Youth for Better India, an NGO, has approached the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) for restoration of right to education to about 100 children from underprivileged sections, whose school inside a park site has been given eviction notices by GHMC authorities.
The Commission has reportedly issued notices to the Hyderabad district administration and GHMC Commissioner seeking their reports by July 31.
According to the details that were published by The Hindu on April 3 this year, the ‘Alpha School’, a philanthropic initiative by a woman, has been functioning since 1999, imparting education to children from poor background living in surrounding areas.
Initially located in a slum near road no. 22 at Jubilee Hills, the school was evicted along with other slum dwellers as the site was earmarked for a park. Later, the school was shifted to a footpath outside the park and the children continued attending the classes.
Security concerns
In 2015, the school faced eviction from the footpath too, owing to security concerns involving the passage of the convoy of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.
New school
When protests were conducted against the eviction, the then State Commission for Protection of Child Rights intervened and asked the district administration and the School Education Department to provide alternative schooling facility for the children, by admitting them in the nearest government school and providing them transportation facilities.
It also suggested to the State government to construct a new school with the necessary infrastructure in a nearest available land.
The orders were never implemented, and the school yet again occupied a spot inside the site allotted for the park. The GHMC officials recently asked the woman, G. Shobha, who runs the school, to vacate the premises so that the site can be used for the purpose it was meant for.
Youth for Better India, which is a collective of professionals from different platforms, visited the site and took the issue to the notice of the SHRC, claiming that the right to education of about 100 children is being violated.
