Empowering India’s Future: Civil society advocates bring children’s education to forefront amidst election season

Amidst India’s vibrant election season, where all political parties are presenting their manifestos and making lofty promises, a network of four civil society group is making quieter yet profoundly impactful efforts to highlight children’s education in the country.

Four civil society group – Right To Education (RTE) Forum, The Campaign Against Child Labor (CACL), Forum for Creches and Childcare Services, and Alliance for Right to Education –  have come together to release Education of India’s Children manifesto which highlights the legal entitlements and rights of the children.

The five-page manifesto that was released in March 2024 is a rallying cry and a call to all politicians to prioritize the educational needs of the students.

The manifesto’s agenda included many aspects including the urgent need to address the systemic challenges plaguing India’s education system.

“We brainstorm on what are the issues which we should bring up in the coming elections primarily focused on education so that the political parties will include in their political agenda,”  Chirashree, a member of the Alliance for Right to ECD and National coordinator of FORCES was quoted by The Wire.

“We have ground-level meetings, on how people take it up because unless we get feedback from the people, we cannot put it up in the public manifesto. Once we get their feedback, it gets translated into the local language, Bengali, Oriya,” Chirashree added.

Some shocking statistics revealed that only 25.5% of schools in the country were compliant with RTE standards. The prevalence of vacant teacher positions and the overreliance on contractual teachers paint a bleak picture of the state of education in India.

According to the manifesto, 8.4 lakh teacher positions are vacant while 19% of schools in India are estimated to have teacher vacancies and one school in seven is run by a single teacher. 

Since the right to education in India currently only applies to children within the age group of 6-14, the manifesto emphasizes the importance of extending the right to education.

“Education is the backbone, without education, the country will never grow. I think the basic fundamental is if a country wants to grow, education should be a priority,” Chirashree was quoted as saying.

She expressed her dismay at the apparent neglect of education by political parties. Despite an incremental increase in the budget for the Department of School Education, the percentage of total budget estimated allocated to education has decreased over the past decade. This is a big reason that poses a hindrance to ensuring quality education to all.

Over the past ten years, from 2014-15 to 2024-25, the budget for the Department of School Education has increased except for a reduction in 2015-16 and 2021-22.

However, all is not doom and gloom. Many political parties including Congress, Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Samajwadi Party (SP) have listened to the civil society groups and have incorporated key demands into their party manifestos. 

The joint demands put forth by these groups encompass a wide range of issues ranging from the complete implementation of the RTE Act upto age 18 to promoting mother tongue education.

The group has demanded increase in education expenditure to 6% of GDP, stopping closure and merger of government schools in the name of rationalization or consolidation, filling teachers’ vacancies, developing and enforcing an enabling national regulatory framework for all private schools and Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) centers to curb the commercialization of education, particularly regulating school fees.

It also demanded removing barriers to education for marginalized groups, implementing Child and Adolescent Labor Rehabilitation Fund to support children freed from child labor, bringing dropout and out-of-school children into education, promoting mother tongue education, revising National Education Policy in light of the above demands.

Putting children’s education central to the election agenda can go a long way in  improving not only the standard of education but shaping the future of India. With concerted efforts from these civil society groups and political parties paying heed to it, there is a sense of optimism for a brighter, more equitable future for India’s children.