1st Prize Winning Essay in Write for Rights by Rishikant Brahmpuria

1st Prize Winning Essay in 'Write for Rights' Essay-Writing competition 
(Human Rights Week.)
                                              by Rishikant Brahmpuria, TYBSc, Wilson College                                                                                                               


Human Rights is one of the most hotly debated topics in the world. The concept of Universal rights has its fair share of criticisms. Right to Education, as mentioned in Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human rights1, have their own share of criticisms and challenges. The Right to Education is one of the most fundamental rights. Without proper education, a citizen wouldn’t be able to express the other rights. What would freedom of speech even mean to a person who can't read or write? It is the hardest to impose, regulate, monitor and the most expensive in terms of national cost.2 Indian constitution has socialist influence and hence puts the onus on the state to provide for these rights and not the private sector.3 

To put it briefly, Right to Education guarantees free and compulsory education for all the citizens age 6-14 which is embodied in India under Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 20094​. The act doesn't guarantee the quality of education and the government defers most of the work to private institutions, which the private sector see as infringing on their own personal rights creating a plethora of other issues. 

The work done by Indian government in ensuring attendance in primary schools has been commendable, but when it comes to guarantee an educated India it fails. It also fails to tackle the infringement on the right of adult education and excluding children <6 yrs of age. While the right to some form of education isn’t infringed for older students, the type of education and admissions in institutions has been restricted owing to the lack of institutions and given our huge population. I was allowed to give the IIT entrance exam just twice in my life. Another case was the court case surrounding the exclusion of students in MBBS program who suffer from colour-blindness. If Right to Education has to become a fully fledged right it has to establish a framework to encompass educational rights of all demographics. The exclusion of anyone looking to educate themselves should be decided on the basis of merit alone. 

One has to put emphasis on the difference between the problems faced by the violation and failed implementation of rights to education acts with the problems in the educational system in itself. The new education policy5 has merits when it comes to fixing the problems of the education system, but fails in broadening the scope of right of education. The Education acts also fails to take into account means of getting it. Just providing schools and teachers isn't enough. For many students reaching the school is a major challenge. In this age due to Covid-19 pandemic most of the students have been relegated to online classes, creating many newer problems. By not having the means to participate, as in a laptop and an internet connection, the state fails the children by not realizing their Right to Education at its fullest extent.  
India has one of the youngest and largest populations in the world6 ​. That should make giving quality education to our children and youth it's number one policy even if it's a tough problem. However with the coming digital age, booming of smartphones and internet connectivity, a lot of potential solutions to these problems have become readily available, be it online education, distance learning or MOOCs7 (massive open online courses). To realize a better educated India, the government needs stronger Right to Education acts which brings the acts to the modern age followed by a proper framework for implementation.  

 

  

1 https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/ ↩
2 https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.XPD.TOTL.GD.ZS?locations=IN ↩
3 The ideology of socialism in Indian constitution https://www.allresearchjournal.com/archives/2018/vol4issue1/PartD/4-1-34-985.pdf↩
4 http://legislative.gov.in/sites/default/files/A2009-35_0.pdf ↩
5 https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/NEP_Final_English_0.pdf ↩
6 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/13/india-600-million-young-people-world-cities-i nternet ↩
7 https://nptel.ac.in/↩

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