There are many concrete measures to be undertaken at the grass root level for the meaningful implementation of the RTE Act. The School Management Committees (SMCs) have to be formed. They have to conduct child mapping of the neighborhood, formulate panchayat level plans for the implementation of RTE, ensure that all the socio-economic and cultural hurdles in front of the child, parent and community are removed, motivate the parents and involve the entire community in this process. These will not take place automatically or through Government orders. Conscious efforts have to be made and functioning models have to be built.

The role of gram panchayats and local authorities is extremely vital in achieving the goal of universal elementary education as a fundamental right of children. The panchayats should fully understand their roles and responsibilities in the implementation of the RTE Act. They should also become capable of carrying out these responsibilities. The community should fully realize the potential of the rights assured to them, constitutionally, through the Act.

In order to realize this creative participation from them the Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti designed a campaign to communicate the basic spirit and perspective of the historical Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act to the community at large be conducted. It also intends to follow up this communication programme with the formation of sustainable, participatory community structures that would be able to work for the objective implementation as well as monitoring of the programme with a long term perspective. The BGVS has 20 years experience in conceiving, designing and implementing Total Literacy Campaigns in partnership with the National Literacy Mission (NLM) and the Zilla Saksharta Samities (ZSS).

Objectives

1. To form a well trained Core Group of 20-25 people who can guide various activities around the right to education in 4000 gram panchayats in 100 educationally backward blocks of 7 states (Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, and Uttarakhand)
2. To organize intensive kalajathas reaching out to 8-10 cluster points in each block. These kalajathas will be used to take the key messages of the RTE to the village communities using various art forms like songs, plays, talk and traditional theater. The kalajatha process will be made use of to initiate intensive discussions in all panchayats of the selected blocks
3. To form Block Level Right to Education Resource Groups in about 100 Blocks. These resource groups will consist of 10-15 people drawn from different sections of population including teachers, parents, elected representatives and would be equipped to support the Panchayat Level Resource Support Groups
4. To form sustainable, functioning support groups in about 4000 panchayats in the 100 blocks. These groups will be formed through an intensive process of community interaction and organization building that would follow the kalajatha programmes.

Future action plan  

All India campaign on RTE:  There won’t be any compromise on quality education and it is important that how much pressure we can put to upgrade the existing schools. Some goals are set like

• Through the small project given by MHRD to BGVS we have to reach at least 24,000 panchayat
• Formation of a group of 8-10 people in each panchayat
• Prepare a people’s centre against globalisation
• Beside the elementary, adult education can also be taken up
• Interacting with local govt. to start school mapping

Different issues came up in the discussion regarding the RTE campaign like

• We have to stand for the right of the children
• Strategy and community sensitize
• Perspective, environment building and networking
• Central Vs State Govt.
• The number of children outside school
• A national level workshop and formation of RTE core group in states
• Kalajatha and material preparation

Finally, in June, two national level workshops will be organised in Chennai for southern states and in Bhopal for northern and other states and thereafter state workshops will follow.