Ensure all can avail of rights
The Supreme Court has directed the Centre and state governments to ensure all schools provide access to toilets and clean drinking water for students within six months. In October last year it had directed them to provide essential infrastructure in schools by December, which has not happened at many places.
The court had noted that while free and compulsory education was now a basic right for all children between six and 14, it “cannot be enjoyed unless basic infrastructure is provided by the state”. Failure to comply also renders these governments liable to legal action for contempt of court.
The National University of Education and Planning had estimated in 2010 that 45 per cent of schools in India did not have toilets for girls. We are an aspiring superpower and can send a spacecraft to the moon, but we aren’t able to build enough toilets for children. Among fundamental rights we all enjoy, the right to life and personal liberty is undoubtedly paramount. Unfortunately the infrastructure provided by the state is so weak, inefficient and often corrupt that extra-judicial killings and intimidation by non-state actors, hoodlums and even corrupt policemen are rampant. Innocent people often spend years in jails while the guilty roam free.
If the state has a duty to provide basic infrastructure to ensure that all can avail of the right to education, it should certainly do so. It also has a more fundamental duty to protect life and liberty. Is it doing enough to protect those rights?
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