Govt school quibbles over address, turns away sisters

Three sisters are having a hard time to secure admission to a government school in east Delhi’s Vasundhara Enclave as the authorities have asked them to produce documents pertaining to their latest address.

The girls’ father said the authorities declined to accept rent agreement as the address proof.

Anjum, 16, Tarannum, 14, and Saba, 13, daughters of Mohd Daraj, have been seeking admission to Government Co-Ed Senior Secondary School in Vasundhara Enclave. These girls were earlier studying in DSR Modern School in Gautam Budh Nagar, Noida.

Daraj said the family recently shifted to New Ashok Nagar in east Delhi, so it will be impossible for them to produce bank account and ration card of the current address as desired by the school.

After moving to New Ashok Nagar, Daraj applied for admission of his daughters to classes 9 and 6 in the government school in Vasundhara Enclave. While the school authorities declined admission to the youngest one, they asked the parents to produce address proof and voter identity card of the current address.

Daraj showed the rent agreement of the current address, but the authorities refused to recognise it as a “valid address proof”.

Child rights group Social Jurist wrote to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to bring the issue to the fore. “The condition put by the school to bring the said documents for the admission of two sisters while refusing admission to Sabha without citing any reason is in violation of the Right to Education Act, 2009,” said the letter. “The act also violates the rights guaranteed to them under Article 21 and 21A of the Constitution.”

“You (CM) are therefore requested to take appropriate action to ensure that the children are granted admission in the school or any other school nearby their residence.”

The school could not be reached for comments.