the Master Plan-Delhi 2021 within four months.
“The state agencies will ensure that basic civic amenities, consistent with the rights to life and dignity of each of the citizens in the jhuggis, are available at the site of relocation.”
The bench also directed the member secretary of the Delhi Legal Services Authority (DLSA) to give wide publicity to this judgment among the residents of slum clusters in the city as well as in the relocated sites.
“The DLSA will also hold periodical camps in jhuggi clusters and in relocated sites to make the residents aware of their rights,” the bench ordered.
Prashant Bhushan, who was appearing for one of the petitioners in the case, also become emotional and thanked the outgoing Chief Justice, praising his humanistic approach and positive attitude.

February 11th, 2010

Delhi civic agencies pulled up for poor sanitation

NEW DELHI - Ahead of the Commonwealth Games, the Delhi High Court has pulled up the civic agencies for poor sanitation in the capital, noting the conditions had not improved for the past 12 years.
A division bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Veena Birbal Friday criticised the civic agencies for their “callous approach” to worsening sanitation saying: “When things have not changed in 12 years, then what will happen in 12 days?
The bench’s remark came after counsel for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) sought more time to file their status report. The court agreed to a deadline of April 29.
The court, after taking the affidavit by Delhi Cantonment Board on record, warned them that if their stand was found to be false on inspection, the court would have no option but to issue contempt notice.
Advocate Ashok Agarwal, counsel in the case, told the bench: “We are preparing ourselves for the Commonwealth Games and its horrible that the civic agencies do not even perform their basic duty. Its a violation of the rights of citizens, especially women, who have no option but to defecate in the open.”
The pathetic state of public toilets was highlighted by Shahana Sheikh, a final year student of economics at Lady Sri Ram College who undertook a tour of slums and the outskirts of Delhi from May to July 2008.
According to Sheikh, the MCD, in its 2007 report claims that there are 3,192 public conveniences in the national capital but she found only 1,534 toilets in her survey.

The SC & ST Atrocities Act and Institutional Casteism

The SC & ST Atrocities Act and Institutional Casteism

Although the Constitution and special acts aim to protect the rights of Dalits, the ground reality shows that much needs to be achieved. Despite the severity of the discrimination, the issue of dalit rights is rarely litigated in courts. It is almost as if dalits have forsaken the courts. In many instances, the upper classes and the forward castes have used the judicial system against the backward classes. Therefore, despite the harsh terrain, it is an engagement that the dalit community cannot avoid.
When this Statute was first enacted it was fervently hoped that justice would be done to those discriminated. But this hope soon evaporated and confirmed what was well known namely, that it is not by Statute alone that society changes. Though the law came into force the legal system continued to be controlled by upper caste men who, sometimes subconsciously, but often deliberately sabotaged the working of the Act. Though the provisions were non-bailable, bail was liberally granted. An almost unbearable burden was put upon the complainant at the initial stage itself with the complaint being viewed with heavy suspicion. The complaint and evidence of the victim was disbelieved and derided. As a result ever since it came into force there are hardly any convictions under the Act and the prosecutions have sharply declined.
Though there are dalit organizations and NGOs organizing and struggling against discrimination, the legal community has remained far behind. As a result though there are beneficial provisions in the Constitution of India, the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Atrocities Act and other similar enactments, their implementation and enforcement is very poor.
Due to what is perceived as institutional casteism in the legal system the SC/ST Atrocities Act has seen poor enforcement - with the conviction rate being less than 1%. Additionally, dalit lawyers and activists generally have an upbringing characterized by disadvantage, find the use of the Queen's English in courts cumbersome and often find themselves in a hostile legal environment. The entire system is designed to exclude and ostracize. By withdrawing from this arena the backward classes have shown that they have no faith in the legal system. This has made matters worse. It is almost as if the Act has been repealed.
Significant component of this initiative has been to build a network of dalit lawyers, because in the ultimate analysis it is they who most acutely feel and understand the sufferings of their people. At the same time, the Dalit lawyers who are dedicated to dalit rights and issues should have a better understanding of the SC/ST Act and other laws. The purpose of this initiative is to equip human rights lawyers and activists to use the justice system for and on behalf of members of the dalit community.

The seven fundamental rights recognised by the constitution

The seven fundamental rights recognised by the constitution are :
1.The right to equality ……………… Right to equality
2.The right to freedom……………… Right to freedom
3.The right to freedom from exploitation …….Right against exploitation
4.The right to freedom of religion ……… Right to freedom of religion
5.The Cultural and educational rights …….. Cultural and educational rights
6.The right to constitutional remedies …… Right to constitutional remedies
7.The right to Education …………………. Right To Education

types of corporal punishments in schools

There are three types of corporal punishments in schools.Physical Punishments:

1. Making the children stand as a wall chair (Goda Kurchee in Telugu), 2. Keeping the school bags on their heads, 3. Making them stand for the whole day in the sun, 4. Make the children kneel down and do the work and then enter the class room5. Making them stand on the bench, 6. Making them raise hands, 7. Hold a pencil in their mouth and stand, 8. Holding their ears with hands passed under the legs, 9. Tying of the children's hands, 10. Making them to do sit-ups (Gunjeelu), 11. Caning and pinching and 12. Twisting the ears (Chevulu pindadam)

Emotional Punishments:

1. Slapping by the opposite sex2. Scolding abusing and humiliating3. Label the child according to his or her misbehaviour and sent him or her around the school4. Make them stand on the back of the class and to complete the work.5. Suspending them for a couple of days6. Pinning paper on their back and labeling them "I am a fool", "I am a donkey" etc.7. Teacher takes the child to every class she goes and humiliates the child.8. Removing the shirts of the boys.

Negative Reinforcement

1. Detention during the break and lunch.2. Locking them in a dark room3. Call for parents or asking the children to bring explanatory letters from the parents4. Sending them home or keeping the children outside the gate5. Making the children sit on the floor on the classroom.6. Making the child clean the premises.7. Making the child run around the building or in the playground.8. Sending the children to principals.9. Making them to teach in the class.10. Making them to stand till the teacher comes.11. Giving oral warnings and letters in the diary or calendar12. Threatening to give TC for the child.13. Asking them to miss games or other activities14. Deducting marks.15. Treating the three late comings equal to one absent.16. Giving excessive imposition.17. Make the children pay fines.18. Not allowing them into the class.19. Sitting on the floor for one period, day, week and month.20. Placing black marks on their disciplinary charts.

Normal range of punishments, which continue unabated, are caning, beating knuckles with stick or steel scale, kneeling down, standing on the bench and so on. Wall chairs (sitting as if on the chair without any one against the wall for half-an-hour to one hour), wall chairs plus a school bag on the head or thighs which cause more physical pain, running ten to twenty rounds around the school building or in the ground and sit-ups numbering hundreds are other range of punishments. Writing impositions for more than fifty times within a short time, which is physically not possible to complete, is a new type of punishment. If an English medium students talks in Telugu, he or she will be made to write, "I do not speak in Telugu" for fifty to hundred times, a mental punishment too.

Delhi High Court recognises Child Marriage as human rights violation

In a historic judgment on the issue of Child Marriage, division bench comprising of Mr. Justice A. K. Sikri and Mr. Justice Ajit Bharihoke held that the “child marriage is a violation of human rights, compromising the development of girls and often resulting in early pregnancy and social isolation, with little education and poor vocational training reinforcing the gendered nature of poverty”.
In the case filed by Association for Human Rights v Union of India and Others, the petitioner highlighted as to how a girl was sold, trafficked and married off to on “Yashpal” by her father. The incidence of the marriage of the girl was first found out by the members of Human Rights Law Network in February-March 2010. After exhausting all possible remedies to get the offenders booked for the offence of Child Marriage, the team members of HRLN and the Petitioner organisation decided to file a case in Delhi High Court. In the case, it was alleged that the Girl was not traceable and despite all efforts, the Police failed to trace the girl and to book the offenders for the offense of child marriage. The Petitioner, thus, filed a habeas corpus petition in Delhi High Court for a direction to the authorities to trace the girl and to bring the offenders to the book.
When the concerned Police Station failed to trace the girl after repeated orders of the Court, the Court transferred the case to the Crime Branch of Delhi Police. After this, the authorities came into action and traced and rescued the girl. They also lodged a formal complaint against the Father and the Husband of the Girl for offenses under Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006. The father and the husband were also arrested by the Police.
The Court then conducted in camera hearing of the case and also heard the Girl Child in person. After hearing the parties, the Court passed the order. While discussing the evil of Child Marriage went into the sociological reasons for the prevalence of Child Marriage in the society. This case was a classic example, which proved the sociologists correct, the court observed.
The Court also observed that “Young married girls are a unique, though often invisible, group. Required to perform heavy amounts of domestic work, under pressure to demonstrate fertility, and responsible for raising children while still children themselves, married girls and child mothers face constrained decision making and reduced life choices. Boys are also affected by child marriage but the issue impacts girls in far larger numbers and with more intensity.” The Court, while underlining the medical and psychological effects over the girl child, further observed that “Where a girl lives with a man and takes on the role of caregiver for him, the assumption is often that she has become an adult woman, even if she has not yet reached the age of 18.”
As the issue, whether such marriages are void ab initio or not is under consideration before a larger bench, the Court refused to declare the marriage as void. However, differing from earlier orders, where the young wives were allowed to live with her husbands, the Court directed that the Girl will live with her parents till she attains the age of 18 years. The Court also took the undertaking of the parents of the girl, her husband and also of the mother of the husband that the marriage will not be consummated till she attains the age of 18. On attaining the age of 18, the girl can exercise the right to get her marriage annulled, as provided under Prohibition of Child Marriage Act. The Court made it clear that “it is the option of the victim girl to accept this marriage or not. In case she does not accept this marriage, it shall be treated as null and void.”

http://www.hrln.org/hrln/court-orders/Child%20Marriage%20Case%20Judgment.pdf