Right to Education in India.

In the context of a democratic form of Government like ours, education is at once a social & political necessity. It is rather said that in this great land of ours where knowledge first lit its torch & where the human mind soared to the highest pinnacle of wisdom, the percentage of literacy should be appalling. Today the foremost need to be satisfied by our education is, therefore, the eradication of illiteracy which persists in a depressing measure. A true democracy is one where education is universal & where people understand what is good for them & the nation & know-how to govern them. When citizens are in vulnerable ignorance & squallier, they know not themselves how to make the best use of the opportunities, the talk of fundamental rights or human rights become meaningless for them.

The Preamble to the Constitution of India promises to secure, inter alia "Justice,- Social, economic & political" for the citizens. The preamble embodies the goal which the state has to achieve in order to establish social justice & to make the masses free in the positive means. The securing of social justice has been specifically enjoined as an object of the state under Article 38 of the Constitution. The objectives of the Preamble cannot be achieved & shall remain on paper unless the people of the country are educated. The three prolonged justice promised by the Preamble is only a teasing illusion to the teaming millions who are illiterate. It is only education which equips the citizen to participate in achieving the objectives enshrined in the Preamble. The Preamble further provides "equality of status & opportunity & assures the dignity of the individual." The Constitution seeks to achieve these objectives by guaranteeing fundamental rights which are enforceable in the court of law. The directive principles of state policy are also with the same objective. The dignity of man is inviolable & it is the duty of the state to respect & protect the same. It is the education which primarily brings forth the dignity of a man. The framers of the Constitution were aware that more than 70% people in India were illiterate for whom human dignity & respect for human rights will have no meaning unless they are educated. It was with that hope that Articles 41 & 45 was incorporated in part IV of the Constitution dealing with Directive Principles of State policy The Constitutional commitment in recognizing the right to education also is in consonance with the commitment of International conventions & communities. In Universal Declaration of Human Rights(UDHR), International Covenant on Economic, Social & Cultural Rights(ICESCR), International Labour Organization(ILO), United Nations International Children's Education Fund(UNICEF) etc, there are also various provisions where they all explicitly concerned about providing the basic education to children. The UNICEF report on the state of World's children released in December 1998 had severely criticized the state of children's education & overall literacy in the world. The opening Para said- "Nearly a billion people will enter the 21st century who are unable to read a book." In India, in concrete terms, the number of all such children as are denied the benefits of education is about 7 crores. Most of the drop outs or out of school children are in the age group of 6 to 14 years. Out of these approximately 2/3rd are girls. This gross imbalance between the sexes is a matter of great concern for the long recognized concept that educating a girl child amounts to educating a family, whereas educating a boy does not always mean exactly that. The report also says that in Brazil illiterate women have an average of 6.4 children, whereas those with secondary education have only 2.5 children.

In other words, if growth of population in India is to be controlled, there is no other way of doing so than to bring the girls into the educational stream & educate them upto the age of 14, as laid down in the Constitution. The founding fathers were clear sighted enough to recognize that, if India wants to progress, the education must be made compulsory from the age of 6 to 14 years. Thus, the Supreme Court of India through its various effective judicial decisions has rightly & harmoniously interpreted the provisions of part-IV of the Constitution in the light of the fundamental rights. The Court through judicial activism has made the basic right to education as fundamental enforceable right under Article 21-A along with the recognition of Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights & Article 13(2)(a) & (c) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social & Cultural Rights.

Keeping the objective of Article 21-A in mind, its provisions have been liberally construed allowing teachers & educational institutions to obtain benefits thereunder. The underlying logic is that the grant of benefits to those involved in the process of education would also indirectly benefit those for whom the Article was primarily intended. The same logic persuaded the court to hold that the services of the teachers may not be requisitioned on the days on which the schools are open. However claims based on Article 21-A to compel the state to give grant-in-aid, to control fees charged by the private unaided schools or to challenge conditions for grant of recognition have been negative by High Courts. Article 21-A reads with Article 19(1)(a)has been construed as giving all children the right to have primary education in a medium of instruction of their choice. This article has also been construed as the fundamental right of each & every child to receive education free from fear of security & safety so that children have a right to receive in a sound & safe building.

In 2001-2002, the Government launched "Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan" to make elementary education free. However no Central Legislation was enacted to make the right a reality despite the court. In 2008, Dalveer Bhandari,J. in Ashoka Kumar Thakur V. Union of India, directed "the Union of India to set a time limit within which this article is going to be completely implemented. This time limit must be set within six months. In case the Union of India fails to fix the time limit, then perhaps this work will also have to be done by the Court."

Ultimately The Right of Children to Free & Compulsory Education Act, 2009, has been enacted by the Parliament. The Act provides among other things for the right of every child who has attained the age of 6 years to be admitted in a neighbourhood school & to be provided free & compulsory education in such school. Every state is responsible for making such neighbourhood school available. All schools whether state schools, aided or unaided private schools will now have to provide free & compulsory education upto specified percentages of the total number of children admitted. Charging capitation fees is prohibited. Education, accepted as a useful activity, whether for charity or for profit, is an occupation. Nevertheless, it does not cease to be a service to the society. And even though an occupation, it cannot be equated to a trade or a business, nor can a child or her family be subjected to any screening procedure by a school. In keeping with Article 51A (k), the Act casts a duty on every parent or guardian to admit or cause to be admitted his or her child or ward, as the case may be to an elementary education in the neighbourhood school.