A right to get free and compulsory education has failed to be of any significance for scores of HIV+ children who are either refused admission or being segregated by schools, both private and Government, claims NGO Naz Foundation in a PIl moved before Supreme Court.
In a bid to secure these students against further discrimination, the NGO has asked the Court to consider including them under the “disadvantaged groups” as mentioned in the RTE Act.
Doing so would legally bind the schools to admit them. Section 9(c) of the Act states: “Every local authority shall ensure that the child belonging to weaker section and the child belonging to disadvantaged group are not discriminated against and prevented from pursuing and completing elementary education on any grounds.”
According to the NGO, the problem is not restricted to one or few States but is rampant across the country.
This has posed serious concern to the realisation of goal of free and compulsory elementary education, particularly because it was the Supreme Court in 2012 that put the constitutional stamp of approval on the RTE Act, extending it to private aided and private unaided schools, except minority schools.
The RTE being a “child-centric” law, as held by the apex court’s April 12, 2012 decision, the Act gives a comprehensive definition to “disadvantaged group”. Besides, SCs, STs and socially and educationally backward classes, the Act provides for such other groups having “disadvantage” owing to social, cultural, economical, geographical, linguistic, gender or such other factor, as may be specified by appropriate Government, by notification.
The Act mandates the States and Centre to frame appropriate guidelines. Few States have taken the lead to issue guidelines but that has hardly ensured the implementation of the Act or even the decision of the apex court.
The petition, even urged the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) to proactively address these concerns. The NCPCR was constituted in 2005, and since then till 2012, the petition has attached news clippings of instances where the Commission failed to take up the cases of children being discriminated on grounds of their HIV+ status.