Right to Education

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, which makes education a fundamental right of every child in the 6-14 age group, came into force with the Presidential assent on August 26 and the Act was notified on August 27, 2009. The disability sector had strongly opposed the Right to Education Bill in its present shape. With the Prime Minister’s intervention, there is hope within the sector that the future of 20 million children with disabilities will not be ignored.

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha on 20th July 2009.

Three fundamental flaws were found in the Bill:

• Under definitions, disabled children have been excluded from the definition of children belonging to ‘disadvantaged group’. The term disadvantaged has been classified as owing to social, cultural, economical, geographical, linguistic and gender, but the term disability which was there in the previous draft, even till 2008, has been deliberately left out.
• Similarly, where the term ‘school’ is defined, there is no mention of special schools or other unique infrastructures that are needed by various types of children with disabilities.
• The Bill restricts the definition of ‘disability’ to only the Disability Act of 1995, i.e., only the physical disabilities and excludes those covered under The National Trust Act, 1999, that covers other like cerebral palsy, autism, multiple disabilities, etc. are all covered under the National Trust Act.

This realisation that the Bill was flawed dawned, when Radhika Alkazi of AARTH ASTHA managed to get a copy and went through it. This was after the passage of the Bill in Rajya Sabha!

Radhika Alkazi immediately alerted the sector, which was unaware of these developments. On 28th July, they had a meeting of select leaders of the disability sector at the Disability and Information Resource Centre of AARTH ASTHA. The meeting was to discuss the non-inclusion of children with disabilities and the lacunae in the Right to Education (RTE) Bill that was due to be tabled in the Lok Sabha on 30th July. The minutes of the meeting gives details of the decisions taken.

Disabled Rights Group (DRG) protested against this exclusion on 31st July.  Hundreds of people participated in the protest. Javed Abidi, Convenor DRG highlighted the concerns in his article for the Indian Express . Some of the leaders met Kapil Sibal, Minister of Ministry of Human Resource Development, who refused to include children with disabilities and suggested that separate infrastructure would be required for them. DRG expressed their deep disappointment at the statement of the Minister, as it went against the theory of inclusiveness!

On 3rd August DRG started an Indefinite Dharna (sit in) at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi. The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh invited a delegation to meet him on the same day. Dr. Mithu Alur of Spastics Society of India and G. Syamala of Action for Ability Development & Inclusion (AADI)  met the Prime Minister.  He had a word with Kapil Sibal in their presence and directed him that the Bill in its present form cannot be passed. He also said that Sonia Gandhi, Chairperson UPA, is of the same view. Following this assurance, the dharna was called off.

The Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on 4th August 2009 with an assurance from Kapil Sibal, Minister, Human Resource Development, that disability would be included in the rules so that no one is excluded from the ambit of the legislation. Dr. Manmohan Singh wrote to the HRD Ministry to ensure that all children with disabilities are covered by this legislation. The disability sector views this as a definite milestone.

However, it has thrown open several questions for the disability sector to introspect. Read the feature, ‘What went wrong with the Right to Education Bill? ”