NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION, INDIA 8.7 It is important to recognize that as a large majority of students in India study in Government schools or Government aided schools, it is fundamental to improve the implementation of the RTE in terms of infrastructure, teacher quality and targeted learning for children from disadvantaged groups so as to build up a more equitable system. Even now, a significant number of children drop out before completing five years of primary school and a large percentage before finishing upper primary school. These drop-out trends raise troubling questions about equity for there is a huge difference between urban and rural education and the education received by the rich and the poor. Therefore, beside investment of huge financial and human resources, a lot of work on the ground level is required to access this right meaningfully and in full measure. A. Illustrative Cases in the year 2019-20 1. Death of a child in school hostel (Investigation Division) (Case No. 321/36/10/2017) i. The Commission received a complaint from Shri Mulkala Pally Krishna alleging that his son namely Mulukalapally Charan, a student of 5th class of Telangana Social Welfare Residential School (TSWRS) and living in boys hostel was killed by the senior students during ragging and inaction by the State authorities. The police report revealed that the deceased boy was a patient of epilepsy and his cause of death was injuries sustained by him during an epilepsy attack. ii. Pursuant to the directions of the Commission, a spot enquiry was conducted by a team of Investigation Division. During enquiry, no material or substantive evidence came forth to prove or disprove that the deceased was suffering from epilepsy/fits. At the same time, no motive for murder/torture of the deceased or substantial evidence proving prevalence of ragging practice in the school could be established. However, it was found that the admission of the child in the school was through illicit manner and was not done on merits. Despite running a residential school, no Standard Operating Procedure was made by the School authorities to maintain regular health checkups of children and no timely health/medical screening were carried out. Despite the child having a history of epilepsy (as claimed by school authorities), no medical/health records were maintained. The doctor employed by school authorities was not a regular MBBS degree holder but a BAMS practitioner. The ailing child (reportedly under seizure attack) was sent in an auto to the hospital. That showed the apathy of School authorities and that they had no facilities to respond to an emergency in such cases. More so, had the health certificate of the deceased child been obtained at the time of his admission, following a due procedure by school administration, it could have been sensitized for the health issue of the deceased and his life could have been saved. Therefore, the School authorities were found responsible for negligence and laxity in handling a situation and circumstances that led to the untimely and unfortunate death of a small child. The administration of TSWRS had already initiated departmental action against the then School Principal for her neglecting attitude towards ANNUAL REPORT 2019-20 115