The Supreme Court has directed the Centre and all states to ensure that hospitable conditions are provided to children as their refusal violate right to education and fundamental right.
Concerned over pathetic state of affairs in government run schools where children are denied drinking water and another basic facilities, the Supreme Court has directed the Centre and all states to ensure that hospitable conditions are provided to children as their refusal violate right to education and fundamental right.
“It is imperative that all schools must provide toilet facilities; empirical researches have indicated that wherever toilet facilities are not provided in the schools, parents do not send their children (particularly girls) to schools’’, a bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Dipak Misra said while hearing a PIL filed by an NGO, Environmental & Consumer Protection Foundation (ECPF) seven years ago. The law suit has sought better education facilities and proper schooling in order to check the rapid drop out graph.
Expanding the scope of the petition and taking into account the contentions made by counsel Ravinder Bana, the court has already asked all the district magistrates nation-wide to file comprehensive affidavits within a month regarding availability of basic facilities such as potable drinking water, toilets both for boys and girls, electricity, boundary walls and mid-day meal in primary schools.
They have been asked to specify whether primary schools have requisite number of teachers. In its latest order, the bench said denial of the basic right to water and toilet facilities “clearly violates the right to free and compulsory education of children guaranteed under Article 21-A’’.
Referring to its office report filed on December 3 last, the court said it indicates that despite opportunity granted, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Meghalaya, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Tripura and Union Territory of Lakshdweep have not filed their affidavits.
DNA has already reported that India has about 6,88,000 primary schools and 1,10,000 secondary schools.
According to the statistics available, two third of school going age children are enrolled in schools but the figures are deceptive as many don’t attend schools regularly. At least half of all students from rural area drop out before completing school.
Giving a wider scope of the hearing, the Supreme Court has asked the Union ministry of drinking water and sanitation to file an affidavit within a month indicating the latest position about the problem of drinking water in the country.
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