‘Protect girls’ rights, don’t take them away’

CHANDIGARH: It seems that Chandigarh commission for protection of child rights was in a hurry to select its brand ambassadors on the occasion of National Girl Child Day which is why they forgot to look beyond one game and selected three out of four students from a single sport- fencing despite the city having many girl students who have been excelling in different sports, nationally and internationally.
Where on one side the move of having ambassadors has been appreciated, on the other hand, it has left various schools disappointed. Schools felt that the selection was biased as the commission opted the pick and choose policy without giving a chance to other schools.

Questions were raised that why the commission did not ask schools to send their best sports students and then select from different sports instead of selecting three students from one sport and selecting two students from a single school. "An organisation like CCPCR should not be biased. They have a big responsibility. We received a letter from the education department where they asked for academic toppers of the session 2016-17. It was almost 12 days before they announced the ambassadors. They could have asked us to send sports' toppers as well. Our school has many national and international girl players, that too from different sports. But they did not get a chance to even claim this honour," a school principal told TOI, requesting anonymity.

In an email dated January 4, sent through district education officers office (DEO), schools were asked to send details of girls who were toppers in 2017 class XII boards. Officials from DEO office confirmed that the details were sought by CCPCR as the commission will be awarding the toppers on National Girl Child Day.

When CCPCR chairperson Harjinder Kaur.and RTE consultant Chanchal Singh were asked about the selection criteria they did not have any clear answers. They said it was just the beginning and they would be awarding and honouring many others throughout the year as this campaign on empowering girls will go on all round the year.

However, schools called it a cover up. "This is totally unfair. This in itself raises eyebrows that they did not ask other schools with more deserving players who missed out on the chance. The fourth student, who is a cricketer, is a college student. They should give chance to the school students. They are a government body and picking and choosing should not be their policy. They are here to protect the child rights and not take them away," said Swarn Singh Kamboj, a teacher cum president UT cadre educational employees union.

"One feels sad that a deserving girl did not get the opportunity simply because of biasness of the selectors. It is sad that an organisation, which loves to encash or gloat over the trauma that a school principal, management and staff go through when an unfortunate incident happens, themselves, have no conscience. They have no qualms of ignoring their cry of equality and safety for girl child," said another principal on conditions of anonymity.

Schools even questioned their authority to appoint ambassadors and hold such events. President of independent schools association H S Mamik said, "I really would like to understand their mandate. I don't think they have this authority to start appointing ambassadors. They are a body to look into complaints by children or parents. It seems they are increasing their scope of work unilaterally. There are specific departments for each job. They should stick to theirs."

The Background

On Tuesday, CCPCR named four girls, who have represented Chandigarh in national and international games, as brand its ambassadors under the theme 'empowering from womb to womanhood'. This is being done as a part of National Girl Child Day celebrations. Out of the four, one girl was Taniya Bhatia, a college student,who made it to national women's cricket team recently for a three-match ODI series in South Africa. The other three were school students from GMSSS-10 (two stduents) and one from Chitkara International school. All three are achievers in fencing.