Right to Basic Needs

26 Apr Right to Basic Needs

I’m an IB PYP student (Primary Years Programme) studying in Grade 4 at Sharanya Narayani International School, one of the top International Schools in Bangalore. In our PYP Units of Inquiry, we learn and inquire into many aspects of day-to-day life. In the Economics unit, we learnt about demand and supply and along with it, we also learnt about consumer rights and responsibilities. This inspired me to do a personal inquiry into Human Rights.

Basic needs are critical for our survival and the physical and mental health of people. These include-

1.Food

2.Clothing

3.Health Care

4.Drinking water

5.Shelter

6.Education

7.Energy

8.Transportation

Right to Food

Right to food is a basic human right to feed ourselves. Supreme Court in its judgment delivered on 29^th June 2021 directed all the states to implement the “one nation one ration card “to give access to food to all its citizens.

Right to Clothing

Right to clothing is important in a country like India where nearly one- third of the population live below or near the poverty line. The government should introduce an approach to help poor benefit from the scheme of distribution of cloth at lower rates.

Right to Healthcare

In order to improve the situation, it is necessary to adapt a good and strong need based health policy at the national level. The basic objective is to prevent disease.

Right to drinking water and sanitation

To improve the situation, there is a need for developing effective water supply facilities, ensuring proper maintenance of water systems in states, districts and villages. Because proper sanitation also helps in good health and development of the country.

Right to Shelter

To improve the situation, there is need for extending government support to help poor construct their houses. Secondly making finance available and more accessible to common people.

Right to Education

Right to education needs to be effectively implemented with strong support for poor students. The access of education is an important pillar for making people realize other rights. It is also important for making them understand their responsibilities.

Right to Energy

Three basic issues hamper access of energy to many consumers. These are

• Shortage in power generation.
• Distribution and transmission losses.
• Lack of affordability scenario.

There is need for addressing all three problems identified above.

Right to Transportation

There is need for extending road networks to effectively cover rural people. Considering that roads are the dominant and convenient mode of transportation in India, compared to rail, water and air transport, it must be given higher weightage in the overall planning for country and wide connectivity.

Conclusion

Basic needs are the absolute needs that every human being needs to live a life of dignity. Fulfillment of these basic needs is essential for life and it is the motivating force behind human behavior. So, it is the fundamental right of every human being to have access to the basic needs and the government should take steps to fulfill the basic needs to help the citizens to lead a life of dignity. In our units of inquiry, we keep connecting local and global issues to Human Rights. As students, we are learning that all issues in the world are due to Human rights violation. PYP enables us with knowledge and awareness, this inspires us to act and that is the beauty of IB PYP education.

“The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.”

~ Herbert Spencer

~ Sugamya
Grade 4 student, SNIS