PIL demands quota in education and jobs for orphans

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 5

Can orphans having no linkages in society be given benefit of reservation in education and public employment on the lines of such benefits extended to members of the Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes?

The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to examine a PIL that highlighted the plight of orphans and demanded affirmative action in terms of quota and other benefits such as bank loans and incentives for setting up businesses.

The Centre should be asked to constitute an expert group of the NITI Aayog or a committee or commission like the ‘Mandal Commission’ with public participation to examine all aspects of orphan and children in need of care and protection and suggest solutions, it demanded.

A Bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi issued notice to the Centre asking it to respond the petition by Poulomi Pavini Shukla – from Uttar Pradesh.

Contending orphans, whose antecedents were unknown, were unjustly and forcibly given a religion and a caste by the government which goes to their detriment, she said the State should assume the role of a “parent” for orphans.

The petitioner sought a direction to the government to have a policy for assigning religion to orphans and ensure that orphan children were given the right to choose their religion upon attaining majority and were not under duress of any kind to choose a specific religion.

There should be a comprehensive census or sample survey of children in need of care and protection, demanded the petition, saying it was essential to fix the numbers and targets and outlays in government schemes and outline the extent of the problem.

The state was bound to provide adequate measures for the orphans for their survival, growth and empowerment and opportunity so that they could compete on an equal footing with others, the PIL submitted.