Harshita, Gungun and Manthan want to study but govt schools shun the disabled

Sumit Kumar Singh , New Delhi, Jan 7, DHNS:

‘I am not dead yet,’ their grandmother vows to get them admission one day

A lesser woman would have given up by now. For the last three years, 60-year-old Leela Devi has been struggling to get her three disabled grandchildren admitted to a government school, hoping to give them a better shot at life.

Their mother has left the family home – a one-room tenement in a slum in south Delhi’s Govindpuri. The grandparents and their son say she abandoned them because she didn’t care for the handicapped children.

Five-year-old Manthan can’t walk. Gungun, 8, has fits and a mental disability.

Harshita,12, too, is mentally challenged. The three can barely express themselves. And the government schools don’t appear keen to take on the challenge of having them.

Schools say they don’t have trained teachers to meet the needs of special children.

“I have knocked at the door of every organisation and school in the area but they are still shut for us,” says Leela Devi. 

After several attempts and with the help of an NGO, Leela Devi managed to get a Municipal Corporation of Delhi school at Kalkaji in south Delhi agree to admit Gungun.

But there are strings attached. The school wants her to stay with the child while she is on school premises. The school, Delhi Nagar Nigam Prathmik Balika Vidayalaya, made clear if the grandmother cannot stay back, Gungun should not be sent to school. Leela Devi says she has to take care of the other two children as well and if she remains with Gungun she wouldn’t be able to that. Her husband, Ramesh Lohia, takes on painting jobs, their son also hunts for small-time work.

Leela Devi says she wouldn't mind staying with Gungun if the other two are also admitted by the same school – so that she can keep an eye on all three together.

“I am ready to stay at the school the whole long day for my kids but the school is not ready to take them all, saying Harshita is too old and Manthan is too young.” It’s a primary school. “If all the three kids get admission in same school we both, husband and wife, will be there the entire day to take care of them,” Ramesh adds. “But no. They don’t want to give admission to our kids because they can’t speak clearly and they grasp things slowly.” Also, the school wants Gungun to attend only two days a week. Ashok Agarwal, an advocate and member of Social Jurist group, calls the case “plain mockery” of the Right To Education Act by the schools. “Every child whether differently-abled or not has the right to attain education and come to school everyday.”

“This implies that schools have failed to comply with basic rules. Unfortunately, there are no penal provisions under the RTE Act. But there should be one where you can hold the Department of Education and schools accountable for depriving children of basic education and violating child rights,” he says.

As the family talks with Deccan Herald, children from the slum are making their way to their schools. Harshita and Gungun tug at their grandmother, pointing at the luckier kids. Leela Devi takes Gungun in her arms.  “You all will go the school. I am not dead yet.”