The Odisha Human Rights Commission (OHRC) has directed the State SC and ST Development Department to submit a report within four weeks on the non-implementation of free and compulsory education in the Ashram schools managed by the department.
Citing a number of incidents of SC and ST students leaving schools complaining about being served with poor quality food and being subjected to physical torture, human rights activist Biswapriya Kanungo had moved the OHRC urging it to take necessary action in this regard.
Kanungo has urged the commission to direct the Government to conduct a comprehensive inquiry into the issue and ensure proper implementation of the Right to Education Act in the tribals-dominated districts.
It is to be noted that nearly 400 students, including boarders, in an Ashram school, had left for their homes after locking the school office and gate to register their protest against the alleged misdeeds of a headmaster at Champi under laxmipur block in Koraput district. Similarly, about 60 students of an Ashram school were affected by food poisoning while one succumbed to it at a school at Ranpur in Nayagarh district last month.