The recent ad of Dainik Bhaskar, simply drives home the point of fundamental right of children to read irrespective of everything. With the Right to Education in effect from 1st April 2010, still much has not changed about the mindset of parents who still want their children to be deprived of their basic and essential right which is right to education. The ad features this aspect making it amply clear that right to education is children’s fundamental right and parents resisting this will be dealt with resistance from children in turn.
The ad features a primary school where small children are learning, ‘ka se kabutar’- the basics of language. The teacher is out for a while. Meanwhile a parent comes and howls at his daughter who is barely 5 yr old, muttering, “How many times I have told your mom there is no need to school, neither you listen nor your mom”. He starts dragging the girl out of the classroom while the girl keeps resisting. The school teacher intervenes but the father shouts him down. This follows by another girl, the first girl’s classmate, joining her in resistance and soon the whole class joins. A tug of war, apparently, happens with father on one side and the whole class on the other, resulting in victory for little children. A children song plays out in the background suiting the tone and tenor of the scene. In the end,The girl again holds her school bag smilingly, confident in her resolve to read while the father looks confounded and dumb. The message is loud and clear: Insist on for your right against odds.
The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act’ or Right to Education Act (RTE), is an Act of the Parliament of India enacted on 4 August 2009, which describes the modalities of the importance of free and compulsory education for children between 6 and 14 in India under Article 21A of the Indian Constitution. India became one of 135 countries to make education a fundamental right of every child when the act came into force on 1 April 2010. (Courtesy: Wikipedia)
