Daily News Compilation (HINDU) for 9th May

Right to Education: neither free nor compulsory

 Author highlights  how RTE is being weakened by SC judgement. Author points out towards two judgements:

1. Society for Unaided Private Schools of Rajasthan v Union of India (Rajasthan Schools) in 2012

2. Pramati Educational and Cultural Trust v Union of India (Pramati)

Pramati Educational and Cultural Trust v Union of India (Pramati) was delivered earlier this week and the court upheld Article 21A as valid but it simultaneously weakened it by making it subject to Article 30. Court has gone further than Rajasthan Schools and completely removed all minority schools, whether aided or unaided, from the purview of the RTE Act. 

 Article 30 (1) recognises the fundamental right of all minorities to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice. The implication of the judgment in Pramati is that minority schools will continue to be permitted to charge any amount of fees, prescribe any admission criteria, and discriminate against any class of citizens without being answerable in any court of law to the government or to aggrieved parents. 

Three problems are evident with the reasoning adopted in Pramati. 

• First, it has placed Article 30 on a pedestal, possibly elevating it to a status above the fundamental freedoms, even Article 21. 
• Second, the Court bases its reasoning upon judgments in T.M.A. Pai v State of Karnataka (2002) andP.A. Inamdar v State of Maharashtra (2005) which were decided in the context of tertiary education and not primary education. The Constitution does not recognise a fundamental right to tertiary education, but primary education is a fundamental right. 
• Third, even assuming that the judgments in TMA Pai and Inamdar are applicable to schools imparting primary education, both judgments recognise that the rights of minorities under Article 30 are not unbridled. It was held, for instance, in TMA Pai that admitting a few members of a non-minority group into a minority institution does not take away the minority character of such an institution and that Articles 29 and 30 clearly contemplate such an inclusion.

The RTE was designed, among other things, to empower the underprivileged sections of society to benefit from the best of minority institutions. It was also supposed to educate and expose children of privileged sections to the reality of inequality in this country by making them share space daily with children from deprived sections of society. 

14 new ‘dancing frog’ species found in Western Ghats

Scientists have discovered 14 new species of so-called dancing frogs in the Western Ghats, just in time, they fear, to watch them fade away.

Indian biologists say they found the tiny acrobatic amphibians, which earned their name with the unusual kicks they use to attract mates, declining dramatically in number during the 12 years in which they chronicled the species through morphological descriptions and molecular DNA markers. They breed after the yearly monsoon in fast-rushing streams, but their habitat appears to be becoming increasingly dry.

Of epidemic proportions

The Council of Europe Convention to prevent and combat violence against women and domestic violence will take effect this August.

Persistent instances of physical abuse encountered among large migrant populations of women, and the need to strengthen the legal framework in some of the states of the former Eastern Europe, form part of the context to the Istanbul Convention of the 47-member strong human rights institution. In particular, the plight of victims who happen to be in abusive relationships in Hungary, Belgium and Turkey have come in for some scrutiny by Human Rights Watch over the last three years.

The new treaty seeks to address 

• the psychological effects of violence among adults in the family on children, 
• protection for male victims where relevant, 
• provision for a monitoring mechanism and 
• prosecution of perpetrators.

There are striking parallels to the situation in Europe around the world, as is evident from a 2013 World Health Organization study. 

• Violence perpetrated by intimate partners affects as much as 30 per cent of women world-wide.
• In fact, the same report characterises physical or sexual violence against women as a public health phenomenon of epidemic proportions, affecting more than one-third of all women globally.

The Asia region continues to grapple with a particular and premeditated form of violence against women, that is, the sex-selective abortion of female foetuses that has distorted the gender ratios of the population in the 0-6 year age-group. A worrisome aspect of this phenomenon is the extent to which it reinforces traditional stereotypes over generations. 

 As with similar social and human rights instruments, the landmark European convention would serve as a model for developing countries to strengthen their own institutional frameworks. Proactive policies and accountability are vital to upholding the dignity of women.