National
NHRC notice to Centre on revision of textbooks
By J. Venkatesan
NEW DELHI, JAN. 22. The issue of revision of textbooks for children has taken a new turn with the National Human Rights Commission issuing notice to the Ministry of Human Resource Development and the National Council of Education, Research and Training (NCERT) on the ground that such a change was likely to affect the rights of children.
The Commission issued notices, returnable in eight weeks, on the basis of a complaint from educationists alleging that the revision of textbooks was likely to adversely affect their (children's) development and might distort personality and human development.
The Commission held that ``no doubt formulation of policies is within the domain of the Government. However, the constitutional philosophy in the Preamble, the fundamental guarantees and the mandate of regulation of policy formulation by the Directive Principles of State Policy has to be respected''.
The Commission also held that ``the right to development is the most basic right of every child, duly recognised by the Convention on the Rights of the Child - to which India is a party''.
The Commission also noted ``that education has been judicially construed to fall within the guarantee of right to life in Article 21 and now it is a fundamental right. Freedom of information is the essence of democracy and education helps to develop that trait. It must, therefore, be also a medium of exposure to different points of views based on the depiction of established facts''.
The Commission also observed that ``it is the obligation of the school to disseminate all necessary information children require, facilitating them in making informed choices about their own lives''.
The educationists wanted the Commission to intervene to look into the printing of history textbooks, which they felt was ``undemocratic and non secular''. In their opinion, the old textbooks should be continued for 2002 till historical reality and facts were brought into rewriting of history textbooks.
They also urged the Commission to ensure that the history textbooks writings were a truly transparent, professional and democratic process highlighting the secular, democratic, pluralistic character of India for which the freedom fighters had fought and died for.
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