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Latest News |
| 07th
January 2010 / Times of India / Hyderabad Edition |
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Right to Education Act will be implemented soon: Centre tells SC
New Delhi: The Supreme Court’s anguish over delay in implementation of compulsory education for children made the Centre on Wednesday promise that it would “soon” bring into effect the Right to Education Act, making it mandatory for every child between 6 and 14 years of age to go to school.
The apex court’s anguish was understandable as its judgment in 1993 first brought into focus the right of children to free and compulsory education, which finally appeared to be on course with Parliament enacting the Right to Education Act in August last year.
With the Act still to be notified to enable its implementation as pointed out by petitioners — advocate M C Mehta and National Council for Protection of Child Rights chairperson Shanta Sinha — a Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice B S Chauhan said, “If the Act is implemented in letter and spirit, the ugly face of child labour can be wiped out from the country. Then, there will be no child at work but in school, the place where he ought to be.”
Solicitor general Gopal Subramaniam agreed with the apex court that children should be in schools and not be working outside, and promised that the Right to Education Act will be “brought into effect soon”.
He said things had improved considerably with the implementation of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.
“The dropout rate of girl children from schools has come down from 37.5% to 11.36%. This is a significant improvement. Once the Act is put in place, it will provide a complete answer to the problem of child labour and their education,” he said.
“Not only do we have to work towards implementing the Act, but also towards eliminating child labour,” Subramaniam said and sought time to hold talks with the NCPCR chairperson to strategise an early end to child labour.
The Supreme Court Bench posted the matter for further hearing in the second week of March.
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