lsive legislative backihg to ensure the implementation of Article 45 and also procec la substantial re-w-t o h & i ~ resources ~ I to achieve this goal. 5.7 The Commission has been gratified to learn that the Common Minimum Programme of the United Front Government has resolved to make free and compulsory elementary education a Fundamental Right and to enforce this through suitable statutory measures. The Commission has also taken careful note of the subsequent Report of the Committee of State Education Ministers on the Implications of the Proposal to Make Elementary Education a Fundamental Right. That report obsenred, inter alia, that a sum of Rs.4Ol000 crore would be required to achieve the objective in question/~he Commission is concerned that the dimensions of the problem may now lead ib an infirmity of will and an incapacity to proceed. It would therefore like to stress that the achievement of the objective to ensure free and compulsory elementary education will depend, in large measure, on whether or not the Central and State Governments will also be able to harness the energies, resources and talents of non-governmental organizations and the private sector in the pursuit of this great national objective. The Commission strongly recommends that a major effort be made to this end, failing which the goal could well remain illusory. The Commission would like to observe in this connection that, in the State of Ke la, which has a literacy rate of over 90%, 2633 primary schools are in the public sector, while 4150 such schools are in the private sector. In contrast, in Bihar, where the literacy rate is about 44%, some 52,500 primary schools are reported to be in the public sector, with only 545 such schools being listed in the private sector. The lessons from this should be evident to all. If child labour is to be eradicated through the spread of free and compulsory elementary education, then all elements of civil society - and not bast non-governmental organizations and the private sector - must be made full participants in this task. d 5.8 Even as the fight against child labour must be waged on a nation-wide basis, so must attention be given to particular situations and circumstanoes. In t9M-97, the Commission received disturbing reports of the employment of children below the age of 14 years as domestic servants, not infrequently in the homes of government officials who should have known better. Unamptable aa the practice is in any circumstance, the Commission felt that the employment of such children as domestic help in the homes of government officialswas particularly reprehensible. Following a meeting on 10 January 1997, the Commission decided to recommend that an appropriate rule be included in the conduct rules of government servants, both Central and State, which while p r o h i b i g such employment would atso make it a mkcondud inviting a major psnalty.