3 min readNew DelhiOct 19, 2024 07:50 AM IST
First published on: Oct 18, 2024 at 02:22 AM IST
Nine-year-old Umar Farooq has never attended a school. His father, Hussain Ahmed, a Rohingya refugee and a daily-wage labourer, has been trying to get him admitted to a Delhi government-run school since 2019.
“Without documents like Aadhaar card, they do not accept us for any big work. There is nothing more difficult than watching our children’s lives getting wasted. We are already backward and if this goes on…won’t we still remain backward?” asks Ahmed.
Farooq is among many children of Rohingya refugees who have not been able to get a school admission in the Capital. The reason — lack of documents such as Aadhaar card and bank accounts, according to parents. This is, despite them having refugee cards issued by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).
However, citing a circular issued by the Directorate of Education on July 28, 2017, official sources said government schools in Delhi have been admitting children of refugees or asylum seekers in accordance with the Centre’s policy. “The circular…explicitly allows admission to refugees/asylum seekers. The document issued by the Central government is sufficient to establish proof of residence and no requirement of Aadhaar is made out,” official sources said, adding, “Nearly 1,000 children from at least five nationalities are already enrolled in Delhi government schools”.
Yet at Khajuri Khas, one of the settlements of Rohingya refugees in the Capital, around 30 children are enrolled across four schools in the locality, while 18 are out-of-school children, said Ahmed, a community leader.
After having studied till Class 8 at G S K V Khajuri Khas, 15-year-old Asmidah found her name struck off from the school roll when she fell ill during 2021. “My father is no more. My mother alone manages the house by doing odd jobs like tailoring. I just wish I could change the situation at my home but for this I have to study, right?” she asks.
She now homeschools her seven-year-old sister, who has never been to a school after being denied admission, to read and write.
The anxiety among the parents is palpable.
Asmat Ullah, a painter by profession, has been making regular rounds of all the four government schools in the locality, meeting the principals to get his two daughters aged six and seven admitted. “I studied only till Class 10. I don’t want the same fate for my children. This is what I am worried about all the time. I just want to see them get education,” said Asmat.
On Wednesday, Delhi-based advocate and child-rights activist Ashok Agarwal wrote to Chief Minister Atishi flagging “unjust denial of admissions to Myanmar Rohingya refugees children by Delhi government schools”. “The studies of these students are being affected and are being deprived of rights…,” Agarwal wrote to the CM Wednesday.
Terming it “illegal, unjust, unethical, and arbitrary”, the advocate pointed out that the denial of school admission to refugee children is a violation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 as well as Article 21-A.
Terming it "illegal, unjust, unethical, and arbitrary", the advocate pointed out that the denial of school admission to refugee children is a violation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 as well as Article 21-A. 
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