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New Delhi: Two years
after the government's flagship education programme came into
force, its monitoring body has not been able to resolve as much as
76 percent cases of violation of the right to education (RTE) Act,
a right to information (RTI) document reveals.
Promising free and compulsory education to children from the age
group of 6 to 14, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory
Education Act, 2009, brought about hope for change in the lives of
children, and in the future of the country.
While things have more or less gone in the intended direction
since the act's implementation two years ago, there have been a
number of violations. And the chief monitoring body, the National
Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), has not been
able to keep up with the breaches.
An RTI query reveals that over the last two years, the NCPCR
received 2,850 complaints regarding the RTE Act. However, it has
been able to resolve just 692 cases, or just 24 percent of the
entire lot, by now.
Breaking down the numbers year-wise, from April 1, 2010, to March
31, 2011, the commission received 1,089 complaints, of which it
resolved 592 cases.
And from April 1, 2011, to March 16, 2012, the commission could
only resolve a mere 100 of the total 1,761 complaints received.
Umesh Gupta of ActionAid India, who filed the RTI application,
told IANS: "Not only is the data shocking, but the numbers
actually denote the lowering efficacy of the NCPCR in monitoring
the proper implementation of the RTE Act over the two years."
Despite what looks like a dismal performance, Delhi seems to be
better off than most other states. According to the document, in
2011-12, of the total 517 complaints received from Delhi, 80 were
resolved.
In Tamil Nadu, of the 15 complaints, three were taken care of; and
in Uttar Pradesh, of 59 complaints, seven were acted upon. A case
each was resolved in Maharashtra and West Bengal from where the
number of complaints have been 132 and 99 respectively.
However, in states like Andhra Pradesh, from where 780 complaints
were received, none has been resolved. Nor has any case been
resolved in Odisha (35 cases), Haryana (17) or Assam (12).
Among the cases resolved by the NCPCR was that of a child being
beaten by the teacher for not wearing the school tie in Uttar
Pradesh. A notice was issued to the district magistrate regarding
the matter.
In another case, Unnati Malik, a Class 7 student of K.R. Mangalam
School in Delhi was detained - a violation of the RTE Act, which
says no child can be detained until Class 8. The principal of the
school was issued a notice.
Notices were also issued against the education department in 50
cases in Delhi. They were mostly related to denial of admission in
schools because of disability of the child, screening tests
conducted and corporal punishment.
There were public hearings organised too in 11 states, which
included Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Manipur.
However, Gupta is not happy with the action taken by NCPCR.
"Simply issuing notice is not enough. Has the case seen its
logical end after the notice? There should be strong action taken
so that it serves as a deterrent for others," Gupta said.
Ramya Menon, a teacher in a Delhi school, said: "For the Right to
Education Act to be properly implemented, strict monitoring is
very important. Awareness about the Act is still low across the
country, and those who are aware and approach the commission with
a problem should not be discouraged with an unresponsive
attitude...as if no one cares".
Besides the NCPCR, the RTE Act also puts the onus of monitoring of
its implementation on the state commissions. As of now, 14 states
have constituted their respective State Commission for Protection
of Child Rights (SCPCR).
(Azera Parveen Rahman can be contacted at azera.rahman@gmail.com)
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