JOIN USStudents admitted to schools under the 25 per cent quota as per the Right to Education Act, are subjected to harassment and humiliation, Dalita Samrajya Sthapana Samiti, a City-based organisation, has alleged.
Addressing the media on Tuesday, Samithi state president D Narayan alleged that some schools were discriminating against the students admitted under the RTE quota.
“Ten children are enrolled under RTE in a Nandini Layout school and strands of their hair have been chopped off to identify them as students under the quota,” Narayan said. This apart, these students are made to sit on the last bench in the classroom, allowed into the school only after everyone else has entered, and their homework and classwork books are all empty since no care is taken to check the books of these children, he said.
“A first standard child asked me, what studying ‘for free’ meant,” said Narayan speaking to Deccan Herald.
He said students were chided at the school for availing free education and were not given any sports equipment. Their names were not included in the attendance register and their lunch baskets were kept separate.
They were not allowed to eat with other children in the school. “They are discriminated in every possible manner,” alleged Narayan. The name of the school has been withheld as the school authorities could not be contacted for clarification.
Narayan alleged that some other schools were also indulging in discrimination. The Samithi has enrolled 500 students under the RTE in various schools and has been tracking the progress of the children’s education, Narayan said.
The Samithi had complained to the officials concerned and when no response was forthcoming from them, the Samithi volunteers went to the schools to stage a protest.
“They had promised us that they would attend to the problems, but on Friday last we came to know that the school had cut the children’s hair,” Narayan said.