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The National Human Rights Commission has taken suo motu cognizance of a media report that school students of Kakraua village hop across check dam pillars to cross the Betwa River in Madhya Pradesh's Vidisha district.
The children take the route because it cuts the journey from 13 km by road to just 1.5 km; nine students, including five girls, reportedly cross this way every day.
The Commission held that the absence of a safe mode of transport to reach school amounts to a negation of the fundamental right to education with dignity.
It relied on Article 21A, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, and the Supreme Court's ruling in Avinash Mehrotra v. Union of India (2009) that the right to education includes the right to a safe school.
A notice has been issued to the Madhya Pradesh Chief Secretary calling for a detailed report within two weeks.
Suo motu means 'on its own motion'. Under the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, the NHRC can inquire into a complaint of violation of human rights, or of negligence in preventing such a violation by a public servant, either on a petition presented to it or on its own initiative. That second power is what allows the Commission to act on a newspaper or television report without waiting for a victim to file a complaint, as it has done here. The Commission's findings, however, are recommendatory: it can call for reports, inquire and recommend action, but it cannot itself enforce compensation or punish an authority, which is the standard criticism of its design.
Simple Analogy: It is the difference between a doctor who only sees patients who book appointments and one who walks into the ward and examines anyone who looks unwell.
A statutory body established on 12 October 1993 under the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, to inquire suo motu or on petition into violations of human rights or negligence in preventing them by a public servant; its recommendations are not legally binding
Requires the State to provide free and compulsory education to all children aged six to fourteen years in such manner as the State may by law determine. It was inserted by the Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002, which also recast Article 45 to cover early childhood care and education for children below six, and added Article 51A(k) making it a fundamental duty of parents or guardians to provide education opportunities to children aged six to fourteen
The statute operationalising Article 21A; it makes education a right of every child between six and fourteen years. It came into force on 1 April 2010
A public interest litigation arising from the fire at the Lord Krishna Middle School in Kumbakonam in which 93 children died. The Supreme Court held that the right to education necessarily includes the right to a safe school and safe infrastructure, and directed States and Union Territories to ensure compliance with the National Building Code, 2005 and the fire safety standards it laid down. The NHRC extended this reasoning to safe access to school
The parent statute creating the NHRC and the State Human Rights Commissions and conferring the power of suo motu inquiry. It was amended in 2019 to widen the eligibility for chairperson, raise the number of members with knowledge of human rights from two to three with at least one woman, add the chairpersons of the National Commission for Backward Classes, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights and the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities as ex-officio members, and reduce the term of office to three years or up to the age of 70
The Betwa rises at Jhiri village in Raisen district of Madhya Pradesh, in the Vindhya Range, at an elevation of about 470 metres, and flows north-east to join the Yamuna near Hamirpur in Uttar Pradesh after roughly 590 km — about 232 km in Madhya Pradesh and 358 km in Uttar Pradesh. Its notable tributaries include the Halali, Dhasan, Bina, Jamini and Birma. Vidisha town stands at the fork of the Betwa and the Bes rivers. Known in antiquity as Besnagar, Vidisha is associated with Ashoka and is close to Sanchi; the Udayagiri Caves about 10 km away are a Gupta-period rock-cut complex of the early fifth century CE whose Cave 5 carries the celebrated Varaha relief, and the nearby Heliodorus Pillar, dated to about 113 BCE, was raised by Heliodorus, an envoy of the Indo-Greek king Antialcidas to the Shunga king Bhagabhadra.
The Betwa is one half of India's first major centrally driven river interlinking project, approved by the Union Cabinet in December 2021 at Rs 44,605 crore, which transfers surplus Ken water to the Betwa for the drought-prone Bundelkhand region through the Daudhan dam inside Panna Tiger Reserve and a 230-km canal
Avinash Mehrotra established the right to a safe school; the NHRC's extension of it to safe transport to school is the reasoning worth remembering for Mains answers on the content of Article 21A
The NHRC is statutory, created by the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 — a standing Prelims contrast with constitutional bodies such as the Election Commission, the CAG and the UPSC
Five of the nine children reported to be crossing the river are girls, and the report notes a student failing her final examinations after missing school because she could not cross the pillars
GS Paper 2 > Polity and Governance > Statutory Bodies, Education, Vulnerable Sections
General Awareness > Indian Polity and Constitution
General Awareness > Indian Polity and Geography
The NHRC and Article 21A are recurring Prelims and Mains topics; the Betwa features regularly through the Ken-Betwa Link Project
On its own motion — the NHRC's power to begin an inquiry without a complaint being filed
The fundamental right to free and compulsory education for children aged six to fourteen, inserted by the 86th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2002
A small barrier built across a stream or channel to slow water flow and aid recharge; the exposed pillars of one are what the children were crossing on
A body created by an Act of Parliament rather than by the Constitution, as the NHRC was by the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993