Thiruvananthapuram: Reports on students fainting during outdoor school functions under the blazing sun occasionally hit the headlines. In a relief from such exhausting non-academic activities, the Kerala State’s Commission for Protection of Child Rights has ordered that rallies in which children take part on occasions such as Republic Day and Independence Day must begin at 8 am. and conclude before 10 am.
In an order, Commission Member Reni Antony directed that the children should be placed at the head of such processions and people’s representatives and others must form the rear.
The Commission ordered the Secretaries to the Department of General Education, Local Self Government, and Urban Affairs, and the Director of General Education to take action in compliance with the directive and submit an action taken report within 30 days.
The Commission issued the order on a petition filed by a person from Kunnathur East in Kollam, complaining that sixth-standard students of the Karunagappally Girls High School were made to walk on the National Highway for hours together in the hot sun, without providing them food or drinking water during the Independence Day celebrations last year.
