Around a thousand schoolchildren from different schools marched through major streets of Raichur and staged a demonstration outside the office of Deputy Commissioner here on Monday demanding the government for ensuring protection of children rights.
The demonstration was organised by Navajeevana Mahila Okkoota (NMO). The children raised slogans during agitation asserting their rights.
Some students expressed their concerns over increasing incidents of schoolchildren being forced to work at various business establishments and agricultural fields.
“Right To Education Act is not properly implemented in the district. A meeting that was attended by officials of concerned departments and representatives of civil society organisations and presided over by Chief Executive Officer of Zilla Panchayat has identified the shortcomings in the effective implementation of RTE Act in the district. They need to be addressed on priority basis,” Vidhya Patil, a leader of NMO said.
The state government had issued a circular to all Zilla Panchayats instructing them to ensure that all Gram Panchayats hold children’s gram sabhas, but the instructions are not being properly implemented, she added.
She demanded the Deputy Commissioner to convene a meeting, once in every three months, of concerned officials, elected representatives and representatives of civil society organisations for ensuring the proper implementations of Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act and Prohibition of Child Marriage Act.
Expressing disappointment over non-fulfilment of their long-pending demand of providing public bus services to all villages, the activists said that the unavailability of public transport system had forced many children, particularly girls, in remote villages discontinue their studies after primary education and demanded the officer to connect the isolated villages with public transport service so that the future of hundreds of students could be prevented from spoiling.
A memorandum with a list of demands was submitted to Deputy Commissioner, Sasikanth S. Senthil.
