RTE officials to probe child right violations

The Union ministry of human resource development made this proposal before the state education secretaries at a meeting here on Monday, according to sources.

Ministry’s proposal for a well defined institutional mechanism for grievance redressal involves a system of registering complaint, their investigation and a response within a well-appointed time frame.

This is significant since currently there are no redressal mechanisms to address child rights violations under the RTE Act.

The Act makes local authorities the grievance redressal agencies and the state commission for protection of child rights the appellate bodies at the state level, but there is no clear cut modality through which violations of child rights can be protected.

In its proposal, the ministry suggested that there should be listing of the set of legal entitlements guaranteed under the RTE Act and this should be widely made available and publicly displayed.

Officers, typically from the department of education, should be designated by the state government to hear cases under the RTE Act and be placed at district, block and gram panchayat levels.