Govt plans cell to keep tabs on RTE

National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR),the nodal grievance redressal authority for implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act,will soon set up a special cell to monitor a child’s Right to Education’ and also propose amendments to the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act,1986 to ensure total abolition of child labour.

“We are going to propose changes to the Child Labour Act to ensure every child manages to go to schools,as per provisions of the RTE Act. While the Act currently allows children to work in certain sectors,especially agriculture,we will propose that the definition of child labour be amended to include agricultural work also as a form of child labour. That is very important as most of the children out of school or dropping out midway come from the rural sectors and go on to form the labour pool later. We will be taking it up with the Ministry of Labour & Employment,” said NCPCR chairperson Shanta Sinha.

“As decided by the expert group on RTE,the NCPCR will set up a special cell in about three months to monitor a child’s Right to Education. A MoU will be signed for the same,” Sinha added. The Expert Group on Monitoring child’s Right to Education had recently decided that an MoU should be signed between NCPCR,HRD Ministry and the Ministry of Women and Child Development on a five-year basis for the setting up of a special cell with financial support from the HRD ministry.

A Technical Support Group will also be set up at the national level,consisting of five experts/professionals,to help monitor RTE implementation and to attend to complaints,advocacy and public awareness,training for capacity building of different stakeholders,research and data base.