Education for All: Myth or Reality

Abstract

The Right to Education Act, 2009 provides primary education for all in India, which is compulsory and free. It is a great initiative on the part of our government to have the Act after 62 years of independence. The paper is an attempt to review the Act in the context of child labour in India. To examine the status of child labour vis-a-vis the Act of 2009, the study analyses government policies, extent of out-of-school children and the issue of school drop-outs. The paper is a case study, where 200 child labourers are selected and interviewed from the informal sectors in the district of Nalbari (Assam). Analyses of the findings show that still majority of the child labourer are denied the fundamental right to education. Because of lack of awareness, unavailability of government schools, poor infrastructure of the existing schools and poverty are the root causes for the deprival of education for those poor children. Even the concerned government departments are not enthusiastic to bring all those deprived children into the education system. For the child labourer, education is a distant dream and the slogan “education for all” remains a myth in spite of the fact that our Constitution provides education as a fundamental right.