IANS Mar 31, 2012, 03.36PM IST
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 per cent 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 per cent
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).
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