By SUNIL Sonkar

NEW DELHI, India: The universalization of education in India saw a giant leap with the bill The Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, which has acquired the dubious distinction of becoming the only fundamental right in the Indian Constitution that only exists on paper.

It has been over seven years passed by after the Constitution was amended in 2002 for making free and compulsory education for children between 6 to 14 a fundamental right. The bill was passed some four months before but it is still pending of being notified by both the legislations.

Without the notification the right to free and compulsory education is only a goal. The notifications is a mandatory step in giving the exact date of implementation when the law comes into force.

The NDA regime for two years and the five years of the UPA government were spent quibbling over the implementation cost. However, the bill was passed finally by the Parliament in last August, but still there is no movement towards the notification.

Kapil Sibal, HRD minister, said that he has been saying the face of education will be changed fully with the Right to Education Act.

Apart from the cost of implementation according to HRD minister is Rs 1.71 lakh crore for five years. A source said, “Many reforms in the RTE Act do not cost money. Now if it is notified in the end of March to be applicable from April 1, state governments will be caught unawares. They will be unprepared without budget allocations. That could be a setback. Early notification would have helped put a system in place.”