Bhubaneswar: In order to ensure right to education for all the children of the country CRY, a pioneer child rights organization lunched a nation wide campaign called “Do what is Right”.

After sixty years of independence, the Indian parliament passed the free and compulsory education act with the expectation that the right to education shall be ensured for all the children. However, in the present act there are several gaps and if implemented in its present form that will lead to unequal access to this fundamental right for children. This is why CRY with its partners lunched this campaign demanding for an amendment in the Right to education act -2009 in the coming winter session of the parliament, said Sushanto Chakrabarty from CRY while addressing the press on 18th November at Bhubaneswar.
 
The right to education act in its present form excludes children below the age of six as well as from fifteen to eighteen years. Secondly, there is no minimum standard defined for teachers, school infrastructure and basic facilities including drinking water, toilet, classrooms, teacher-student ratio. Similarly, even though it has proven that a child learns best in the language spoken at home, the Act does not specify mother-tongue education as a medium of instruction, in addition to learning other languages. Thirdly there should be clear provision for allotment of ten percent of India’s GDP to education.

 “Do what is Right” campaign has the slogan of “Sabko Shiksha, Saman Shiksha”. And will include various activities like press conference, public hearing etc. in different parts of the country. People who want read and sign the charter of demand can also visit http://www.cry.org/mainapp/cryuserapps/signcharter.aspx ; said Abhijit Mukharjee, who works with CRY.

The campaign will culminate on December 11th; the anniversary of the day India ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The charter with signatures collected from across the country will be handed over to the President in the form of a symbolic book.