The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, entitles all children between the ages of 6-14 years free and compulsory admission, attendance and completion of Elementary Education. Further, under Section 10 of RTE Act, 2009, it shall be the duty of every parent or guardian to admit or cause to be admitted his or her child or ward, as the case may be, to an elementary education in the neighbourhood school.
The Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development is implementing Samagra Shiksha – an Integrated Scheme for School Education (ISSE). Samagra Shiksha envisages the ‘school’ as a continuum from Pre-school, primary, upper primary, secondary to Senior Secondary levels and supports States and Union Territories in implementation of the RTE Act, 2009.
Under Samagra Shiksha, to address the issues of adolescent girls, Special State specific projects for varied interventions under equity are emphasized for enhancing access, retention and quality by promoting enrolment drives, retention and motivation camps, gender sensitization modules etc. Financial Support is also being provided under State Specific projects as per the allocation of flexi fund under quality to the state subject to viable proposals received from the respective State and UTs. Such projects include Life Skills, Awareness programmes, Incinerators, Sanitary Pad Vending Machines. The amount of Rs. 15566.96 lakh has been approved for State Specific Projects for the year 2019-20 under Samagra Shiksha.
The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) at Primary level for Girls is 95.4. as per Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) 2017-18 (provisional). Under Samagra Shiksha, various interventions have been targeted for girls, which include opening of schools in the neighbourhood as defined by the State, provision of free text-books to girls up to Class VIII, uniforms to all girls up to class VIII, provision of gender segregated toilets in all schools, teachers’ sensitization programmes to promote girls’ participation, provision for Self-Defence training for the girls from classes VI to XII, stipend to CWSN girls from class I to Class XII, construction of residential quarters for teachers in remote/hilly areas/in areas with difficult terrain.
In addition to this, to reduce gender gaps at all levels of school education and for providing quality education to girls from disadvantaged groups, Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBVs) have been sanctioned in Educationally Backward Blocks (EBBs) under Samagra Shiksha. KGBVs are residential schools from class VI to XII for girls belonging to disadvantaged groups such as SC, ST, OBC, Minority and Below Poverty Line (BPL). A total of 5930 KGBVs have been sanctioned under Samagra Shiksha as on 30.09.2019. Out of it, 4881 are operational enrolling 6.18 lakh girls. This information was given by the Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.
