Lok Sabha Question No. 1207 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-11-25
Subject: Enrollment of Children
Ministry: HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Badruddin Ajmal

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION & LITERACY

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1207 TO BE ANSWERED ON 25.11.2019

## Enrollment of Children

1207. SHRI M. BADRUDDIN AJMAL: Will the Minister of HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state: (a) the measures being taken by the Government to bring the children within the age group of 6-14 years to schools specially in rural areas; (b) the funds sanctioned/released for the projects/schemes to ensure the enrollment of more children of this age group in schools during the period; and (c) the comparative report about out of schools children during last five years, State-
2. wise and Year-wise specially for the State of Assam?

## ANSWER MINISTER OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT (SHRI RAMESH POKHRIYAL 'NISHANK')

(a)  to  (b): The  Right  of  Children  to  Free  and  Compulsory  Education  (RTE)  Act,  2009 provides for access to elementary schools for children of the age group of 6-14 years, within the defined area or limits of neighbourhood. In pursuance of Section 6 of the Act, the Central RTE Rules has notified the area or limits of neighbourhood as one kilometre, within which a primary school and 3 kilometre within which an upper primary school, has to be established. The States have notified area or limits of their neighbourhood norms in their state RTE Rules, factoring in their State specific condition, for opening of schools. As reported by States/UTs in  their  Annual  Work  Plan,  2018-19, 97.15%  of  habitations  in  the  country  are  covered  by primary  schools  and  96.49%  of  habitations  are  covered  by  upper  primary  schools.  The habitations  that  remain  uncovered  are  mostly  small  or  sparsely  populated  in  difficult areas where opening of school is not feasible for which there is a provision of giving transport and escort facility and opening of residential schools and hostels.

In  addition,  Section  12  (1)(c)  of  the  Right  of  Children  to  Free  &  Compulsory  Education (RTE) Act, 2009 provides for admission of children belonging to disadvantaged groups (DG)

and economically weaker sections (EWS) in private unaided schools to the extent of at least 25 percent of the strength of class I or below.

Samagra Shiksha- an integrated scheme for School Education envisages school education as a  continuum  from  pre-school  to  senior  secondary  level  and  aims  to  ensure  inclusive  and equitable  quality  education  for  all.  Under  the  scheme,  financial  assistance  is  provided  to States and UTs for undertaking various activities to reduce number of out of school children including opening/upgradation of new schools upto senior secondary level, strengthening of infrastructure of existing schools, construction of school buildings & additional classrooms, setting up, up-gradation and running of Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBV), setting up  of  residential  schools/hostels,  provision  of  free  uniforms  and  free  text  books  and undertaking  enrolment  &  retention  drives.  Further,  special  training  for  age  appropriate admission  of  out  of  school  and  residential  as  well  as  non-residential  training  for  older children, seasonal hostels / residential camps, special training centres at worksites, transport/ escort  facility  are  also  supported  to  bring  out  of  school  children  to  the  formal  schooling system.  Also,  mid-day  meal  is  provided  to  students  at  the  elementary  level  of  education. Further, under the student oriented component for the children with special needs, financial assistance is provided for identification and assessment of children with special needs, aids and appliances, braille kits and books, appropriate teaching learning material and stipend to girl students with disability etc.

(c): Ministry of Human Resource Development conducts periodic surveys to estimate out of school children. The last such survey to estimate out of school children in the age group of 6-13 years was conducted in 2014. The State-wise detail is at Annexure.

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ANNEXURE  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PART  (c)  OF  LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1207 TO BE ANSWERED ON 25.11.2019 ASKED BY HON'BLE MP SHRI M. BADRUDDIN AJMAL REGARDING 'ENROLLMENT OF CHILDREN'

Out of School Children as per Independent Survey

| S. No.   | States/UTs           |    2014 |
|----------|----------------------|---------|
| 1        | A&N Islands          |    1015 |
| 2        | Andhra Pradesh       |  107829 |
| 3        | Arunachal Pradesh    |    6517 |
| 4        | Assam                |  157813 |
| 5        | Bihar                | 1169722 |
| 6        | Chandigarh           |    1090 |
| 7        | Chhattisgarh         |  167072 |
| 8        | Dadra & Nagar Haveli |     745 |
| 9        | Daman & Diu          |     421 |
| 10       | Delhi                |   85084 |
| 11       | Goa                  |       0 |
| 12       | Gujarat              |  159308 |
| 13       | Haryana              |   43879 |
| 14       | Himachal Pradesh     |    2176 |
| 15       | Jammu & Kashmir      |   45468 |
| 16       | Jharkhand            |  140426 |
| 17       | Karnataka            |  122139 |
| 18       | Kerala               |   33161 |
| 19       | Lakshadweep          |     267 |
| 20       | Madhya Pradesh       |  450952 |
| 21       | Maharashtra          |  145326 |
| 22       | Manipur              |    7037 |
| 23       | Meghalaya            |   17237 |
| 24       | Mizoram              |     972 |
| 25       | Nagaland             |    2896 |
| 26       | Odisha               |  401052 |
| 27       | Puducherry           |     285 |
| 28       | Punjab               |   91578 |
| 29       | Rajasthan            |  601863 |
| 30       | Sikkim               |     535 |
| 31       | Tamil Nadu           |   57529 |
| 32       | Tripura              |    4518 |
| 33       | Uttar Pradesh        | 1612285 |
| 34       | Uttarakhand          |   86794 |
| 35       | West Bengal          |  339239 |
| Total    | Total                | 6064229 |

Source: IMRB Survey, 2014