A wake-up call was sounded by more than 60 children to remind the parliamentarians of the promises made by Indian government regarding girl child’s education. Knocking on the doors of the parliamentarians, these children who were former child labourers and once deprived of education themselves had a one-to one talk with the M.Ps.
Shri Kailash Satyarthi, President of BBA & Global Campaign for Education (GCE), who accompanied the children urged the MPs to take steps towards the formation of National Commission on Education that will ensure the implementation of Right to Education. He demanded the M.Ps to hold earnest debate on these critical issues in the parliament to achieve the goal of gender parity in school enrollment by the end of 2005.
The children met more than 80 parliamentarians including Sh. B.J. Panda, Sh. Jitin Prasada, Sh. Ravi Prakash Verma, Sh, Nilotpal Basu, Sh. Nikhil Kumar, Sh. A.R. Saheen, Sh. Karnendu Bhattacharya, Sh. Mitrasen Yadav, Smt. Bangaru Laxman and got a pledge letter signed by them demanding:
Ensure formation of a Law guaranteeing free, compulsory and meaningful education for all children
Ensure equity in education
Ensure provision for care taking of children between 0-6 years
Provision of education for children missing an education: i.e girls, disabled children, children from schedule tribes and castes, children displaced due to natural calamities, development project, conflicts, children working as labourers
Enrollment and retention of each and every child in school by provision of Quality Education to all children (infrastructure i.e. play grounds, school building, drinking water, toilets, teacher -student ratio to be 1:30, blackboards etc)
Ensure timely allocation of budget for funds collected under 2% education cess for direct reach to grassroots, and to avoid improper utilization of resources
Ensure increase in Allocation on Elementary Education, which has been raised from Rs. 7227.88 crore to Rs. 11219.79 crore (that is by Rs. 3991.91 crore , but is still short of the demand for an increase of Rs5010.00 crore)
Ensure employment of trained especially female teachers, and not para teachers
Ensure mainstreaming of education
Ensure speedy formation of National Commission on Education
Sh. B.J. Panda, a young Member of Parliament, welcomed the children and had an open discussion with them. He said, the issue of children’s education is very close to his heart. Sh. Panda was made aware of the status of education through the problems faced by the children. He too showed his commitment to bring up the issue of girl’s education in the parliament and assured of his support and participation in the activities of BBA in Orissa. Two issues that he said are key to quality education are – One the teachers should be appointed from the local level itself to have continuity and quality in the studies. Secondly, he said that the panchayat should be given the resources and made accountable for children’s education.
Global Action Week (GAW) is a historical campaign run by GCE in 100 countries across the world simultaneously to mark the anniversary of Dakar goals. Global Campaign for Education, a joint platform of international NGOs, trade unions, teachers’ unions and national coalitions was formed in the year 2000 during the World Education Forum in Dakar.
Global Action Week pays a vital role in drawing the attention of politicians, policy makers, media and the common man on the concerning topic of education in India and rest of the world. In India, this program is led by Bachpan Bachao Andolan through the joint coalition of NGOs, South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude, National Coalition for Education, Global March Against Child Labour, Christian Children’s Fund, Commonwealth Education Fund, AADI, India Alliance for Child Rights.
