The Basis of Right to Education in India

Prior to India’s independence, education was generally considered a privilege rather than a right. The diarchy system introduced by the British just before independence resulted in education coming under the charge of the provincial (state) authorities from wherein start the need for a uniform national policies on education. 

After independence, the State’s obligation to provide education was constitutionally recognized with the inclusion of a directive principle to this effect under Article 45 in the Indian Constitution as a directive principles. It must be noted that directive principles, unlike fundamental Rights, are not legally enforceable, however, Article 45 come with a time limit that it should be implemented within 10 years!  

Interestingly, the concept of free and compulsory education was adapted from the British law of Free and Compulsory Education (FCE) and was incorporated into the Constitution so that education can be universalized across the country. As per the mandate in the article when it was adopted, education was to be universalized within 10 years, i.e. by 1960.  However, the State and Union budgets continuously treated education as a peripheral subject until the Kothari Commission (1966) changed the outlook drastically.

Since independence, the government have set-up various educational commissions, two national policies, and numerous reforms through programs to universalize education India while education remain under the directive principles, and not a fundamental right. 

It took more than 40 years since the adoption of the constitution for education to be acknowledged as a critical fundamental rights in India when the Indian Supreme Court ruled as such in a few legal cases in the early 1990s. After that, it took the government of India another 10 years to enact the 86^th Amendment to insert Article 21A to the constitution in 2002 to make education a fundamental right as ruled by the Supreme Court. And it took the government 8 years to draft a central legislation that would lay down the practical framework for the implementation for the Right to Education until its final enactment in 2009.

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill (2008) was passed in both the Houses of Parliament in 2009.  The law received the President's assent in August 2009 and it comes into effect in 1^st April 2010. 

The passing of the RTE Act that guaranteed education as a fundamental right was indeed a historical moment for India, but it also come with the acute awareness that it limited universal education only to those children in the age group of 6 to 14 years of age. India still has a long way to go to universalize education for all its citizens.

Despite its limitation, the importance of the RTE cannot be overemphasized. It provides a justiciable legal framework, guaranteed education of reasonable quality based on equity and non-discrimination. It provides for a free and compulsory admission, attendance, and completion of elementary education. It also provides for an education that is free from fear, stress and anxiety.  

Is there such thing as Indian Childhood?

The worldview towards childhood was captured by the CRC adopted by the United Nation in 1989, and was implemented all over the world, including in India in 1992.  The CRC stance of childhood was directly influenced by the North (western developed countries) and as such, it is individualistic, ungendered, and to a great extend nostalgic in nature. Such construct of childhood has been criticized by activists in the south from the very beginning and rightly so. The CRC view of childhood was criticized for many valid reason, two key criticism includes 

• Not giving a role or importance to the kin, family groups, community which are critical in the south as part of the socialization process of the child (Nieuwenhuys, 1998). 
• And, ignoring the multiplicity of childhood in the south.  

Considering the plurality of childhood in the south, it seems like an individualistic approach in policy paper seems logical, but the childhood in the south is too complicated to be addressed as such in policy papers. So how complicated is the childhood in the south, and looking at India specifically, can there be such thing as an Indian childhood?  

According to Raman (2000), in classical Hindu literature, there’s only one type of childhood i.e. ‘boychild’ as its point of reference, whereas in some tribes in India, the practice varies. She also mentioned that in India, the individuality of the child is acknowledged while deeply embedded in the larger social matrix of community, caste/tribe, kin group and family.  Some key / common feature of childhood that can be observed across India might includes: 

Plurality of Childhood: Childhood in India is marked by its plurality as captured by Raman (2000). For instance, the experience of childhood in India varies horizontally and vertically. Horizontally, there are almost 5000 communities in India which translate to 5000 diverse experience, while vertically, we have the caste, class and gender (Raman, 2000).

Distinct Development task: Also, the distinction of Indian childhood from that of the western concept can be seen in the developmental task of Indian children (Bisht, 2008), for instance;  the  girl child gradually take over the household chores from mothers and in preparation of a marriage life, while the boys get indulgence in their earlier life gradually moving towards an inflexible standards of absolute obedience and conformity to familial and societal standards.

This implies that Indian childhood can be marked by:

• Plurality of childhood: Since childhood is socially construct, then the extreme diversity in India will definitely have an impact on how we construct childhood across the country.  
• Continuity between childhood and adulthood. There's no rigid gap between childhood and adulthood like in the west especially for the girl child, she's expected to perform adult gender role from a very early age.  
• Childhood as a time for preparation for adulthood, especially for girls who are constantly groomed for marriage.
• Unique developmental task (girls priority is household works and preparation for marriage which are not a priority among parents in the west, while boys are indulged at first then move towards familial and social conformity). 

What more can we add to this list...any suggestion?