Kendrapara: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has sought an Action Taken Report (ATR) on the recommendations made by its special rapporteur on the problems of tribal children and their basic human rights (like all weather road, primary schools with teachers teaching in their mother tongue) in the remote villages of Dhenkanal district.
The NHRC passed the order based on a petition by the rights activist, Radhakanta Tripathy, reports filed by the state and the special rapporteur.
Pursuant to its directions, a report was filed before the Commission which was silent on the following three recommendations:
1) An Anganwadi must be established in Talganda village immediately. At least one tube well must be sunk in the village. The state government must take measures to provide power to Kharmul, Talganda and Ghumaambha villagers.
2) The forest roads connecting Ward No 16 of Hindol NAC should be developed to permit light and medium vehicles including 108 ambulances. The allegations that forest department officials have misappropriated most of the funds allocated for the development of the Hindol-Konka forest road, must be investigated by the government.
3) The residents of Ward 16 of Hindol NAC complained that inclusion of their habitats in the NAC have seriously affected implementation of welfare schemes launched by the government. It was alleged that while the NAC has not done anything for their development, the BDO has washed its hands of this, saying the NAC is now in charge.
The state must issue suitable clarifications on the matter to ensure that its welfare schemes are implemented in these habitats. The special secretary, school & mass education department, government of Orissa is directed to send a report on the aforementioned points within six weeks.
Earlier, the NHRC sought an ATR from the state on the petition that alleged that primary education in tribal villages of Dhenkanal faces problems due to lack of language teachers, books, infrastructure and communication facilities for students.
Pursuant to the directions of the commission, the joint secretary, department of school & mass education, government of Orissa, stated that 14 teachers in the Juanga language and 11 teachers in the Munda language have been selected out of 20 posts for the Juanga language and 24 posts for the Munda language, during 2013-14. The rest of the posts have been vacant due to non-availability of eligible candidates.
Five teachers of the Juanga language and five teachers of the Munda language have been posted in 10 MLE schools and rest of the teachers have been posted in schools with approval of the Collector-cum-Chairman, SSA, Dhenkanal.
The report says that at Sadangi in Gondia block, the total enrolment is 154 from Class 1 to VIII. Out of this, 99 students belong to Munda category. As per the criteria for selection of school for the MLE programme, the school must have 90%-100% ST children and be monolingual.
So in this context, the enrolment position in Kashipur project UP school does not fulfil the criteria for introduction of the MLE programme which leads to non-posting of language teachers.
The report says that 10 students (six belong to SC and 4 to OBC) of Sorat village study at Manidevi High School, Chainpur. As the village is in a forest area and no other high school is nearby, the students have to cross canals and forests to reach their school, 5 km away.
Pursuant to the direction of the panel, Tripathy submitted his comments in which he alleged that the state has failed to execute welfare schemes.
PNN
