Eumind – Right to Education

Group: Maheeka, Krish, Amaan, Raghav, Vedant

Right to Education
What is Right to Education?
Education is a fundamental human right,
essential for the empowerment and
development of an individual and the society as
a whole. According to the UNESCO's Education
for all global monitoring Report 2010, about 135
countries have constitutional provision for free and non-discriminatory education for all.

Why is Education Necessary?

This question seems very silly. The first thing that strikes me about education is knowledge
gain. Education gives us a knowledge of the world around us and changes it into something
better. It develops in us a perspective of looking at life. It helps us build opinions and have
points of view on things in life. People debate over the subject of whether education is the
only thing that gives knowledge. Some say education is the process of gaining information
about the surrounding world while knowledge is something very different. They are right. But
then again, information cannot be converted into knowledge without education. Education
makes us capable of interpreting things, among other things. It is not just about lessons in
textbooks. It is about the lessons of life. Even though a question like this has so many
answers, quite a lot of people in the world still don’t seem to understand the importance of
education.
According to a research conducted in India;
 1 in 4 children of school-going age is out of school in our country – 99 million children
in total have dropped out of school (cenus 2011)
 Out of every 100 children, only 32 children finish their school education age-
appropriately (District Information System for Education (DISE) 2014-15)
 Only 2% of the schools offer complete school education from Class 1 to Class 12
(District Information System for Education (DISE) 2014-15)

Instead of being educated, children in India are exploited; and made victim to child labour.
 There are 10.13 million child labourers between 5-14 years in India (Census 2011)
 India has 33 million working children between the ages of 5-18 years. In parts of the
country, more than half the child population is engaged in labour (Census 2011)

Articles and Laws

Article 26 of the United Nations Declaration of human rights states that:

 Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the
elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory.
Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher
education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
Eumind – Right to Education
Group: Maheeka, Krish, Amaan, Raghav, Vedant

 Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to
the strengthening of respect for human rights and
fundamental freedoms. It shall promote
understanding, tolerance and friendship among all
nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further
the activities of the United Nations for the
maintenance of peace.

 Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of

education that shall be given to their children.

In 1950, India made a Constitutional commitment to

provide free and compulsory education to all children up to the age of 14, by adding this
provision in article 45 of the directive principles of state policy.
The Act has the following major provisions

 Every child between the age of six to fourteen years, shall have the right to free and
compulsory education in a neighbourhood school, till completion of elementary
education.
 For this purpose, no child shall be liable to pay any kind of fee or charges or
expenses which may prevent him or her from pursuing and completing elementary
education.
 Where a child above six years of age has not been admitted to any school or though
admitted, could not complete his or her elementary education, then, he or she shall
be admitted in a class appropriate to his or her age.
 For carrying out the provisions of this Act, the appropriate government and local
authority shall establish a school, if it is not established, within the given area, within
a period of three years, from the commencement of this Act.
 The Central and the State Governments shall have concurrent responsibility for
providing funds for carrying out the provisions of this Act.

Violations against Children in India

Child labour, including working in hazardous condition

According to a 2015 report by the U.S. Department of Labour, a list of goods produced by
child labour or forced labour featured India among 74 countries with “significant incidence of
critical working conditions”. Recent legislation regarding child labour
has been unfavourable, with permission to children below 14 years
of age to work in family enterprises or entertainment industry. This
still includes scope for abuse, especially considering that India is
home to the largest child labour population in the world.

It is not rare to find thousands of children toiling in the fields for 14-
16 hours a day, in labour intensive professions like farming, stone
cutting sector, mining industry, and zari and embroidery. This is
being worsened by the entry of multinational companies into India,
to exploit the lack of accountability in labour law and cheap labour. Child labour is reportedly
highest among scheduled tribes, Muslims, schedule castes and OBC children, despite
aggressive reservation policies favouring this demographic.
Eumind – Right to Education
Group: Maheeka, Krish, Amaan, Raghav, Vedant

Forced displacement, caused by 'development' projects (including Special Economic Zones)

migration to urban areas, farmer suicides, and armed conflict is also another cause of child
labour. This often results in children being exploited into bonded child labour, a form of
slavery. These children become psychologically and mentally disturbed, they thus become
dependent on their 'owners'.

Discrimination against girls in education and in access to food

There is a saying in Andhra Pradesh "Bringing up a daughter is like watering a plant in
another's courtyard." While there is extensive research about the socio-economic impact of
gender discrimination, the biggest effect is on the mind of tomorrow's women, Indian girls,
who are deeply influenced by the myth of female inferiority. This translates to a generation of
women unaware of their rights and capabilities.

Even at birth, India's masses prefer a boy over a girl. Girls in India are given less food
(including access to breastfeeding), fewer healthcare consultations, making anaemia and
mineral deficiency common. Despite high female literacy, Delhi, Gujarat and Rajasthan still
show discrimination against girls. This is seen in the high dropout rate of girls, who are
expected to help with household work and taking care of younger siblings. This worsens the
rural gender gap in female and male equality, as girls underperform in school. Depriving a
child of their basic rights, just because they are a girl, is a gross violation of child rights.

So, What has been done to improve the situation?

In India dozens of ngos (non-governmental organisations) have been formed in order to
combat all the issues we face (related to education).
NGO’S such as;
1. Teach For India: ‘One day all children will attain an excellent education’- a vision that defines
Teach For India, a Teach To Lead project that encourages young college graduates and
professionals to take up two years of full-time teaching sessions in under resourced schools.
2. Make A Difference (MAD): Along with education partner, Cambridge University Press, Make
A Difference or MAD has initiated a unique project ‘The English Project’ to educate children from
poor homes, orphanages and street shelters with English. Currently, some 1200 volunteers are
working hard to teach 4000 children in some of the major cities of India.
3. Pratham: Established in the year 1994, Pratham is dedicated to provide education to children
belonging to the slums of Mumbai.
4. Barefoot College-India: An entire campus that runs on solar power. Yes, that’s Barefoot
College that was originally started by two friends Meghraj and Sanjit ‘Bunker’ Roy and who
wanted to establish college for the rural population of India and was established in 1972. Today,
the organisation trains local community people into teachers, specialized professionals in other
fields and has initiated many educational efforts for children.
5. Cry: ‘Child rights and you’ or CRY is an NGO in India working for children and their rights.
CRY has undertaken a lot of initiatives to improve the condition of underprivileged children and
one of them is the ‘Chotte Kadam-Pragati ki Aur’, a literacy drive that has reached out to more
than 35000 children in 10 states of India.
Eumind – Right to Education
Group: Maheeka, Krish, Amaan, Raghav, Vedant

Plans for the Future

Despite efforts to include all sections of the population into the Indian education system,
through various programmes and schemes, large numbers of young people are still without
schooling. It is true that enrollment in primary education has increased (at least 35 million)
but as many as 60 millions of children under the age group 6–14 years are still far from
school. One of the major problems is the non availability of schools within a reasonable
distance. Many remote areas of the country have no educational institute at all. This difficulty
should be overcome to improve the education system of the country.

Improving the quality of education is another challenge before the government to reach at
the target. The quality should get international recognition in terms of effectiveness of
teaching, attainment level of the students, availability of adequate teachers etc. Other
challenges are: inadequate school infrastructure, high teacher-student absenteeism, large
number of teacher vacancies, poor quality of education and inadequate funds. Other groups
of children ‘at risk’, such as orphans, child-laborers, street children and victims of riots and
natural disasters, do not necessarily have access to schools. To raise the literacy rate, all
sections of the society will have to realize the value of education and hence should come
forward to improve the Indian education system.