State govt to admit children engaged in begging into schools

In a move to protect the rights of underprivileged children, the state government has called for identifying and enrolling children engaged in begging into government schools.
In an advisory, principal director school education, Shashank Pratap Singh, called upon the members of NGOs, Municipal/town/village councils, churches, student unions and the general public to report details of such children to the Child Helpline 1098 enabling their enrolment in the nearest government schools.
The department of school education has specifically sought to identify: 1) Out-of-school children aged 6-14 years who are not enrolled or have dropped out of school before completing elementary education, including those found begging and 2) Children aged 3-6 years whose parents are engaged in begging and are not enrolled in pre-school, Anganwadi, or Balvatika centres.
All district education officers (DEOs), sub-divisional education officers (SDEOs), and senior SDEOs have been instructed to coordinate with the concerned district child protection units and child welfare committees to facilitate the admission of such children as per the provisions of the Right to Education Act, 2009.
It may be recalled that the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) advisory called for the protection and rehabilitation of impoverished, uneducated children, women, and differently-abled individuals engaged in begging.