Child Rights Body Raises Concern Over Story Written by Money Laundering Accused Harsh Mander in Textbooks

The National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has written to the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to express their dissatisfaction over the inclusion of a chapter written by social rights activist Harsh Mander in school textbooks. The letter by the commission raised questions over the inclusion of the story written by a person who is accused of money laundering.

A retired IAS officer, Mander is currently being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for an alleged money laundering case while running children’s homes, reported news agency ANI. Last year, September, ED conducted raids at the premises linked to Mander.

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The NCPCR chief Priyank Kanoongo said that the story by Mander titled ‘Weathering the Storm in Ersama’ which is included in class 9 English textbook ‘Moments’ was examined following a complaint. Thereafter, it was found that the story negated provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015. The NCPCR requested appropriate action in the matter and inform the commission within seven days.

“The narrative of the story is built in a way to suggest that the rescue and welfare work are only carried out by the non-government organizations and undermines the country’s mechanism including disaster management agencies and other authorities,” Kanoongo wrote in the letter.

The commission also listed the inclusion of two other stories — ‘A Home on the Street’ and ‘Paying for his Tea’ which have been given as suggested readings at the end of the chapter have been printed without cross-checking the present scenario of care and protection of children in the country, it claims.

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Meanwhile, the NCERT will be reducing the syllabus for the academic session 2022-23 across all classes. Last year, NCERT Director-in-Charge Sridhar Srivastava had ordered the heads of departments to conduct a review involving internal and external experts to discuss the topics that can be excluded from the syllabus. The decision has been taken due to the disruption in the learning process caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

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