An Analytical Study of the Fundamental Right to Education in India

Education is the most potent mechanism for the advancement of human beings (Sindhu, 2014). It enlarges, enriches and improves the individual's image of the future. A man without education is no more than an animal. Education emancipates the human beings and leads to liberation from ignorance. The quality of education of the child will determine the quality of life in nation. Both at national and international levels, efforts are being made to educate more and more people as education contributes in the development of the society which is consistent with the dignity of the human being. The founding fathers of the nation recognising the importance and significance of right to education made it a constitutional goal and placed it under Chapter IV Directive Principle of State Policy of the Constitution of India. However, the judiciary showed keen interest in providing free and compulsory education to all the children below the age of 14 years and eventually held that right to education is a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution. The right to education springs from right to life under Article 21 and the dignity of the individual cannot fully be appreciated without the enjoyment of right to education. But the right to education will be meaningful only and only if, at all the levels, education reaches to all the sections of the people; otherwise, it will fail to achieve the target set out by our founder father to make Indian society an egalitarian society.