INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE OPPOSE THE RIGHT TO EDUCATION ACT
Under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, Section 12 (1) (c) admissions of 25 children were ordered by the Basic Shiksha Adhikari of Lucknow in Navyug Radiance Senior Secondary School. The school gave admission to only two – Pakhi Rajput and Asna Farhad. It first expelled Pakhi Rajput because of the inability of her parents to pay fees even though the Act promises free education from Classes I to VIII. Asna’s parents were made to pay Rs. 1,150 for dress and books and another Rs. 2,650 were demanded as fees for 3 months. When they complained to the authorities Asna was asked not to come on the last day of an internal examination. Her parents were given a visiting card of the owner of school, Sudhir Halwasiya, which identifies him as a member of the state executive committee of Bhartiya Janata Party. The remaining students were never admitted. It appears that Sudhir Halwasiya considers himself above the law of the land.
The Foreign Minister Shushma Swaraj has recently asked the Delhi government to admit a girl from Pakistan Madhu to a school even though she did not possess proper documents. What can be more heartening than making education accessible to children who are denied this opportunity. However, this step has been taken to put down Pakistan. Indian government is ready to embrace anybody who faces discrimination in Pakistan. But one wishes that the government displayed the same amount of sensitivity towards children of its own citizens. If this was not the case Sudhir Halwasiya would not have felt emboldened to expel children admitted under a national Act from his school. Do the children living in India not have the same rights as Madhu from Pakistan?
One must also think about what will happen to the Prime Minister’s slogan relating to saving girl children and educating them, ‘Beti bachao, beti padhao?’ Both children expelled by Sudhir Halwasiya are girls. Even Atal Bihari Vajpayee ran a campaign asking children to come to school, ‘Aao school chalen hum.’ It means BJP is not really serious about its intent to provide education to children. It is a party which believes more in publicity.
Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, associated with Congress party, has decided to give his services to an association of private schools’ owners against the RTE Act. Singhvi is a senior lawyer and can make his money on other cases. Is it morally right to stand against an Act, which promises fundamental right of education to children, introduced by his own party?
Similarly, Shanti Bhushan, who was the law minister in Janata Party government and was an important figure in the Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement decided to appear for City Montessori School last year when its owner Jagdish Gandhi decided to oppose the admission of 31 children ordered by BSA. Social activists ran a campaign requesting him not to defend a person guilty of denying the children their fundamental right.
Akhilesh Yadav considers implementation of RTE Act Section 12(1)(c) as one of his achievements. In 2015 CMS admitted 13 children but only after a court case which went on for more than four months and when Supreme Court refused to intervene. The UP government had awarded Jagdish Gandhi Yash Bharti in 2014 which carries with it a cash prize of Rs. 11 lakhs and a monthly pension of Rs. 50,000 per month. After Jagdish Gandhi resisted the order of BSA and fought a legal battle against UP government, his wife Bharti Gandhi was awarded the Rani Laxmi Bai Bravery Award in 2016 on women’s day. It appears that the bravery of Bharti Gandhi was in opposing the admissions of 23 Scheduled Caste and 8 Muslim children of which 6 were from Other Backward Classes. The CM has recently publicly praised Jagdish Gandhi for giving admissions to many poor children in CMS under the RTE Act, exhibiting embarrassing pusillanimity.
This year too Jagdish Gandhi is opposing the admissions of 58 children. He is getting the conditions which the children must fulfill in order to avail the benefit of the Act examined. It is a moot question that when the BSA has ordered the admission, he must have done so after conducting his enquiry. Is Jagdish Gandhi authorised to conduct his own verification? It is an open secret that Jagdish Gandhi obliges influential people like politicians, bureaucrats, judges and journalists by giving their children education for free or at very concessional rates. When Jagdish Gandhi can subsidize the education of children of rich, can’t he accommodate a few underprivileged children?
Recently Jagdish Gandhi’s daughter Geeta Gandhi Kingdon, who now looks after the CMS and also holds a position in University College of London, spoke on ‘Access, Equity and Quality of Education in UP,’ at a seminar in Lucknow. Jagdish Gandhi’s both daughters are academic experts on education.
Jagdish Gandhi’s other daughter Sunita Gandhi has started her own school called City International School. She is a Ph.D. in education from Cambridge University and has studied education system of 38 countries. She too refuses to admit 10 children in her school. She is running an informal programme to make all the children of Lucknow literate but doesn’t believe in sending all of them to regular schools so that they can receive formal education and use it to transform their lives.
Another chain of prominent schools Virendra Swarup Public School admitted two children Shan Mohammed and Mohammed Zaid in its Mahanagar branch but later expelled them. Exxon Montessori in Rajajipuram has admitted 9 children but discriminates against them inside the school by making them sit separately.
Thus we see that whether it is the big political parties or influential owners of private schools, none of them want the children of poor to receive education alongside the children of rich.
Socialist Party (India) is of the opinion that privatization in the field of education as well as in health care must end and government must nationalise all educational and health care institutions so that equitable quality education and health care are available to the poor also.
By Sandeep Pandey
Vice President, Socialist Party (India)
Lohia Mazdoor Bhawan, 41/557 Tufail Ahmed Marg, Narhi, Lucknow-226001
Ph: 0522 2286423, Mobile: 9415269790 (Praveen Srivastava)
e-mail: ashaashram@yahoo.com
