‘Withdraw directive on recording charity work’

Amritsar, November 20

Mandeep Kaur Sidhu, woman entrepreneur and founder of NGO Smiles Care, on Wednesday addressed a press conference on the issue of prohibition by the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) on publishing of photos of NGOs while donating books or other material to schoolchildren. 

A letter by SCERT director, titled “prohibition of coverage with school children during a charity campaign in govt elementary schools of Punjab” was released on October 15. Mandeep said: “According to the notice, individuals, NGOs and NRIs, who make donations to schools in any form are not allowed to take photos or do videography of donation events with students. This notice was issued under the Section 74 of The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015. It is mentioned in the Act that the provision is applicable only when a child goes follows a judicial process. The Act has no relation to government schoolstudents.” 

Terming the move as ‘flawed’, she said the move would discourage NGOs and individuals from coming forward for charity campaigns. Mandeep said the coverage was required to maintain transparency in the work and to encourage people to help others. She said the government should not interrupt their work in helping schoolstudents and urged the government to withdraw the notice as soon as possible. She further said Smiles Care had organised more than 341 campaigns, where they donated shoes in government elementary schools and other locations. “We did our campaign only in those schools and gave shoes to only those students who really needed these. Most of the times, schoolteachers contact us for organising shoe-giving campaigns in their schools. The government gives one set of uniform to students every year, which is not sufficient for them.  Their quality and durability is also less and it lasts only for a few weeks or months. There is an urgency to improve the quality of uniforms. The NGOs working in the sector only come to fill in spaces left by the administration.” 

“World’s top NGOs such as WHO, UNICEF, UNESCO and few more organisations also capture photos and publish these on their social media accounts, but none of the nations have stopped them from doing so. Why has the SCERT issued such a notice then,” Mandeep said.— TNS