A Child Educational Rights in 21st Century

A society can develop in the true sense of the term if it aims at all-round development of children, the development which includes physical, psychological and intellectual nourishment. For the latter two, education is the most significant criterion. In the Indian social context at least 35 million children within the age group of 6 to 14 years do not attend school. It is alarming that 53% of girls within 5 to 9 years are illiterate. This kind of horrifying revelation makes it clear that child’s right to education is the need of the hour for the progress of the nation as a whole. The Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002 inserted Article 21-A in the Constitution of India to provide free and compulsory education to all children in the age group of six to fourteen years as a Fundamental Right in such a manner as the State may, by law, determine. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, which represents the consequential legislation envisaged under Article 21-A, means that every child has a right to full time elementary education of satisfactory and equitable quality in a formal school which satisfies certain essential norms and standards