Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee. India

New Delhi Children with any kind of disability may now be entitled to reservation in admission in private schools in the neighbourhood.

The Union Cabinet approved introduction of a bill in Parliament to amend the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 for the purpose.

The amendment to the Act also aims at changing the mandate of school management committees constituted under the Act for aided minority institutions.

The Act provides for free and compulsory education as a fundamental right of every child in the 6-14 age bracket and earmarks 25 per cent seats to children from "economically weaker sections and disadvantaged groups" in private schools.

The amendment to Act aims at including children with disabilities within the meaning of "children belonging to disadvantaged group", Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni told reporters.

The amendment also aims at widening the definition of disabled children, who have been ensured right to pursue free and compulsory elementary education.

The existing Act refers to disabled children as defined under the Person with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection and Full Participation) Act, 1996.

The amendment will treat children with disabilities as defined in the National Trust for Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act, 1999.

The Act was published in the Gazette of India on August 27 after it got the assent of the President.

The government decided to amend the Act keeping in view the demand of groups working for the disabled children. These groups have been putting pressure on the government to ensure that all types of disabled children are covered by the Act.

The amendment will also take care of concerns raised by certain minority groups that provisions regarding the management committee under the Act are inconsistent with Article 30 of the Constitutions.

Article 30 gives minorities the right to establish and administer educational institutions freely. As per the RTE Act, the management committee should comprise elected representatives of the local authority, parents or guardians of children, and teachers.

After considering the concerns raised by these groups, the government decided to bring amendment to the Act to ensure that School Management Committees constituted under the Act by aided minority institutions shall perform advisory function only.

In other schools, such committees will monitor the working of the school, prepare and recommend school development plans and monitor the utilisation of the grants received from the government and local authority.

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