The draft letter to Kapil Sibal

1. To
Mr. Kapil Sibal
Hon’ble Minister for Human Resources Development,
Ministry of Human Resources Development
Government of India
The Rajya Sabha on 23rd April 2012 passed amendments to the RTE Act 2009. A
significant number of these amendments are concerned with the education of
children with disabilities. One amendment in particular talks about giving the choice
of home based education to children with multiple disabilities and to children with
severe disabilities.
“Provided that a child with multiple disabilities referred to in clause (h) of
section 2 of the National Trust for Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral
Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act, 1999 and a child with
severe disability referred to in clause (o) of section 2 of the National Trust for
Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and
Multiple Disabilities Act, 1999 may also have the right to opt for home-based
education”.
We oppose this amendment and would like to point out providing home based
education as an option to school education for children with multiple and severe
disabilities is an extremely retrogressive step which will have huge negative
repercussions on the rights of children in education. It is watering down of the
fundamental right to education that every child has in our country and goes against
the very spirit of the RTE Act which is formalising education and building standards
for quality.
We urge the Hon Minister of HRD, Shri Kapil Sibal to reconsider this amendment to
the Act. Our reasons are as follows.
Children with disabilities are the single largest group of out of school children which
was 34.19% in 2005 and remained 34.12% in 2009 according to the SRI-IMRB
study. Children with disabilities are the largest group of out of school children even in
comparison to other groups like SC, ST and Muslim population.
In such a situation giving an option of the home based education will serve to push
out the child from the system. Field experience shows that children with disabilities
have been consistently pushed out of the system. Parents of children who are
vulnerable are unlikely to be in an equitable relationship with the education system.
They are unlikely to be able exercise choice given the resistance the system already
has to their children.
If today we legitimize home based education, we will roll back in time and just
strengthen the push out factors for all children who are vulnerable within the system

2. Such an option is likely to foster, great social isolation, exclusion from
community and peers and devalue the child. It is likely to exclude the child
from many other entitlements and also to expose the child to a lack of
protection that social isolation brings. The quality of life of any child will be
seriously compromised if we isolate them in the home.
The label of severe and profound disability on a child is a deeply questionable
practice in our country. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities which India has ratified rejects the purely medical parameters that
India uses to label children and people with disabilities.
All laws relating to persons with disabilities are being either amended or
rewritten at this time even in our own country. It is unclear to us why the
MHRD has chosen to use concepts and thinking that is now changing.
By legitimising home based education we are legitimising non formal
education for one set of children in the law that outlines a fundamental right in
our country. We see this as a grave injustice to the right of the child to a
legitimate education.