Becoming a Responsible Citizen: Significance of Active Citizenship
To start with, this is importance of citizenship essay in which this topic is discussed. Citizenship is given by a sovereign state or nation to a person to make him/her a legal member of the state. It provides a legal basis to acquire basic human rights and make an individual capable of defending his or her right in front of a government authority. In absence of citizenship, an individual or group cannot defend its rights and there is a high possibility of being vulnerable to basic human rights; education, health even right to life.
Rohingya have been ripped of citizenship for a long time in the home country which ultimately forced them to leave Myanmar and seek asylum in other countries. But being stateless Rohingya are can not defend basic human rights even in host countries including India. Hence, Rohingya children are not included in the national education system. Indeed, national education policy covers Indian citizens. It reinforces the deprivation of education for Rohingya children also in India. CAA, 2019 is an appreciable initiative of GOI to grant citizenship to refugees who are minorities in their own/ home country, but it does not include the Muslim minority. Therefore, Rohingya automatically fall out from the category of the refugee who could acquire citizenship under this act. However, the Indian constitution provides the right to education for every child in its territory, but the absence of citizenship makes it difficult for Rohingya to defend for the educational right of their children, if not facilitated by GOI.
Refugee Law
Refugee law is a legal mechanism a sovereign state has to deal with its refugee population. Refugee law emerged as a branch of international law which has been come into existence, because of the rising number of the refugee population in the world, to avoid their detention and protect their human rights in host countries. However, it does not have the power to interfere in the internal legal structure of any sovereign country. A sovereign state has the power of choice to accept it as it is, or make its version of refugee law for its country. Refugee law can provide legal protection to the education of refugee children. Yet, most of the Asian countries, hosting Rohingya do not have refugee law and dealt with its refugee population on an ad hoc basis. India is one of them, it does not have refugee law or any formal legal framework separately for refugee but deal them under Foreigners Act of 1946, where even the term “Refugee” doesn’t exist. People who enter India without proper required documents are considered as illegal migrants under this act. In that case, they could be to detention, exploitation, or encounter. Since Rohingya entered India in the almost same way they legally fall under this category, although most of them are now recognized as refugees by UNHCR India many of them are still not registered as refugees. Refugees are tackled on an ad hoc basis by GOI, keeping in mind the diplomatic relation of his or her home/ origin county. So, it less or more depends on the existing government how it is going to approach its various groups of refugees. That is why we can observe significant educational, economical difference among various groups of refugees hosted by India. It somewhere an unequal approach to deal refugees, hence the demand of a refugee law which will treat every refugee equally.
Due to the Inexistence of refugee law, the government is not legally obligated to ensure accessibility of education for all Rohingya children living in India as refugees and also make it difficult for Rohingya to appeal or approach GOI legally to make policy or provisions to ensure basic education of their children.
Refugee in School
Special schools or integration in national schools- When a refugee flees to a host country, although, they left their home, place, and other things behind but carries their culture, ethnicity along with them. While educating a child we always keep in mind his or her culture and ethnicity and try to provide such an educational environment he/she is familiar with so that he/she learn and grow naturally. But often in the case of refugees, their culture and ethnicity are rising many challenges for their learning in a new environment where they are refuged. It is often considered a burden by hosting countries while making policies related to their education. In the case of Rohingya children, most of the hosting countries felt it difficult to integrate them into mainstream schools, because they speak a different language which is unknown to them. Often the government ignores the issue of educating Rongiya children at UNHCR and welfare groups working in that area. UNHCR with its implementing partners provides basic education to children, where he could learn life skills and English language or local language so that either they could be prepared for integration in the host country or they could approach other countries for their resettlement. Hence, they preferred separate learning centers as the government declares its inability to integrate Rohingya children in mainstream schools.
However, Rohingya have been living in India for more than a decade, gradually have learned to speak Hindi that helped them to integrate with local communities and open doors for schooling in public schools but still facing many challenges because of their ethnicity and identity issue. Hence, this is the time for GOI to rethink about their obligation toward Rohingya children and their education. It could be done by proposing education policy including refugee children. It would demand a structural change in the school system of India. Decision-making authorities could either include refugees in a mainstream school or make special learning centers for them, if possible.
Role of Civil Society
Civil society is a collective term generally indicate a group of NGOs, charitable organizations, community groups, volunteer groups, professional associations or foundations, activists, academicians, think-tankers, etc. formed by citizens of a state. Civil society plays a critical and diverse role in societal development and has the power to influence the actions and decisions of elected policymakers. In the case of refugees, they play a significant role either by providing or facilitating them with basic needs or pressurizing the government to accommodate and protect their human rights. Civil society works as a mediator between government and refugees. They communicate refugees about the decisions taken by the government related to them and also notify the government about the needs of various groups of refugees through primary data. Along with this, it also mediates between refugee and local communities that help the process of integration of refugee groups into local communities.
Indian civil society actively working for Rohingya refugees and facilitating them to access education in various educational settings. But they are constantly facing many political, economic, and societal challenges that work as a demotivating factor and often breaking off their active participation in the process of facilitating education to Rohingya children. They need support and motivation from the government as well as from local communities and authorities to continue with their work. Their role becomes even more significant for ensuring the educational rights of Rohingya children when the government is constantly neglecting its obligations toward Rohingya children and their education. It could make a pressure on the government to come up with such policies or laws which could protect human rights and assure accessibility to the education of not only all Rohingya children but other refugee children as well who are living in the territory of India.
Conclusion
Keeping in mind, the protracted refugee situation of Rohingya, providing citizenship could be seen as a sustainable alternative solution for ensuring basic human rights, including education of Rohingya and their children (many of them are born in the territory of India). It would also promote their integration into local communities.
