By Dr. Shaheen Ansari
“Make Childcare and Education
part of Fundamental Rights” was call given by a group of organizations and
individuals working on child rights in 1998. According to The Times of India
dated November 19, 2001 “…an alliance of 2,400 voluntary organisations working
in the field of education which have come together to ensure that education
becomes an effective fundamental right.” An alliance of these groups was formed
on May 23, 1998 and came to be known as The National Alliance for the
Fundamental Right to Education (NAFRE).
The Supreme Court’s landmark
judgment in Unnikrishnan V/s State of Andhra Pradesh in 1993 expanded the scope
of Article 21 of the Constitution of India to include the Right to
Education. NAFRE was a direct
consequence of attempts to generate a campaign to support the SC judgement to
make education a fundamental right. A
two days National Conference on Fundamental Right to Education was organised
from May 24 to 25, 1998 in in New Delhi.
The NAFRE was not a registered
body. It was envisaged as a platform of likeminded individual and organizations
for making education a fundamental right. Many organizations had different
views and understanding of different issues but were united on the minimum
basis of a broad understanding that every child has a fundamental right to
education and that it must be realized with a great deal of urgency. In this regard. Article 45 of the Constitution
of India and the Supreme Court Judgment in the case of Unnikrishnan vs the
state of Andhra Pradesh will define the minimum basis of unity until further
advancement of the Constitutional or legal status of the matter.
The advocacy and networking
resulted in the 86th Constitutional Amendment (2002). It inserted Article 21A
in the Indian Constitution which states: “The State shall provide free and
compulsory education to all children of 6 to 14 years in such manner as the
State, may by law determine.”
The NAFRE became a pan India
movement and worked till 2010, one year after the passing of “the Right of
Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009”. Though the RTE Act 2009
was not as per the demand of the members of NAFRE but it slowly and gradually
withdrew the campaign and advocacy for making Childcare and Education part of
Fundamental Rights. It has a long history but let us see the important points
related to the NAFRE.
CRY participated in the ‘Voice Of
India’ campaign, as a part of the National Alliance for the Fundamental Right
to Education (NAFRE), to propose a constitutional amendment to the government
for free and compulsory education to all children. As a result of the ‘Voice of
India’ campaign, NAFRE contributed towards bringing in the Right of Children to
Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009.
NAFRE’s Objectives/Goals on Education:
•
Education is a fundamental right of every child.
All children must be in school, not-at work:
•
The right to education of every Indian child
should be realized by year 2005. This is possible.
•
Quality and equitability of education must
improve all across India.
•
Government cannot successfully implement the
right to education on its own. People's participation is essential. Mechanisms
have to be developed at the school and in administration through models,
statutes, and mutual cooperation to encourage effective participation of
people.
•
In spite of differing views on various specific
issues, anyone participating in the Alliance must actively work to make sure
that aLL children are in school and learning.
•
Factors impeding universalisation of elementary
education are more social political, and cultural in nature.
·
Improvement of pedagogical techniques and their
wide, effective dissemination is essential to make school learning effective.
This is also a way to involve more teachers, parents and to overcome the
impediments.
•
Replicable large-scale work is important.
•
All sections of the civil society have to work
together. Empowerment of teachers and parents arc key issues.
·
In order to ensure that aLL children are in
school, it is essential to counter gender bias at all stages and levels.
·
The Alliance will not work in a manner that may
undermine, nationally or internationally, the gains of the last fifty years and
the long history of social reform and struggle for self-reliance.
What will the NAFRE do?
The Alliance will work in a
multi-pronged manner. It will:
•
act as a platform to voice various opinions
about specific issues so that more and more people who are normally away from
such debates learn about them and participate in creating a broader consensus
•
work with all levels of government, the
Parliament, the people, the media and industry/business to make fundamental
right to education and related matters a national priority.
•
monitor the status of education while also
encouraging, creating, and catalyzing large-scale replicable models of
realization of the fundamental right.
•
work to gather and disseminate factual
information about education, not only to opinion-makers and policymakers but
also to the parents of children whose future is at stake.
Who can
participate in the Alliance?
At this time, any organization or
individual who can contribute to the work of the Alliance will become a part of
the Alliance at the recommendation of one of the founding partners.
The Alliance is no exclusive
club. Nor is it a closed-door organization. A group of a few organizations meeting occasionally
cannot hope to make an impact on the status of education nationally. We must
make an impact. Large numbers of organizations working in some harmony across
the country for the realization of the fundamental right to education are
essential for the formation of a true National Alliance The few major organizations
who have joined together to form the Alliance will work to make it grow.
Who will
decide policies and action plans? How?
The Alliance is not a static
entity. As it evolves and grows, the methods of running the organization will
also evolve Decision-making processes have to suit the form of organization and
the goals/ activity of the organization. The small number of founding partners
have met in Delhi twice and have taken a few decisions by mutual consultation.
As our state and district-level activities grow, State Chapters and a National
Coordinating Group will be formed. The decision-making process will go on
changing. If it does not, there will be no Alliance! Hence, we will have to
make a beginning and allow the best-suited decision-making process to evolve
for each state and at the national level.
One clear restriction will be
that no one will make policy statements on behalf of the Alliance unless a due
process is followed. Also, no action anywhere can be called an Alliance action
unless it is approved through due process. The meaning of "'due process'
will change continuously until the Alliance has reached a sizable strength in
terms of numbers, geographic coverage, and commitment of partners.
Any decision-making process, which leads to narrowing the
scope for participation by large numbers of people, or which causes inaction,
or causes undue delays in action, cannot be justified in the context of the
National Alliance.
What action
is planned at this time? Can it be changed? Modified?
•
Campaign to meet every MP across the country in
her/his constituency in order to inform them and to gauge their response. In
order to make this campaign a success, we will have to contact and induct at
least one group in every Lok Sabha constituency to join the Alliance action.
The campaign is not only an advocacy action, but also an exercise in building
an organization through this action.
•
Work in about 1000 villages and a few cities to
create models of realizing the children's right to education through activation
of people. This exercise will help us to exchange experiences in different
parts of the country. It will also help us to evolve, learn, and document
replicable solutions to universal and specific problems.
In the first action, a common
discipline and time-schedule will have to be followed so that we come across as
an Alliance. In the latter plan, each individual or organization will have the
opportunity to try different models and philosophies to ensure realization of
the right to education of every child in the given group of villages. There is sufficient
scope to try out different models and ideas in the 1000 village plan
What about
financing activities of the Alliance?
The founding partners have
decided that, at least for the time being, there will be no central pool of
funds. As and when activities are decided upon, the Funding agencies in the
Alliance will have bilateral or multilateral understanding with the grassroots
organizations concerned about meeting financial needs.
In the final analysis...
Ultimately, the survival and success of the National
Alliance will depend upon how much we can trust one other, whether we can make
a better impact together than we can individually, whether we activate people in
large numbers or we get entangled in debates.
