Date:12/03/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/03/12/stories/2006031215330600.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Treading on the rights path

Ramya Kannan

SPREADING THE MESSAGE: Adi Dravidar Welfare School students performing a cultural programme at the State conference of teachers and students of Human Rights Education held in Chennai on Saturday. — Photo : R. Shivaji Rao

CHENNAI: Sathya of Manojipettai Adi Dravidar Welfare School, Thanjavur, is convinced she is an agent of change. You can judge once you listen to her tale.

Sathya's classmate was to be married to her maternal uncle, 20 years elder to her. Not surprisingly, she did not favour the alliance or discontinuing her studies. Pleas to family members were in vain and the marriage date was fixed.

That was when Sathya intervened. Along with a few friends, she marched to her classmate's mother and demanded the marriage be called off, failing which she threatened to inform the police and the Human Rights Commission. Sathya had her way.

Deriving courage

Sathya says if she had not attended classes in human rights education at school, she might have sympathised with her friend and not helped her out.

Her courage was derived from these lessons.

On Saturday, at a conference for students and teachers on human rights organised by the Institute for Human Rights Education, it became apparent that a number of other students too had altered their perspective on rights issues thanks largely to the classes.

Positive changes

Elaborating on the agenda of taking human rights education to children, Henry Tiphagne, executive director, People's Watch, said the programme was being conducted successfully over the last three years, facilitating positive changes in villages.

The benefits apparent in students belonging to Adi Dravidar Schools must be passed on to other students as well, Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Secretary K. Deenabandhu said, suggesting that rights classes be introduced in all schools.

Vasanthi Devi, president of the Institute, said the key to seeing a more just society lay in getting children to realise the importance of rights.

The change could only happen from within classrooms.

Christodas Gandhi of the Statistics department; V. Karuppan, retired bureaucrat; Muthukumaran, former Vice-Chancellor and E. Devasahayam, director, Institute for Human Rights Education, spoke.