Helpless

"RTE is the tryst with destiny in the education sector"-Kapil sibal

With above words we added a fundamental right to the constitution and civics books. I don't know about all the fundamental rights but one that is commonly used or should i say abused is the right to freedom of speech and expression, an example of which we saw in yesterday's hugely "successful" bharath bandh. By the way did you participate in the bandh? I dint because all i needed was a holiday.

Coming to the point of this post, RTE provides free education to children between the age 6 and 14.

According to the right any child between the said age group if found not going to school or working during the school hours becomes a violation of the act and is illegal. we can complain to concerned local authority which will ensure that the child goes to school.

{For complete information on RTE check out this brilliant article here}

There is this girl who is 8 years old who comes along with our domestic help( Honestly called maid) and helps in cleaning the home. When asked whether she goes to school, she said she used to but now she isn't. On further questioning i got to know why she doesn't, her story makes me feel that RTE does not help in her case.

This girl is the granddaughter of our maid's elder sister, she used to live in village with her parents but her father who was unable to look after her sent her to the city(Hyderabad) to stay with her grandmother. After coming to the city she started going to school for a few months but then her grandmother had to go to a different city so she decided to hand over the responsibility to her sister. (Our maid) Now the girl has stopped going to school since our maid does not want to pay for her school. Even though government gives free education still there are additional expenses which need to be taken care of.

So instead of sitting idle in her home she also comes to our home and helps in cleaning.

Now the question arises what does RTE does in this case? Kapil sibal had made it clear that it is our responsibility to make sure that all children around us go to school. But what can we do when parents do not want to send their child to school?? This girl's father now wants her to come to village and he does not want her to go to school!!

Government through RTE provides free education until 8th class but then in this case it cant do anything. I feel helpless in this situation and also feel responsible in some way because we are letting a child work in our home.

I am optimistic that RTE will help many children go to school which is where they should be.