Dr. Parthajeet Das
(Dr. Parthajeet Das serves as the Project Director for Strategic Support States at the Central Square Foundation. The insights and views presented in this article are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of the foundation.)
Children are the torch bearers of the future, and they will shape and be responsible for the world of work, business, economy, environment, and politics, which will affect everybody’s life deeply. Young children, who we see around us today taking their first steps to walk, uttering their first words to talk, and engaging with written text in a book or mobile screen, are future world leaders, innovators, entrepreneurs, environmentalists, writers, musicians, or Olympic medalists. Many of these children very soon will be engaged in doing things that we do not know and cannot imagine today. According to a World Economic Forum (WEF) report, 65% of the children in our primary schools today will be working in jobs that do not yet exist. And the advent of AI is just the beginning for us to get a taste of the future and what lies ahead.
This is the era of “investing in the future,” and the state is the most important actor for nurturing and developing its children, or ‘human capital’. The responsibility of states becomes even more important for young children, as at that tender age, they do not yet have the agency to determine things that will have a profound impact on their own lives.
Young children are dependent on carers such as their parents, grandparents, and family members to make these decisions for them. In a developing country, parents’ and family’s access to opportunities across education, healthcare, and other facilities varies a lot. A state’s role as a leveller becomes critical here. In a just and equitable state, all children are equally important, and hence, it must protect the rights of all children irrespective of socio-economic status.
It is with such considerations that the United Nations Convention on the “Rights of the Child” was formulated in 1989 by world leaders as an international agreement on childhood. Adopted and supported by almost all member countries, it has become the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history. Contained in this treaty is a profound idea that children are not just objects who belong to their parents and for whom decisions are made. Rather, they are human beings and individuals with their own rights. It defines a child as anyone under the age of 18 and goes on to describe around 40 rights and the responsibilities of governments to ensure them. It clearly states and directs governments to ensure these rights of children irrespective of parental background, sex, religion, appearance, disability, and even in the case of orphans. The treaty goes on to underline that all the rights are connected; they are all equally important, and they cannot be taken away from children.
Primary among these rights are the ones around the growth and development of children, where all children have the right to a safe place to live, quality healthcare, and age-appropriate nutrition. There are also critical rights around protection from harm that guarantee children the right to be protected from violence, sexual abuse, and exploitation. They also have the right to be protected from harmful work and drugs. Children have the right to access education and services that help them develop their talents and abilities. Children also have the right to have their views respected and to share their thoughts freely. Children have the right to participate in society and to be involved in achieving their rights.
In addition to these rights in the early stages, the role of the school becomes critical as an avenue or place where the child’s rights are ensured and s/he is supported to grow and thrive. A school is a place where the child exercises the right to access education and can rightfully demand a safe learning environment, adequate nutrition through school meals, and supportive infrastructure and facilities.
India has gone a step further and guaranteed all children’s rights to free and compulsory education through the Right to Education (RTE) Act 2009 through an act of the Constitution, which necessitates both the central government and the states to jointly ensure all children get access to equitable and quality education. The state, i.e., the Government of India, and states directly manage and run a large majority (10 lakhs) of the schools of the country and are responsible for setting policies and guidelines for the remaining ~5 lakh private schools. They run several centrally sponsored schemes and programs for children, such as the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), Mid-Day Meal (or PM Poshan), Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SmSA), mass immunisation, and school health programs to ensure that around 26 crore children get adequate nutrition, quality education, basic healthcare, and social protection within the premises of the school.
Is it time for another fundamental right to be introduced: a right to learn? A large number of studies around the world and particularly in low- and middle-income countries such as India are showing unambiguously that a large number of our children are attending schools but not learning or gaining basic cognitive and life skills that will help them navigate the world better on their own and take their own decisions. Our policymakers have also recognised the importance of early learning in the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and have called out foundational learning as the single most important goal without which the rest of the policy will become irrelevant. In particular, the cognitive growth of children in acquiring and mastery of gateway skills of language, communication, and application of math in daily life is deeply prioritised and supported through the National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN Bharat) program implemented throughout the country. The central and state governments are urged to ensure that all children, irrespective of their parent’s ability to afford and invest in education, achieve these basic foundational skills, without which their future potential of higher education, vocational education, or even gainful employment is severely affected. This ensures that every child has the opportunity to fulfil their right to learn.