Parents in government jobs in China-occupied Tibet are being forced by the Chinese authorities to bring back their children from schools in India. Most of these are studying in schools located in and around Dharamsala. More than 40 students of the Tibetan Children's Village, which runs three schools catering to the educational needs of the escapee Tibetan children, have been taken back by parents in the past more than one year. That leaves the TCV with 50 children who have their parents in government jobs in Tibet.

Three of them -- Semo Tso (third class) and Tenzin Gyansen and TsetenDolkar (eighth standard) were taken back by parents to their native land earlier this month. They had no choice but to sacrifice their interests, independence and studies for their parents.

``Neither the students, nor their parents, who came to Dharamsala on the directions of the Chinese authorities, were willing to go. The children, two of whom had fled Tibet seven years ago and one about two years ago, wept for long. So did their parents. But there was no other option as the latter had been threatened with dire consequences by the Chinese authorities. If they failed to follow the orders of the communist leadership, they would either lose their jobs or find themselves locked up in prison for no valid reason'', commented Director of the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy Lobsang Nyandak.

He told The Indian Express today that the three children who went back to Tibet recently, had their parents employed with the Lhasa Middle School (one of the top 1,000 Chinese schools) and the latterwere identified by the Chinese oficials for having defied the orders issued to all Tibetans in the institution in 1994.

The parents confided in the school authorities as well as in the officials of the Tibetan Government-in-exile that almost all the Tibetan employees were harassed and even suspended from jobs for not bringing their children back from Dharamsala for schooling in the `Chinese atmosphere . ``The departments in the Tibetan autonomous region, who have their staff with children studying in India, are looked down upon by the Chinese high-ups who put pressure on them to implement the orders'', they said.

However, the Tibetan Government circles are not clear about the intensity with which the Chinese authorities are restraining the Tibetans from sending their kids to schools run by the administration-in-exile. The TCV authorities pointed out that the kids who had returned to Tibet hailed from different provinces. Many were from Lhasa which is the centre of the Chinese activity in Tibet.

Some ofthe students currently studying in TCV, when contacted, said that they had fled their native land because the Chinese authorities were giving them misguided education with no reference whatsoever to the Tibetan history and culture at all. ``I could not go to school in Tibet for the first ten years as I was denied admission on one pretext or the other. Somehow, I could get admission later. But it was all Chinese version of education where my Tibetan schoolmates were told by the Chinese teachers that the Dalai Lama was bad. Many a time the photos of the Dalai Lama were put into our shoes just to indicate that he was nothing more than a dirt for China. If any student dared defy the dictates of the Chinese teachers, he and his parents were put to great mental and physical torture'', recalled a 15-year-old student who did not want to be identified.

He is among the 50-odd children left in TCV at Dharamsala with their parents in government jobs in Tibet. However, no more requests for withdrawal of any student ispending with the TCV authorities.

Some students who managed to visit their parents in Tibet from Dharamsala recently without the Chinese getting wind of it, told The Indian Express that the situation there was pathetic for the `defaulter kids as well as their parents. Many students who went from Dharamsala and were below 15 years of age, were admitted to primary school with no facilities. Others were employed as tourist guides at a measly salary. These children are constantly subjected to suspicion and discrimination for stay in India earlier and many a time fired from work on any pretext'' said a TCV student, who visited Tibet in April.

The Tibetan Centre for Democracy and Human Rights has taken up the matter of violation of children's rights in Tibet by the Chinese Government with the Amnesty International and other United Nations Human rights groups, but to no concrete outcome so far.