The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Tuesday slapped a notice on the Karnataka government seeking a report into the allegations that a private school in Bengaluru cut off tufts of hair of four children in order to distinguish them under the Right to Education quota.
The country’s top human rights body has also asked the chief secretary of the state to inform the commission on the action taken against the school authorities under the Rights of Children to Free and Compulsory Act.
The NHRC’s intervention in the matter has come at a time when the private schools in the country are increasingly showing their hostility towards the Right to Education Act, which makes it compulsory for them to induct at least 25 per cent students from socially and economically backward families.
Many schools are reported to have taken discriminatory steps against these students, some even holding separate shifts for them after the main classes get over.
In the Bengaluru incident, an NHRC release stated, the students were allegedly made to stand separately in humiliation during the assembly and their lunch boxes were checked before they entered their classes.