Friday, April 27, 2012

SOCIO-LEGAL NOTES: OF RIGHTS AND EDUCATION


Padmini Baruah

Education, described as a basic human right under the Universal declaration of Human Rights, has, in recent times, become an important part of national policy. As the problems of development can, in the long term, only be tackled effectively by building up the human capital of a nation, it is imperative that every citizen of the country receive adequate free and universal education. It is with this broad objective in mind that the Constitution (86th Amendment) Act was passed in 2002, declaring free and compulsory Education as a fundamental right under Art. 21A.

In furtherance of the object of Art. 21A, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 was enacted by Parliament as an enabling legislation. In a recent judgement, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutional validity of this Act, and held that this act would apply to government schools, aided schools inclusive of aided minority schools, schools belonging to specified category, and unaided non-minority schools. However, the judgement excluded from its ambit unaided minority schools.

In keeping with its role in spreading awareness on current issues among the legal student community, the Law and Society Committee, NLSIU organised a talk on the issues arising out this judgement in association with the Centre for Child and the Law, NLSIU. This talk was led by Niranjanaradhya V.P. (Fellow and Programme Head, Universalisation of School Education at CCL) and Jayna Kothari (a partner in Ashira Law, Bangalore, who has worked on this case on behalf of the Azim Premji Foundation.)

This discussion brought to light several relevant issues pertaining to the substantive provisions of the Act as well as the prospective challenges of implementation. The prime cause of concern raised was that the Act, as it stands at present, completely excludes unaided minority schools from its purview. This gives rise to the potential problem of private schools claiming minority status on arbitrary grounds to escape their obligations under this Act. Numerous insights were offered on this issue by the guest speakers as well as the faculty members present, who clarified the position of the law in this regard. Accordingly, Article 29 and 30 of the Indian Constitution give substantial protection to the rights of the minority institutions, and any intervention in their administration would imply violation of fundamental rights. 

Another problem may be envisaged at the level of implementation, without challenges of corruption, evasion of responsibilities, and discrimination. While acknowledging that there are yet no institutional mechanisms in place for effective implementation, it was agreed upon that the State as well as non-State actors had a significant role to play in this regard.

All in all, the discussion successfully encapsulated the challenges that the implementation of the Right to Education Act continues to present. It was a highly educational experience which succeeded in sensitising and arousing the interest of all those present. It is hoped that this issue is actively taken up by the students of an institution with such social obligations as NLSIU so that a constructive way forward may be forged. 

***
 
The author is a I Year, B.A.LL.B (Hons.) student at NLSIU.

The Committee is pleased to announce that it is coordinating a research project with the Centre for Law and Policy Research and CCL to bring out a dossier on the Act.