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Activists allege official interference in public hearing on child rights -R Ilangovan
-The Hindu

Salem: Officials in the Department of Education in Salem district are resorting to ‘intimidating and dissuading’ tactics by asking the parents of school dropout children, majority of them Dalits, not to send their wards to the Public Hearing on Child Right Violations in Western Districts of Tamil Nadu, being organised here on Monday claimed the organisers.

Salem People Trust and Samakalvi Iyakkam- Tamil Nadu, supported by Child Rights and You (CRY), is organising the Public Hearing in which a panel of eminent jurists will listen to the dropout children’s cases..

The Public Hearing, which will table case studies too before the panel of jurists, will release a detailed report on violations “all based on a study carried out in 30 villages covering six districts in Western Zone.”

“We have shared a few of our case studies including that of two girls with the officials in good faith so that they could understand the objective behind the public initiative and extend support. Instead they adopt, unfortunately, a negative approach that will stifle the voice of the suffering children,” says a senior official from CRY.

“Anjali Devi from Karippatti, who dropped out when she studied Class IX and Gayathri of Kavarkalpatti who discontinued after Class IX, had figured in our case studies that were submitted to district officials. Both have been enrolled ‘temporarily’ in a hurried manner this week,’” the official claims.

Talking to The Hindu social activist and Director of Salem People Trust M. Jayam says parents of eight boys and girls who dropped out of school from a few hamlets in these two blocks had been coerced and enrolled ‘temporarily’ in a private school.

“We are very happy to hear that. But they should have done this at the beginning of the academic year,” she says.

Ms. Jayam says an extensive door-to-door survey on drop outs in 30 villages revealed that nearly 500 boys and girls remained out of school. “Shockingly, 67 of them have been married off.” The drop out ratio, she says, had increased soon after the demolition of Government High School at Karipatti for laying the four-lane National Highways 79.

Similarly, the children in Eripudur drop out heavily since Class V as the village has an elementary school. “We have been asking the administration to upgrade the school to middle level to arrest the dropout ratio,” she says.

Expresses surprise

When contacted, the Chief Educational Officer R. Easwaran expressed surprise over the claims of the organisers that the district administration was trying to scuttle the Public Hearing. “We never resorted to any such negative move that will dissuade the victims from attending the meeting. In fact, the dropout issue is to be monitored by officials from Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan,” he says.

He however, points out that he had sought a detailed report on the children who have dropped out of schools in the villages in Ayodhyapattinam and Vazhappadi blocks. “We have received, a detailed report from SSA stating that 200 children have been identified as drop outs in the district, so far. We will take all necessary steps to mainstream them.”