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`Abolish development fees for BPL students'

By Our Special Correspondent

JAIPUR, JAN. 6. The Rajasthan Human Rights Commission has asked the State Government not to charge development fees from students of Government schools belonging to the families below poverty line. The Commission has ruled that schools cannot force any student of this category, enrolled in Class 1 to 8, to pay any kind of charges including contributions.

"The children from the BPL families should be fully kept out of any kind of payments,'' a single bench of the Commission, headed by Justice Amar Singh Godara said, giving its verdict on a public interest writ by the South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude, filed in November 2003.

The Commission, which has issued a copy of the order to the Director of the Rajasthan Primary Education, Bikaner for compliance, ruled that in case of any breach in the directive by any institution or teacher, the District Education Officer (DEO) would be directly held responsible.

The writ petition had complained to the Commission that the poor children were also forced to pay amounts ranging from Rs.20 to Rs.100 towards development charges. Many poor families could not send their wards to schools as they were not in a position to pay anything, the writ filed by Sumedha Kailash, director of Bal Ashram, situated in Virat Nagar of Jaipur district noted.

Talking in the context of the children who are living in the rehabilitation centres after their rescue from bonded child labour and the children of the poor families in general, the writ had brought to the notice of Commission that children tended to drop out from schools for lack of even meagre amounts. "It is the Constitutional duty of the State Government to provide free education to children between the age of 6 and 14 years,'' the petition had pleaded.

The issue was also highlighted in the "Bal Adalat''(Children's court) held during the "Global Action Week 2004'' held under the aegis of the South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude. The Commission inquired into specific cases at the Government schools in Virat Nagar and those in the capital at Van Vihar, Idgah and Ambedkar Nagar, which were mentioned in the petition before giving its verdict.

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