Child Rights asks refugees to leave Government New LPS School
The district administration has to provide facilities for these families and shift them to other places.
Alappuzha: The Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (KeSCPCR) has asked the nine fishermen families to vacate the Government New LPS, Purakkad, where they were accommodated for the last two years after they lost their houses in sea erosion. The order came after its member J. Sandhya visited the school on Friday on the basis of a report published in this newspaper on Wednesday. She told DC that accommodating outsiders in schools was violation of the Juvenile Justice Act and Right Education Act.
The district administration has to provide facilities for these families and shift them to other places. The school can’t be made a relief camp indefinitely, she said. An official order in this regard would be issued soon and it would be sent to district and local administration and the state government. As many as 25 members of nine families are currently staying in the school following sea erosion in July 2014. The school has 150 students from pre-primary to class V and the people have disrupted its academic atmosphere.
Ms N.K. Prasannakumari, headmistress, said the safety of the students had to be compromised because of outsiders in the school. Ninety families in Purakad panchayat are still homeless. Many are living either in their relatives’ houses or rented homes. During the last few years, the number of homeless families has increased. As per the panchayat data, eight families lost their houses in 2013, 11 in 2014, 39 in 2015 and 22 so far this year.