Over 5,000 street children who are harbouring the dream of studying in good schools and grow up as somebody have to wait for some more time, as the project of National Commission for Protection of Child Right (NCPCR) ‘School for street children’ has failed to take off owing to the reluctance shown by schools and other players concerned.
To help the street children in getting their basic right such as food, lodging and education, members of State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) on the directive of NCPCR along with various stakeholders such as human resource development department (HRD), Social Welfare and NGOs was supposed to launch the project in Jharkhand by March 5. Ironically, lack of interest from the school
authorities over the plan has put the project in limbo.
SCPCR member Sanjay Mishra sharing the information said, “We require premises for running schools for the street children. Various unaided schools of the city have also been approached for the same but only a few have turned up and shown interest to the proposal. We are extending all possible efforts to start the project soon.”
According to the plan, classes at these schools will be conducted in the evening especially for the working children who works in garage and hotels in the daytime. At least five qualified teachers were also to be appointed for teaching at these schools.
Initially, the project was to commence with the slum children of Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Bokaro and Dhanbad districts and later on to start in other
districts too but none of the district could begin the project.
“A meeting with the stakeholders has been called to discuss the project in detail and glitches being faced by it on April 28. After the meeting further step will decided,” said Mishra.
Besides, NGOs responsible for locating slum children are also showing reluctance in undertaking the job.
Chairperson of Save the Children, an NGO, Mahadev Hansda, preparing the list of Ranchi Slum children said, “The list preparation work got delayed due to ongoing general election in the State. The work is in progress and is expected to be completed soon.”
Interestingly, the initiative was also to encourage the schools to successfully follow the Right to Education (RTE) Act 2009, which specifies that each private school must enroll 25 per cent students from Below Poverty line (BPl) category. The children from the slums who would study in these schools free of charges will be added in the BPl category children studying in the school under the RTE guidelines. However, school authorities were tight lipped over the issue.
When DAV Gandhi Nagar Principal SK Sinha was enquired over the matter he refused to make any comment on it.