The NHRC has issued a notice to the Delhi government over a report that about 35 students of a school for the visually challenged are forced to study in a dilapidated building with literally no requisite educational and residential facilities.
The unrecognised school is being run by an NGO in Panchkuian area. It was reportedly set up in Lahore in 1939 but shifted to its present location in central Delhi in 1947, the National Human Rights Commission said in a statement.
The rights panel said it has taken “suo motu cognisance of a media report that about 35 students of one of the country’s oldest schools for the visually impaired are forced to study at the risk of their lives in a dilapidated building with literally no requisite educational as well as residential facilities”.
The Commission has observed that the content of the media report, if true, raises serious issues of safety and human rights of the ‘Divyang’ children and their teachers.
Accordingly, it has issued a notice to the chief secretary, of the government of Delhi, seeking a detailed report in four weeks. It should also include the present status and the steps being taken or proposed to be taken to maintain continuity of education for the students and their safety, it said.
According to the media report published on June 26, in addition to the 35 children, there are eight teaching and 15 non-teaching staff in the school. Most of the students in the school are from outside Delhi.
The school management has also written to the Delhi’s Lt Governor and the education department to transfer the students to other blind schools given the impending risks to their life, the statement said.
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