Article from The Hindu: Media Today-17th February

School Children Deprived of School Uniform
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Source: The Hindu (http://www.hinduonnet.com/2008/02/17/stories/2008021757460300.htm)
Other States
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Orissa
  

Where students are deprived of school uniforms

Correspondent

KORAPUT: Premi Phamia and her little sister Anjani Pamia are the names of a few children in Debighat Upper Primary School near Koraput and thousands of children in Government managed residential schools in the entire Koraput district who are facing the discrimination in getting school uniform even at the fag end of the academic year.
It was difficult to sit in the class with untidy clothes while sharing the same classroom with other children sitting next wearing school uniform, Maina Boi, another tribal girl from Std.V said today. They were poor and their parents had sent them to stay in hostels managed by the Government with a hope that they would be offered an environment free from any kind of discrimination, she added.

Negligent attitude

But thanks to the lack of concern among a section of the officials in the district administration on the amount of psychological impact that is being created on the children because of such a negligent attitude that the innocent tribal children were left on themselves to suffer from the imposed discrimination for the entire year for no fault of theirs.
The school at Debighat has housed more than 70 children who were originally to be kept in Thana Colony Upper Primary School in Upper Kolab for the lack of infrastructure in that school, Puspalata Dei, the head mistress of the school said. These students staying in the hostel were covered under District Welfare Officer’s office while the school was managed by School & Mass Education Department and there came the discrimination. While other children who were day scholars in the school received school uniform from S&ME Department long back, these girls were asked to wait , official sources added.

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