Broken Slates and Blank Screens - Education under a Lockdown.
The country-wide lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic and
attendant issues have led to major violations of civil liberties and
human rights in India. While some restrictions on rights may have
been necessitated by the nature of the pandemic, we believe that
a large number of violations were entirely excessive, arbitrary
and totally avoidable. The impact of this curtailment of rights and
of civil liberties has been felt across all sectors including the
economy, education, health, media, prisons, employment,
migrant workers, women, domestic workers, sex workers,
prisoners and their access to justice etc.
Five months after, it has become palpably clear that the
lockdown has also been used by the Government to push through
undemocratic means laws and policies which are against the
people.
In this context, PUCL Maharashtra has put together ‘Lockdown
on Civil Liberties’ , a series of reports of the impact on these
restrictions on various segments. While some of the reports focus
on the situation in Maharashtra, others deal with a pan-India
situation.
“Broken Slates and Blank Screens: Education Under
Lockdown” is the third in the series. This report brings out the
state of education in Maharashtra in context of the lockdown – its
implications for the rights of children and youth. The analysis
while focusing on immediate impact of the pandemic sets this in
context of the systemic issues plaguing education. So while it
highights the main issues due to the lockdown, it raises questions
about framing policies that violate the fundamental principles of
federalism and constitutional rights and promise of “Education for
all”.
This report has been authored by Simantini Dhuru with the help
of others from PUCL (Maharashtra) including, Meena Gopal, Lara
Jesani, Chayanika Shah, Sandhya Gokhale, John D’Souza, Mihir
Desai, and others.
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Education under a Lockdown