Human Rights are those rights inherent to all human beings to whom everyone is entitled without discrimination, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or any other status. Human Rights aim to secure for all individuals the necessary conditions to lead a minimally good life. Thus Human Rights are about Social Justice – nationally and globally. But when we analyse the present global scenario, we can find that we are living in a very complex situation. Globalisation, Terrorism, Corruption, Extremism, racism, etc. intrude in to the fundamental rights of human beings to live. The poor, the marginalized, the excluded are not just losing their humanity by being denied livelihood, jobs, security- they are losing most fundamental right of all the right to live. As every resource is commodified, plants and seeds are patented, water is privatized, the poor are robbed to their means to create livelihoods and sustain their lives. Human Rights violations are reported from every nook and corner of world. Child Rights, Women Rights, Rights of the weaker sections of the society, Rights of the marginalized people, Rights of the working class, Right to protect the environment, Health Rights, Rights and duties embodied in the Constitutions and International Declarations & agreements etc. came under the purview of Human Rights. So when we discuss about Human Rights, we have to think about how we can inculcate proper awareness and values on different aspects of Human rights among future citizens through education.
IMPORTANCE OF HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION
Education has been formally recognized as a Human Right since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. This has since been affirmed in numerous global Human rights treaties, including the UNESCO convention against Discrimination in Education (1960), the international Covnent on Economic, Social and cultural rights (1966), and the convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (1981). The term Human rights Education has been coined to denote a specialized branch of education which has been mushrooming in the past decade, prompted by the profound change which human rights movements around the world had instigated and which led to the United Nations Decade for Human rights Education (1995-2004). Although United Nations have recommended that human rights education start at primary school, it is usually confined to the upper part of the education pyramid. Translating abstract terms in to the language which children can understand is a considerable challenge. Human Rights education would probably be classified by many educationists in to “value education”, which generally denotes curricular contents that reflects common human values. The World Programme for Human Rights Education defined it as education, training, and information aiming at building up of a Universal culture through the sharing of knowledge, imparting of skills and molding of attitudes directed to:
· The strengthening of respect for Human rights and fundamental freedom;
· The full development of the human personality and the sense of its dignity;
· The promotion of understanding, tolerance, gender equality and friendship among all nations, indigenous peoples and racial, national, ethnic, religious, religious and linguistic groups;
· To enable all persons to participate effectively in a free and democratic society governed by the rule of law;
· The building and maintenance of peace;
· The promotion of people centered sustainable development and social justice.
A School is a communication centre for a whole range of values and aspirations of a society. In large part it defines the values that transacted society through educational medium. The school is an arena for the exchange ideas and must, therefore be premised upon principles of tolerance and impartiality so that all persons within the school environment feel equally free to participate. Curricula and text books reproduce the facts and values that children should learn, but these are mediated by teachers. Teachers occupy positions of trust and confidence, and exert considerable influence over their students as a result of their position. It is rather the necessity of ensuring that all parts of the curriculum, including the whole process of education conform to the minimal human rights standards. The United Nations Commission on Human Rights has emphasized that the knowledge of human rights should become a priority throughout the process of education. Amnesty International believes that human rights education is fundamental for addressing the underlying causes of human rights violations, preventing human rights abuses, combating discrimination, promoting equality, and enhancing people’s participation in democratic decision making processes.
NEED AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Human rights education is an important element of quality education. Human rights education allows people to participate in their communities and society in a constructive and respectful way for themselves and others. It aims to deliver outcomes such as personal and social growth, the respectful conduct of citizens toward each other and the provision of opportunities for learners to develop critical thinking and life skills. According to UNESCO, Human Rights Education is the learning and practice of Human Rights. This means that human rights are implemented at all levels of the education system, and are taught through content, transmission and experience.
In 1985, the University Grants Commission prepared a blueprint for promotion of Human Rights Teaching and research at all levels of education. This blueprint contained proposals for restructuring of existing syllabi, and introduction of new courses and foundation courses in Human rights. The National policy on Education (1986) has laid considerable emphasis on Value Education by highlighting the need to make education a forceful tool for cultivation of social and moral values. In September 2009, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) declared that Human rights will be included as a subject in schools all over India. Many agencies of education in India like NCERT, CBSE, etc. also uphold the values of human rights in education. Since Social Science deals with a lot of topics connected with human rights issues, there is a need to examine the extend of awareness is being created on human rights through the Social Science Curriculum for the secondary classes. In this regard the investigator decided to collect opinions of teachers regarding the development of awareness on Human Rights and to overview the Social Science Textbooks.
Human Rights Education
Human Rights Education is a deliberate, participatory practice aimed at empowering individuals, groups and communities through fostering knowledge, skills and attitudes consistent with internationally recognized human rights principles.
An overview of Social Science text books for secondary classes of Kerala shows that a lot of topics related with the issues on Human Rights are included in it. There is a separate chapter with the title “Human Rights” in standard X, as the part of Political Science. That chapter deals with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, provisions of Indian Constitution related to human Rights, Child Rights, Women rights, Dalit Rights, and Rights of the other weaker and marginalized sections of society. History contents included in the text books give awareness about how Human rights are violated at different stages of History from very ancient period to the modern. It also gives an idea about agitations and resistance movements in different parts of the world against the inhuman practices at different stages of History and the evolution of Human Rights Movements in the world. Economic portions included in the text books deal with a lot of economic problems that affect the humanity including poverty, starvation, developmental issues, globalization etc. Geography also gives ideas about climatic changes that affect the humanity, the over exploitation of the nature and other environmental issues. But all of these discipline wise content areas are included not as the part of Human Rights Education. We can infer the Human Rights relationships in all these areas due to its impact upon the rights of human beings.
The conclusions that emerged out of the analysis of the data and the overview of social Science text books are listed below:
1. A majority of teachers are of the opinion that the Social Science Curriculum for the secondary classes develops awareness on many of the Human Rights issues.
2. A majority of teachers are not Strongly Agree with the idea that Social Science Curriculum provides Human Rights Education in its true spirit.
3. A majority of teachers are not agreeing that the curriculum provides awareness about the child sexual abuse and exploitation.
4. A majority of teachers opined that the curriculum do not give awareness on the right to know about the medicines for diseases.
5. A majority of teachers opined that the curriculum do not provide information about Intellectual Property Rights.
6. There is a chapter in Social Science text book for standard X with the title “Human Rights” that deals with Rights of different sections of the society.
7. Social Science text books provide awareness about historical evolution of Human Rights.
8. Social Science Textbooks provide awareness about many of the economical aspects of Human Rights.
9. Social Science text books develop ideas about over exploitation of Nature and its consequences on humanity.
10. Most of the content areas included in the text books are not the part of Human Rights awareness, but it is possible to infer the human rights relationships.
SUGGESTIONS
In the light of the above findings, the following suggestions are made to improve the curriculum:
1. Human Rights Education should be given due weightage in all the Secondary classes as the part of Political Science.
2. In other subject areas of Social Science, contents should be correlated with the issues on Human Rights wherever possible.
3. The Social Science curriculum should provide awareness on Child sexual abuse and exploitation.
4. The curriculum should provide awareness on the right to know about the contents of medicines to be used.
5. Awareness should be given about the Intellectual Property Rights through the Social Science curriculum
