Context

• Uttar Pradesh Government recently launched Shards Programme to re-integrate out of School Children’s.

About the Programme

• Uttar Pradesh government launched a statewide campaign launched to enroll children aged 6–14 who dropped out of school. 
• The Government has identified nearly 68,900 children across UP with training starting from August 1, 2025 and continuing through March 2026.
• The Programme will be implemented in two phases.
• Phase I Survey : July 1 to 31
• Phase II Survey:  August 16–September 15, 2025.

Working of the Programme

• Household survey teams at the school level (including teachers, headmasters, volunteers, NGO staff) will cover all areas—rural, urban, slums, migrant communities—to find out Childrens who:
• Never enrolled in school,
• Were absent for more than 30 cumulative days,
• Scored less than 35% in annual assessments or NAT tests.

Enrollment and Training of the Children’s

• Identified children in the Survey are enrolled in age-appropriate classes and given intensive, curriculum-based training delivered at special centres.
• A baseline assessment will take place in about 15 days after enrolment using the SHARDA app.
• Quarterly assessments will follow in October 2025, January and March 2026 to track progress of the Childrens.

Present Status

• As of launch, UP has identified 68,913 out-of-school children:
  
• Prayagraj: 1,263
• Lucknow: 742
• Pratapgarh: 448
• Amethi: 333
• A total of 22,044 special training centres are operational statewide—for example, Prayagraj alone has 411 centres.

Significance of the Programme

• The programme aims to ensure no child is left behind, embedding them into the mainstream school system over the next academic year.
• By combining targeted training, community outreach, and ongoing assessments, SHARDA addresses both enrollment and learning continuity.
• The use of technology (via the SHARDA app) for tracking and evaluation enhances transparency and monitoring.

Context

• Recently the Supreme Court has sought the Uttar Pradesh government response on certain provisions of 2024 amended UP law on Conversion.

About the Law

• Aim: To protect certain groups of people, including minors, people with disabilities, women, and persons belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities. 
• Need: Existing penal provisions under the Act “are not sufficient to prevent and control religious conversion and mass conversion” of persons belonging to the above mentioned groups.
• Significance: The Bill will “resolve certain difficulties that have arisen in the past in various cases regarding legal matters under Section 4 of the Act.

About Changes the Bill brings in

• Following changes have been proposed in the UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion (Amendment) Bill, 2024.

‘Any Aggrieved Person’ is now ‘Any Person’

• The Bill revised provision states that “any person” can file an FIR related to violation of the Act in the manner provided under the new law governing criminal procedure, the Bharatiya Nagarisk Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS).
• Need to Bring Change: In 2023, the Allahabad High Court held that the phrase “Any aggrieved person” does not mean that anyone can file an FIR for unlawful conversion. 
• Jose Papachen vs. State of Uttar Pradesh, September 2023: The Court held that “any aggrieved person” can only refer to someone who is “personally aggrieved by his or her fraudulent conversion”

Strict Bail Conditions

• For those accused under Section 3, the Bill proposes to introduce stringent bail conditions that are akin to the bail conditions under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
• Newly Proposed Section 7: Under this Section, an accused cannot be released on bail unless following two conditions have been met. 
• The public prosecutor (the advocate representing the state government prosecuting the crime) must be given the opportunity to oppose the bail application. 
• The court must be satisfied that there are “reasonable grounds for believing that he is not guilty of such an offence and that no offence can be committed by him while on bail”.

Context

• Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary Emerges as a Tiger Tourism Hotspot with Over 100 Bengal Tigers Spotted.

About the News

• Wildlife experts estimate that the number of Bengal tigers in Katarniaghat has more than doubled over the past three years, currently surpassing the 100 mark
• This sharp increase was confirmed by the 2022 tiger census report, which recorded the highest growth in tiger numbers within this sanctuary. Since the last couple of months, especially with changes in weather, tourists have regularly spotted tigers crossing paths during jungle safaris.

About Wildlife Sanctuary 

• It is a protected area in the Upper Gangetic plain in Uttar Pradesh.
• In 1987, it was brought under the purview of the ‘Project Tiger’, and together with the Kishanpur Wildlife Sanctuary and the Dudhwa National Park, it forms the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve.
• The total area of KWS is 400.09 sq.km. which is a part of the core area of Dudhwa Tiger reserve.
• It provides strategic connectivity between the tiger habitats of Dudhwa and Kishanpur in India and the Bardia National Park in Nepal. 
• Vegetation: Its fragile Terai ecosystem comprises a mosaic of sal and teak forests, lush grasslands, numerous swamps, and wetlands.

Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary Flora:

• It is predominantly Sal Forest with its associate tree species like Terminalia alata (Asna), Lagerstroemia parviflora (Asidha), Adina cordifonia (Haldu), Mitragyna parpiflora (Faldu), Gamelina arborea (Gahmhar), etc.

Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary Fauna:

• It is home to a number of endangered species, including the Gharial, tiger, rhino, swamp deer, hispid hare, Bengal florican, and white-backed and long-billed vulture
• The Gairwa River, which flows in the KWS area, is declared a sanctuary for Mugger and Gharial. It is also home to rare turtles, freshwater fish, and a host of aquatic life
• It is among the few places in India where freshwater dolphins, also known as Gangetic dolphins, are found in their natural habitat.