Jul 27 2015 : The Times of India (Chennai)
50% SCST kids, 25% Muslims out of schools, shows report
Chethan Kumar
Bengaluru:
Six years since the Right To Education Act came into effect, around 60.6 lakh children between the ages of 6 and 13 years are still out of school in the country. While SC ST children constitute 49.03% (29.73 lakh) of them, those from Other Backward Classes (OBC) form 36%, which shows the RTE has brought little change in the lives of the marginal groups.
The trend was revealed in an extensive survey recently conducted by an independent agency for the Centre. According to the survey , a major ty of the out-of-school chil dren are in rural areas (77%) Besides, 15.57 lakh Muslim children are out of school constituting 25% of the out of-school children. The OBC category in cludes Muslim children.
In all, 2.9% of the total 20.4 crore school-going age children in the country have been deprived of their right to education.
Speaking to TOI from Delhi, Rakesh Senger, director, Victim Assistance and Campaign at Bachpan Bachao Andolan, said: “It is not necessary that even this number is accurate as a recent study shows that many children who continue to work as la bourers in Delhi are being marked present in schools.That is dubious. There is a long way to go in this regard.“ Activists argue that families from backward communities fail to send their children to school largely due to non-affordability. They say non-affordability doesn't necessarily mean payment of school fees, which may be subsidized.
It could mean sending a child to school would reduce the family's earnings by a few rupees that the child could otherwise contribute by working.
The only silver living seems to be regarding gender parity: at 29 lakh, girls constitute about 48% of the OOS children. It means fewer girls are out of school than boys.
The statistics are based on a survey commissioned by the ministry of human resource development (MHRD) and conducted across all 640 districts of the country . This is the third round of such a survey to map the number of out-of-school children. The previous ones were conducted in 2006 and 2009.
“The focus of the RTE implementation is unfortunately restricted to section 12-1 (C), which speaks about sending children to private schools and the duties of private schools. While that is needed too, the most impor tant section of the Act -section 4 -which speaks about the government's responsibility of mainstreaming all out-of-school children is barely being implemented,“ V P Niranjanaradhya, NLSIU's head of child and law programme said.
The number of OOS children has always been the bone of contention. A July 2015 Unesco report saying India “has made impressive progress provision of primary education it notes,“ is based on the 2012 figures provided by India according to which 1.7 million (17 lakh) children are out of school. The number was borrowed from various agencies.
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