Odisha: NHRC issues notice to education ministry over plight of students

BHUBANESWAR: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued notices to the ministry of education and human resource development secretaries over the plight of students during the pandemic, given the fact that more than one crore students, including 38 lakh from Odisha, have been unable to access online education due to non-availability of digital infrastructure.
The commission has issued the notice based on a petition filed by human rights lawyer and Odisha native Radhakanta Tripathy.
Tripathy in his petition mentioned that 38 lakh students in Odisha were deprived of the facility due to non-availability of mobile network in their areas, as admitted by the state government. He further said in Telangana, students mainly in the tribal areas of Asifabad, Mancherial and Adilabad districts, and remote villages of ITDA Utnoor and Eturunagaram tribal regions, suffered the same problem. In Jammu & Kashmir, students could not access online classes because of a government order that restricted network connectivity to 2G instead of 4G, he said.
The plea highlighted that due to lack of digital infrastructure, both teachers and students were facing unprecedented challenges. Tripathy alleged that no corrective measure had been taken by the Centre, the states and UTs to assess education deficit and fill the gap.
The petition stated that denial and deprivation of education of students, especially those who are economically poor and living in inaccessible areas across the country, continued due to lack of smartphones, power supply and internet connectivity. The failure, negligence and inaction of the Centre and all the states and UTs to ensure education to the students through all means violated the provisions of RTE Act, he added.
Tripathy requested the Commission to ensure smartphones for financially poor students and proper electricity supply and network connectivity for online classes of the students at home during exigencies and post-pandemic period. He also sought a direction from the commission to ensure proper education policy to fill the gap of education. The NHRC sought an action taken report from both the authorities within four weeks.