Friends at the Terrace Garedening Meet

Moonstar had booked the ticket and I came to know much later that it was in AC. Infact the first time that I got my Asthma, it was in and AC compartment so I kind of dread them. Since we had not talked of it she didn’t know my need so it was ok. I hung out near the vestibule where there was a berth for the attendant. Infact it was birth on the door with an very open view.

At the Terrace Gardening Meet in Bangalore I met some old friends. I was glad to know that Deepak Bhai was there. I have been to his farm and stayed there for a month. Have learnt a lot about farming from him. He practices Natueco Farming in MP and the farm is on the banks of Narmadaji. While I was there I used to go for a bath at Narmadaji and also do yoga on the banks. Its strange that there used to be sounds of bombs often in the river. The fishermen throw them in the river and the explosion kills all the fish in some area. The worst part is it kills all the fishes, even the one which are of no use to the fishermen. The birds would also rush to the area where there was an explosion as they would find lot of dead fish, without much effort.

I saw Purvita Kapadia also there. She is a super enthu city farmer. I have met her in Pune, she had visited FTII and saw our kitchen garden. She suggested that I put some amrit pani. I wantet it but had no way to get gobar. The next day she came with cowdung, cow urine and jaggery and made the culture for amrit pani. I was impressed with her enthu. I am glad that there are such crazy people around. Bauls also refer to each other as ‘khepa’ or the mad one. We need more of such people. She is also part of the group ‘Urban Leaves’.

There were others from the group whom I know from before. Preeti Patil also worked with Deepak Bhai and has been instrumental in setting up a rooftop garden at the Mumbai Port Trust. She has good energy too, she looks so much at peace with herself.

There I met Vinay, who is helping people set up their kitchen gardens. He also gets some money for his work. It is interesting to see people making their passion into a way of earning their living.

Got to meet Saurabh from Dehradun, who is into organic farming and explring the issues of sustainable living and bringing them into his own life. He was earlier working for Microsoft and moved out of the corporate world. He is now promoting kitchen waste composters designed by Poonam of Daily Dump in Bangalore. I have just heard of her as a person who designed these amazing, beautiful three story earthen pots where one can turn the kitchen waste into manure. Interestingly any one is free to copy their designs and it is like open source. In a way they have shared the ownership and that’s why its growing in a very decentralsied way.

There was Anil from Mumbai who is also passionate about the Daily Dump Composters and he promotes them. He mentioned that he picked up a book about thoughts of Buddha from Navdarshanam, in which he had talked about the wise man who know how to make manure out of waste. Yes, we all encounter so much ‘crap’ in our day to day lives and its up to us or we have to choice as to how we want to react to it and whether we can create some thing positive out of it or go deeper into shit. To break it down to manure which can then be a nourishing thing.

It is interesting how language gives perspective to our world view.Moonstar was pointing out how initially when she got the composter at her house in chandigarh, the left over vegetable scraps were referred to as ‘kachara’ or waste by her mother but then now she calls it ‘khad’ which means manure.

The conference was conducted in a a typical cr(l)assroom mode where on person speaks and many listen. There were lot of people who had been into city farming. I feel that there could have been a way where sharing could have been done in groups of three or four so more people could have got the chance to share their stories. More like the World Café Conversations.

There were stalls selling organic rations but the food that was served was also from any typical caterer. I gave my feedback that next time if they have such a meet they could try to serve organic food, even if it is a simple one pot meal like a khichadi.

Had a chat about all this with Preeti Patel and fortunately it has been decided that the next meet will be held around Bombay and The Cityfarmers group will be hosting it. Preeti is also excited about this meet and we have talked of serving organic food and have it on a place where there is some opportunity to do some farming or some small experiments in soil making etc…

We also went to see some rooftop gardens. I was reminded of some one from Pune who had spoken about the ‘law of entropy’ in the context of city farming in the Pune Ecological Society meeting. He thought that most of the experiments on city farming are not going to have a significant impact. He felt that if we are taking water from the dams to cities and then using more electricity to take it to the roof to grow a very small amount, then according to him we are using much more energy to get much less energy. According to the law of entropy the energy is getting dissipated. We have to create systems where the dissipation is much less and if we do the energy audit of any activity then there should be a net gain in energy. But most of the practices we have today are such that even with some of the so called energy saving ways there is a net loss. As it could be a case with the electric bicycle. Just because the exhaust is not giving any fumes it doesn’t mean that all is fine. We have to calculate the fumes that could be coming out in the power plant as they might be more than what we have got from the burning of the fuel in the bike. Or as my friend Amol Gajewar once said that we have to also calculate the amount of energy going into making solar panels and if it is less than the energy that we are going to get form their use.

The person who was critiquing city farming also said that by promoting city farming and we are trying to say that cities can be made sustainable. According to him the idea of city itself is not sustainable so how can we think that by doing some farming to make them sustainable. Its like delaying the ultimate catastrophe. When he expressed his opinions I was a bit skeptical of his ideas. But then I did see some truth in what he was saying. He said instead of bringing water from far off do farming where the water falls. I would also say if some one is not using electricity to pump water and also using grey and black water then it’s a positive step. But his ideas did put the see in me that ultimately we have to make the cities smaller and shrink them.

But then i think that things are not that black and white as there is the story of Cuba how they survived the oil and fertiliser 'crisis'. When Russia could no loger send them fertilisers they moved to organic farming and began to use every available piece of land to grow organic food and now 80 percent of veeggies of Havana come from the city itself. There is a film on How Cuba Survived Peak Oil Crisis. Moonstar also mentioned the idea of Transition Towns in England where people are experimenting with the idea of redesigning existing townships and transiting to more sustainable towns.

In the conference it was good to see so many positive stories and to realise that so much is also happening which is going to bring sanity to the world.

of travelling and healing…..

When I left pune this September, I was having my asthma. I knew that it was coming before hand as I was in a stressful situation because of what had happened around the FTII mess where I was volunteering for about two years. Had to heal myself soon as had already made plans to go for the organic terrace farming meet with Moonstar and she had come to Pune for it. She also wanted to see what kind of work was happening in sustainable practices in Pune and at the FTII mess.

Had met her when I had last been to Delhi for my niece, chinki’s, wedding. We had talked about the power of community and about her city farming project in Chandigarh. When we were in Navadanya Store the woman managing it seemed a bit flustered as she had too much to do. Moonstar offered to help her with her work. We talked of Non Violent Communication(NVC). Had been to Sanjay’s place and along with Parul, four of us had done lot of cooking. It was a day of community living at its best where things just fell in the right place. Every body was doing some thing or the other. We made breads using ragi which we had bought the same day from the Navdanya store. Parul was always washing the dishes. We even made some bel sharbat and peanut stew. We had chatted and laughed.

My asthma was severe, I couldn’t even talk or climb the stairs. I knew the only way to heal soon was the water fast. Five days of water fasts has worked more than four times for me. I realised that there were still about six more days to take the train to Bangalore. So if I went on a water fast I would still have a day or two to heal before we took the train to Bangalore.

Decided to move out of the institute to a quieter place. Also at the moment I felt that staying at FTII would keep me more under stress. Some how landed to Vanaja and Shirish’s place as Moonstar had to visit them. She had been in touch with Vanaja and wanted to see their rooftop garden and they wanter to meet each other. We went there, while I had begun my fast. That was the first day and I was on lemon shots. My bag was full of lemons and had been taken them all thru the day. Might have taken about 15 that day. I decided to stay on while Moonstar moved on to meet other people whose interest resonated with hers in Pune.

I am fortunate that I have friends who take care of me. It must have been hard for them. My mouth was smelling bad and I couldn’t do much about it. I don’t know why it happened so much this time of my fast. The Asthma and the fast slowed me down, first physically and mentally. But every morning that I got up thoughts came to me about the mess. About the hurt that I felt. However much I thought that I will not think about it, or I tried to convince the triviality of the isse, it didn’t matter. There could be hundred things that are going nice in one’e life but strangely the one thing that doesn’t go right takes so much of our mindspace. Yes, there is always so much good happening. For example I had Vanaja and Shirish to take care of me. I had Guru and Sunaiana who were concerned about me. Moonstar had chosen to come to Pune to travel with me to Bangalore. Urmila was there to support me. Faisal and other people from FTII wanted me to be there for the Iftaar cooking and the party. Nirali had been there to help me work on the zine and design for me, Anmol was also calling me and was concerned. Zalina had written a letter in support of what I was doing andf given it to registrar. Ganesh had also written to me and asked me to share it with others. There were so many people who believed in the worth of what I was doing. So many people who wrote to me after they found out that I was not volunteering at the mess and how things had happened. But still the negative thoughts would win some times. I would think of ‘sthit pragnaya’, not to be too happy when some thing good happens and not to feel bad when some things don’t work out. The lessons I had learnt at Vipasana were not helping me. I was thinking of words like ‘samata’ and ‘anitya’. May be the problem lies in the way we put labels of good and bad. In a way there is no duality of good or bad and one has to accept everything mindfully. One needs to practice that. Or as everything is divine. So many times when things that happen feel good later on we realsie that the same ‘bad’ stuff give such a meaningful direction to one’s life. For example if I hadn’t had my asthma I wouldn’t have embarked on my journey with food and healing. I know that there was a larger purpose in whatever is happening in my life.

I wanted to go out of Pune for some time. My heart is still there in FTII and I wanted to start an intentional café at the Tapri. But I wanted to take a break from Pune. To go and see what all interesting works are happening in the area of food and bring the ideas back to the Tapri. So even though Asthma was not fully healed I decided to move on, spoke to Vinita, who I think has great perspectives on healthy and healing and also runs an alternative bookstore in Calcutta. She has been my guide all along my experiments with healing. I felt that she understood that I really wanted to go and said yes. She said, anyways you would be going by train and not traveling AC….

It was not that easy for me to walk with wheezing. Had the inhaler with me. This time when I fasted for the first two days I was also taking the inhaler as it was getting difficult to sleep. I was worried about taking the puff while fasting. But then I thought that I had taken the puff for more than an year in Bombay and have then got rid of it. I could be gentle to myself as taking the puff meant that I could sleep. I also believe that lot of healing happens when we are asleep. I was remembering Nandita who said a few days ago that children need more sleep because their bodies grow when they are sleeping. During my fast, like always on the third day, I began to throw up. Soon after that more phlegm would come out and my health began to improve. When I was in Bombay a few years ago and suffering from Asthama, no amount of ‘Kadas’ and Sitopladi Churan’s had helped me. But fasting had always worked as a miracle. Had fasted for the first time when I had got an attack of chicken gunia, when I was in Udaipur and I had then too wanted to go to ‘Kabad se Jugad’ meet in Chandigarh and I wanted to be alright for it. I had counted the number of days before the meet and realised that I have five days for the water fast and one day to eat before I took the train to Chandigarh. I was going there to cook for the kabad se jugad meet. Manoj, with whom I have done lot of 'Conscious Kitchen’ work used to come to Manish’s home to make the menu while I was in the bed. It was so bad that I couldn’t even walk to receive my father’s phone call. On the second day I felt better. It was my first water fast. It was guided on phone by Vinita who was in Calcutta while I was in Udaipur. At manish and Vidhi’s house. Once in a while some one offered me food but Manish asked them to not do that and let me be. One thing good about Manish is that he can support the most difficult looking idea. Some times when I describe Shikshantar I say that it’s a place where if I go and say I want to walk upto Europe I am sure I will find some companions.

Coming back to Pune, as I began to walk with Moonstar, out of Sunaiana and Guru’s place to take the train, I took a puff of Asthalin which made me go on. I knew that I had to be off it in a few days.

Had read a book by Susan Weed on Healing. Enjoyed reading it. She talks of three approaches to healing. One is the linear one which is done by the modern medical system. Second is the one where there is lot of abstinence and resistance, which she calls the heroic method and refers to it as a circular one(the fasting kind that I have been doing in the past). The third one is the Wise Woman approach which is like a spiral in which there is more acceptance. It does not believe in torturing the body. One thing that inspired me in her approach was about accepting and living with illness and not to be always fighting it. According to her when illness happens we feel that we are incomplete unless we get rid of the illness totally. She thinks that at times one has to accept to live with illness, just as a blind person lives with their blindness. They find ways to do it, learn Braille, learn to walk in the street, etc. I have carried this idea with me and since then when my asthma attack happens I think if leading my life with it rather than thinking that I will be active only when my body is healed fully. This idea has helped me and I have been able to travel with my asthma.

She or some one else I had read a few days ago also talks about how our body is becoming new all the time. I don’t remember the exact number of days but it said that our blood becomes new every thirty days or so, all the cells of our kidney become new in a few months. Then in that case isn’t it easy to get rid of the illness. For example if our stomach is going to change in a few days then if there is an ulcer wouldn’t it not exist ultimately.

So with that understanding I began my train journey to Bangalore with Moonstar....

petition on RTE

IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI

EXTRAORDINARY CIVIL JURISDICTION

CIVIL WRIT PETITION NO. OF 2010

(PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION)

IN THE MATTER OF:

SHREYA SAHAI & others ......... Petitioners

Versus

UNION OF INDIA & others .......... Respondents

WRIT PETITION UNDER ARTICLE 226 OF THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA CHALLENGING THE CONSTITUTIONAL VALADITY OF THE IMPUGNED RIGHT OF CHILDREN TO FREE AND COMPULSORY EDUCATION ACT, 2009, THE SAME BEING ULTRAVIRES AND REPUGNANT TO THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA AND VIOLATIVE OF FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS GUARANTEED UNDER ARTICLE/S 14, 19, 21, 21A, 25, 26, 28, 29 and 30 OF THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA

To,

THE HON’BLE CHIEF JUSTICE OF AND HIS COMPANION JUDGES OF THE HON’BLE HIGH COURT OF DELHI.

The humble petition of Petitioners above named.

MOST RESPECTFULLY SHOWETH:

1. That the present petition has been preferred by the petitioners named above challenging the various provisions of the RIGHT OF CHILDREN TO FREE AND COMPULSORY EDUCATION ACT, 2009 (hereinafter referred as “The Act”) inasmuch as they are repugnant to and ultravires the provisions of the Constitution of India and violative of the fundamental rights enshrined in Part-III of the Constitution of India. The true copy of the said Act is annexed herewith and marked as Annexure P-1.

2. That the petitioner no. 1 is at present a student of class VI studying at Mirambika Public School at Sri Aurbindo Ashram, New Delhi-110016, and being a minor, is being represented through her mother, Ms. Saloni Srivastava. The petitioner no. 2 besides being the father of the petitioner no.1 is a highly educated person, author of numerous books and an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi at New Delhi. The petitioner no. 2 is spending his time and hard earned money and other valuable resources in getting his child educated at the aforesaid school.

3. That at Mirambika Public School, departing from the prevalent formal class room academics oriented education, special endeavour and efforts are made at expanding the mental, creative and physical capabilities by nurturing the nature of the child and to bring out and enhance the latent creative capacity and talent of its students. At the base of this process of integral growth stands the unfolding of the psychic being which is the guide throughout. The education is child-centric. Teachers and children play, work and learn together. Instead of purely academics oriented education and examinations, the children learn through various innovatively devised methods focussed at nurturing the nature of the children.

4. Therefore, exercising their inherent parental rights and duties, the parents have chosen to get their child educated at the said school to help the petitioner no. 1 realise her dream of becoming the carrier of Indian cultural and spiritual heritage to the next generation. With the help of her school and support of her parents the petitioner child has made her brilliance felt in the areas of photography and painting from a very tender age. Her work has been appreciated by many contemporary stalwarts of the respective fields. Her work has been covered by both print and electronic media and has fetched her many accolades. Along with her intense practice in her chosen field for excellence she has been successful in maintaining her growth in academics as well.

5. WHEREAS at the time soon after the India gained independence and Constitution for the Democratic Republic of India was under preparation, the Universal Declaration of the Human Rights was adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 10, 1948. Whereby, under Article 26 not only the citizen's right to education against the State was recognised, but the prior common law rights of the parents was also acknowledged as part and parcel of the human rights setout therein, in the following terms:

“(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.

(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.

(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.”; and

6. WHEREAS since time immortal education has always been part and parcel of religious and social community based system of upbringing of children and the people and the society have all the freedom to decide the best course for the children, with minimal interference of the State; and

7. WHEREAS the people have a right of religious freedom and the right to liberty and freedom of conscience, speech and expression; and the freedom of education, to make a choice of education of ones own liking, is intrinsic to the fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution of India; and

8. WHEREAS despite the aforementioned UN Declaration adopted on December 10, 1948, initially when the Constitution of India was adopted on 26.11.1949, right to free and compulsory education was not recognized as a fundamental right of the people enforceable against the State; and

9. WHEREAS 53 years after India becoming a socialist democratic republic the right to free and compulsory education has been finally incorporated in the Indian Constitution as a fundamental right against the State by way of Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002 inserting Article 21A, which reads as under:

Article 21A: The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to fourteen years in such manner as the State may, by law, determine; and

10. WHEREAS in terms of the aforesaid Article 21A of the Constitution every child of the age of six to fourteen years has been assured of a fundamental right of free and compulsory education against the State. It makes the State duty bound to provide education to every child availing his right of free and compulsory education. It does not take away the prior rights of parents providing for the education of their children on their own, that is without invoking their right under Article 21A; and

11. WHEREAS in the present era of technology and advancements, education is no more limited/restricted to schools and is no longer thought of as an exclusive and the only source for earning bread and butter; and it is rather considered a vital tool for overall development and empowerment of human being and is aimed at the manifestation of human rights and values.

12. That lately Parliament has enacted the impugned Act purportedly to give effect to the State’s duty arising out of the aforesaid article of the Constitution and the same has been published by the respondent no. 1 in the Gazette of India, Part-II on August 27, 2009. As per the information and knowledge gathered by the petitioners from the details provided by the Ministry of Human Resources Development and published in various leading newspapers, including The Times of India on 13.02.2010, the said act is set to come into force with effect from April 01, 2010. A true copy of the news item published in this regard in The Hindustan Times newspaper is annexed herewith and marked as Annexure P-2.

13. That on detailed examination and study of the impugned Act and on the basis of legal advice received by them, the parents of the Petitioner no. 1 came to understand that the human right and common law right of the petitioners safeguarded by the Constitution of India, will get severely infringed and violated if the impugned Act is implemented and enforced in its present form.

14. That in the garb of effectuating the citizen right to free and compulsory education under Article 21A of the Constitution of India, the respondents are illegitimately seeking to control and regulate the educational institutions and the education system throughout the country.

15. That against the clear intent of the Constitution to provide “compulsory education”, and giving education a wider meaning distinguished from formal schooling, the respondents have arbitrarily and recklessly misconstrued the intent of the Constitution and replaced it with “compulsory schooling”.

16. That instead of aiming to achieve the purpose and object of the education for all, the respondents has misdirected their efforts to bring all children to school, as if schooling is the only mean and mode available for education. The impugned legislative is entirely misconceived and misdirected inasmuch as it is aimed against the now well established modes of education through distant and other means.

17. That blinded by their ulterior motives the respondents have even failed to recognise and appreciate the commendable work done and service rendered to the nation by its own institution namely National Institute of Open Schooling providing opportunity of self learning at their own pace to the children and elderly alike, providing them certificate for class III, VIII, X, and XII up to pre-degree level. Under the scheme of NIOS anyone can appear in the examination of the respective course/class and upon clearing gets awarded the certificate. So far more than 15(fifteen) lacs students, majority of whom are simultaneously either working or pursuing their dream pursuits, have been the beneficiaries of various programs of NIOS. Upon notification of the impugned Act, not only NIOS, catering the educational needs of poor and deprived class of children will become non-operational but other special schools such as Mirambika of the Petitioner No.1, and Homeschooling and other means and modes of education and those specially directed to instigate and bring out the creative capabilities of children and to direct and educate them towards a profession of their own choice and natural aptitude and capability will become illegal, to deprive the people of their prior right – a human right and a fundamental rights to choose education of their choice and means. Many parents in India have opted for homeschooling as the regular schooling has failed to nurture the nature of the children. On 16.01.2010, naitionaly daily Time of India carried a news item to the same effect , a true copy of which has been annexed herewith and marked as Annexure P-3.

18. That acting against the very objective and purpose of the right to free and compulsory education under Article 21A the respondents are not only seeking to overpower the people’s fundamental right to adopt educational system and to establish schools of their choice but the impugned Act has also resulted in taking away the parents’ prior right and common law right and the constitutional fundamental right and freedom of choice for the type and mode of education for their child.

19. That under sub-section (6) of section 7 read with section 29 of the Act, the Central Government has been empowered to prescribe the curriculum for education and to carryout evaluation of elementary education throughout the country; and under section 18 and 19 of the Act no privately funded school is anymore permitted to establish and function without the prior permission of the government. Furthermore, the Central Government has been given unfettered powers under section 20 to prescribe, omit or amend the norms and standards for the establishment and functioning of schools in the country.

20. That the provisions of the impugned Act are oppressive for the growth and sustainment of education in the country. Seemingly, the real and hidden purpose of the impugned Act is to empower the respondents to act totalitarian in manner and terms so as to pursue their own political agenda and to unduly influence the impressionable minds of children in their own way to control them and to make them their subservient for all time to come.

21. That the impugned Act has no reasonable nexus with the object it purportedly seeks to achieve. The motive behind the impugned Act is not to effectuate and implement the fundamental right guaranteed under Article 21A of the Constitution of India becomes more explicit and clear on making reference the various other provisions to the impugned Act.

22. That, whereas the basic hypothesis behind the Article 21A of the Constitution is to make the State duty bound to provide free education to every child, the impugned Act seeks to shift this burden upon the shoulders of parents.

23. Whereas under section 3 of the impugned Act the right to free and compulsory education is purportedly extended to every child of age between six to fourteen years, however by way of the inherently contradictory and self defeating provisions made under section 8 and 9 of the Act, a child admitted in a private school is not entitled to reimbursement of expenses incurred in his/her education, yet the parents of such a child have been placed under a bounden duty to compulsorily get the child admitted in a school.

24. That inasmuch as the Central Government has taken over the control of every school in the country in its own hands and no one is permitted to run a school as per his/her own standards, norms, and beliefs; and the parents have been placed under a bounden duty to compulsorily get the child admitted in a school, the parents and the children are being denied the freedom to get education at home or by other informal means/methods and the parent's prior right to decide the type, ways and means of education for their children are being infringed upon.

25. That the overall effect of the impugned Act is unlikely to promote and spread education but is bound to have a stifling effect and many existing schools including the school of the petitioner, not subscribing to the curriculum, norms and standards being prescribed by the government are very likely to be closed down. The undisclosed purpose of the impugned Act is to promote government sponsored education and schools and to render community based and other privately funded schools non-functional and non-operational.

26. That the respondents instead of achieving the aim of ‘education for all’ while retaining the people’s right to choose the education of their own liking by providing financial aid to the poor and by running campaigns to inform and enlighten uneducated masses of the benefits of the education can bring to their children, the sole aim and object of the respondent is to enslave the people’s mind, particularly those of the poor, deprived and vulnerable class of people.

27. That instead of empowering the poor, deprived and vulnerable class of people with additional and suitable help, and to empower them to realise of their own bad and good the respondents have empowered themselves to take decision on the behalf of these vulnerable classes, thereby depriving them of their rights, which they are obviously unaware of.

28. While the aim and object of education is full development of the human personality and to strengthen respect for human rights and fundamental freedom, the respondent in the name of providing education are snatching from the people the prior right and the fundamental and human right to choose the kind and means of education.

29. That the respondents failed to appreciate and distinguish the second onwards generation learners from the first generation learners who are in a dire need of state guided and sponsored education, while the latter need to be given the freedom and liberty in choosing the kind of education they wish to provide to their children. The impugned act is wrongly treating unequals as equals.

30. That the impugned act has failed to take into congnizance the diversified nature of the Indian society and has taken no measure to serve the diversified interest of various constitutionally recognized sections of the society.

31. That the impugned act has failed to take congnizance of the need to prescribe an education system which can nurture the nature of today's children and it has prescribed the same medicine to all patients without considering their background, their interest, their religion and their economic and mental capabilities and forcing them to gulp the medicine without their consent and knowledge. The socio-economic structure of our society finds no place in the impugned act in deciding the kind of education the state needs to provide to children belonging to diversified strata of our society.

32. That the respondents have completely ignored the fact that not only children withheld from pursuing their dream of becoming dancers, musician, painters, sportspersons etc. have opted to end their lives rather than giving in to the peer pressure of performing in academics, but such children need special attention and education to ignite/brighten their creative capabilities from very tender age itself and the educational system and school propounded by the respondents are entirely misfit to meet the demands of these children, who are assets and custodians of the future. The system must accommodate their demand and aspirations and provide them education which can help them realize their dream pursuits and do not let them get so stressed that they prefer ending their lives when pushed to opt for a wholly academics oriented education system. A true copy of the news item/report on this alarming trend amongst children published on 21.05.2008 and 01.02.2005 at an online newspaper available at http://www.indiatogether.org/2008/may/edusuicides.htm and http://www.indiatogether.org/cgi-in/tools/pfriend.cgi is annexed herewith and marked as Annexure P-4 Colly.

33. That academics oriented education is not for everyone and when children are pushed to pursue academics oriented education and neglecting their dream they prefer to end their life. The same can be assessed from the following.

According to statistics, around 16,000 committed suicides in India between 2004- 2006. Around five to six suicides occur a day in the country. This is alarming. One out of six children is clinically depressed," said Fauzia Khan. "Every parent wants their ward to specialise in engineering or medicine. In this scenario, a child comes under tremendous pressure.” as appeared on 21.01.2010 in news item in The Indian Express, a true copy of which is annexed herewith and marked as Annexure P-5. A deep analysis of this horrible and inhuman treatment being given to our children who are the assets to India and world at large shows that majority of them wanted to pursue their dream pursuits of becoming a musician or a dancer or a painter or a photographer but they were put on a road leading to engineering or medicine, a path which they were not equipped to move on.

34. BECAUSE in the event the respondents are not immediately checked and restrained and compelled to acknowledge the defective vires of the impugned RIGHT OF CHILDREN TO FREE AND COMPULSORY EDUCATION ACT, 2009, it will continue to entail serious hardship by way of application and enforcement of illegal, unlawful, mala fide, arbitrary, unreasonable, discriminatory, freakish, bizarre and weird policy, practices and procedures by the respondents; net effect thereof is likely to setback and endanger the fundamental constitutional and human rights of the petitioners to the freedom of education, life and liberty, freedom of speech, expression and conscience, freedom of religion and of equality before law, ingrained under Part III of the Constitution, besides trivializing the internationally recognized most basic human right – a prior right of the parents to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children; the petitioners having no other efficacious remedy, on being aggrieved by the disregard, and malafide attitude of the respondents in discharge of their constitutional duties and responsibilities, seeks the intervention and indulgence of this Hon’ble Court on the aforesaid grounds and amongst others, on the following:

G R O U N D S

I. BECAUSE the right to freedom of education is a fundamental constitutional right of the petitioners available to them as citizen against the respondents who all are State with in the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution of India;

II. BECAUSE the respondents have constitutional, human, social and international obligation for the fullest realization and fulfillment of the above said rights of the petitioners;

III. BECAUSE the right to freedom of education has been recognized as one of the human rights available to the petitioners against the respondents under the UN Declaration of Human Right, 1949;

IV. BECAUSE the parents have a prior right to choose kind and means of education for their child;

V. BECAUSE the right to freedom of education is an unalienable human right and is of central importance for enjoyment of all economic, social and cultural rights available to the petitioners against the respondents;

VI. BECAUSE the right to freedom of education is indispensable for the overall and all round development of child in accordance with the best thoughts and beliefs of the parents and of their religious and social beliefs, practices and customs;

VII. BECAUSE the right to education being a basic human right is available to the petitioners against the respondents, without any discrimination and classification on any basis whatsoever including income levels and access to economic resources;

VIII. BECAUSE the said impugned Act causes a severe breach of fundamental rights of freedom of education, life and liberty, freedom of speech, expression and conscience, freedom of religion and of equality before law of the humble petitioners in contravention of Article 14, 19(1)a, 19(1)b, 21, 25, 26 and 28 under Part III and of local self-governance in the matter of education under Part IX and IXA of the Constitution of India and of the human rights recognised under the UN Declaration of Human Rights, 1949 and the UN Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 1966 enforceable under the domestic law;

IX. BECAUSE the provisions set out by the respondents under the impugned Act are in contravention of and are inconsistent with the mandate of the Constitution under Article 21A bounding the respondents to provide free and compulsory education to every child in the country;

X. BECAUSE the provisions of the impugned Act thereby seeking to regulate the education and the educational institutions/school are in contravention of and inconsistent with the mandate of the Constitution under Article 21 A and are ultravires the Constitution;

XI. BECAUSE the Article 21A does not empower the respondents to regulate and control education and schools;

XII. BECAUSE the aim and objective behind the Article 21A is to come to the aid of and to add to the existing schools and not to stifle and disband the private funded/ community based schools;

XIII. BECAUSE the surreptitious purpose of the impugned Act is to replace the community based education system and schools with that of the state controlled education system and schools;

XIV. BECAUSE the conditions laid down for the reorganisation of existing and upcoming private/community funded school are very unreasonable and arbitrary and amounts to taking away of the peoples fundamental rights of freedom of education, religion, expression, conscience, and speech, life and liberty, thus are unconstitutional;

XV. BECAUSE the impugned Act purportedly brought by the respondents to enforce the fundamental right under Article 21-A is entirely misdirected, it is farce, sham and deceptive and its purpose is entirely mischievous and malafide;

XVI. BECAUSE the impugned Act will have a grave effect upon the tender mind of the children devolved with special creative capabilities and will be detrimental to their growth, mental well being and instead of making them a national asset of proud it will render them a burden upon the nation and the society;

XVII. BECAUSE the impugned Act is entirely inconsequential to effectuate the right to free and compulsory education or to bring any relief to any cross sections of the society.

XVIII. That the above grounds are being taken without prejudice to one another and the petitioner craves leave to add or to amend the above grounds.

XIX. That no other writ petition or proceeding has been initiated by the petitioner in any other High Court or in Supreme Court of India on the aspects that may be subject matter of the present petition as well in the present context.

XX. That acting bonafide, and out of their concern for the public at large, the petitioners are filling the present petition not only to enforce the private and personal rights of the petitioners themselves but also in PUBLIC INTEREST.

XXI. That the petitioner has no alternative equally efficacious remedy in law for the time being in force, for the cause of action being agitated herein.

P R A Y E R

In the above premises, the petitioner is confident that Hon’ble Court will be pleased to award the following prayer(s) of its duty bound petitioners:

A. to issue a writ of or in the nature of mandamus and/or any other appropriate writ/s, order/s or direction/s quashing the impugned RIGHT OF CHILDREN TO FREE AND COMPULSORY EDUCATION ACT, 2009 and being violative of the fundamental rights enshrined under Part III it be declared as inconsistent with and ultravires the Constitution of India and all effects thereof be declared null and void; or

B. in lieu of and alternative of prayer A to issue a writ of or in the nature of mandamus and/or any other appropriate writ/s, order/s or direction/s declaring the impugned section 10, 12, 16, 18, 19, 20 and 29 of the RIGHT OF CHILDREN TO FREE AND COMPULSORY EDUCATION ACT, 2009 ultra vires the Constitution of India and all effects thereof be declared null and void; or

C. Pass such other writ, orders or directions as this Hon’ble Court deems fit in the circumstances of the case and in the interest of justice including the costs of this petition.

AND FOR THIS ACT OF KINDNESS, THE PETITIONER AS IN DUTY BOUND, EVER PRAY.

Filed on behalf of the Petitioners