After almost 20 years, I have had the opportunity to travel around Delhi, where I worked in many export firms as a migrant worker from Kerala in my early 20s. I was curious to see the developments projected by the political slogans and rhetoric of India Shining, Make in India, Digital India and, of course, Sab ka Saath, Sab ka Vikas.
How can you claim sab ka saath sab ka vikas when at every red light, children appear from every direction to sell a pen, flag, or even a Santa (during Christmas). I asked why they weren’t at school; their replies were simple smiles, depressing and painful. I saw a girl aged 13 or 14, carrying a toddler and begging at another red light. Seeing children selling fruits outside the child welfare centre was depressing and shocking. It was deeply disturbing to see a girl in such weather without proper clothing. Whose India is shining? These poor children’s, or of those who can afford every luxury in India?
The Constitution of India (Article 21A): ‘The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to 14 years’ and ‘the right to education is held to be a fundamental right under Article 21; every child has the right to free education up to the age of 14 yrs’ (Unni Krishnan JP and others vs State of Andhra Pradesh, AIR 1993 SC 2178). ‘We have to be very strict in maintaining high academic standards and maintaining academic discipline and academic rigour if our country is to progress’: Orissa High Court, 2011.
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The Directive Principles of State Policy (Article 39): ‘That children are given opportunities and facilities to develop in a healthy manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity, and that childhood and youth are protected against exploitation and against moral and material abandonment’.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Art 26): ‘Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory… Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms’. Why are these children not part of the process? Are they not State subjects? Without them, how can we claim that India shines ― sab ka saath sab ka vikas? Rather interestingly, the constitutional right to education is a fundamental right in DPSP and in UDHR, which India signed and ratified; bypassing all these, our government is now discussing directly or indirectly the implementation of Article 351, which is to promote the spread of Hindi, which is only a directive.
In the UK, parents would be prosecuted by the local authority if a child under 16 is not regularly attending school. We should, at least, provide sufficient resources for families, mainly accommodation and food. Unlike in India, where the government sees everything in terms of Hindu, Muslim and minorities, in England, all local authorities build more social housing to ensure that no one faces homelessness. The local authority is responsible for education. If it fails to ensure that all children get full care and support, then it would be prosecuted; the classic example is the case of Baby P.
I refuse to accept that in India, we do not have sufficient money and resources to provide basic accommodation and education to all children under 14; it is simply not true. Why is the State not working to ensure that all children get compulsory education? Is it not a fundamental right? Why is the State pretending that these children do not exist in India, even in the capital? Are they not part of the sab ka saath sab ka vikas slogan?
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In Jhandewalan [where, incidentally, the RSS HQ is located], I saw a cycle-rickshaw with a few dirty blankets piled underneath. I waited almost an hour to see what would emerge from them, and I was shocked to see that it was the rickshaw-puller, who had to sleep on the pavement. Would we call it sab ka saath sab ka vikas? Indeed, I would not.
Is it not that the government has only guaranteed that some children get compulsory education, even in the capital city of India, and other children’s fundamental rights are violated? How could they spend on PR for the Make in India, Digital India and Sab Ka Saath campaigns when these poor children are denied primary education? I have not seen a shining India – or sab ka saath sab ka vikas – but a shocking India in which live the working population and the children of the poor. If the government had spent half of what it does on PR, all these children at the red lights would have received education.
Our nation requires urgent attention to these issues and critical reforms to build more social housing where every citizen has shelter. And local panchayats must be given control of education; they can provide sufficient support to children.
Baiju Thittala is a solicitor in Cambridge, UK, and Labour councillor for East Chesterton. He drew attention to racist English language requirements for non-EU nurses in the UK.
This piece was first published on The India Cable – a premium newsletter from The Wire & Galileo Ideas – and has been republished here. To subscribe to The India Cable, click here.