NHRC, India 7.33 In India, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act or Right to Education Act (RTE) is an Act of the Parliament of India enacted on 4 August 2009, which came into force on 01 April 2010. The Act makes education a fundamental right of every child between the ages of 6 and 14 years and specifies minimum norms in elementary schools. It requires all private schools to reserve 25 percent of seats for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. It also prohibits all unrecognised schools from practising and makes provisions for no donation or capitation fees and no interview of the child or parent for admission. 7.34 Despite significant gains in increasing access to literacy rate and schooling, there are still major glitches in the implementation of the RTE by States, especially concerning basic infrastructure requirements, such as proper classrooms, toilets and boundary walls for schools, availability of drinking water, having trained teachers in place, filling up of vacant posts of teachers and pupilteacher ratio. RTE is illusory for many children from tribal and minority communities and conflict zones. Furthermore, not all states have the Commissions for Protection of Child Rights needed to monitor the implementation of the RTE. Therefore, besides investing substantial financial and human resources, much work on the ground level is required to access this right meaningfully and in full measure. 7.35 The National Human Rights Commission is concerned with the issues related to the education of children in India. The Commission, under 12(g) of the PHRA, 1993, is mandated to undertake and promote research in the field of human rights. In this regard, the Commission had entrusted a study on “Human Rights Education in Schools in India: A Comparative Study of Syllabus prescribed by State Education Boards” in collaboration with the Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Punjab. The Commission completed and approved the research study on 27 December 2018 and then uploaded it onthe Commission’s website. One of the recommendations of the report was for the Union/StateGovernments to include content on human rights in the curriculum of schools in India. 7.36 In this regard, the Commission has issued letters to the Chief Secretaries of all Union and State Governments, requesting them to include content on human rights at primary, secondary and senior secondary levels. Some of the States have shown their interest and agreed to look into the matter from the next revision of the syllabus and also forwarded contents on Human Rights issues for the perusal of the Commission while the responses of other States/UTs are yet to be received. 7.37 Illustrative Cases 1. Non-payment of salaries to the teachers of Government Senior Secondary School, Idukki, Kerala (Case No. 512/11/3/2016) i. A Complaint from an office bearer of Kerala Non-approved Higher Secondary Teacher Association (KNHSTA), Idukki, Kerala, was received in the Commission on 07/10/2016. The complaint alleged non-payment of salaries to the teachers of newly established Government Senior Secondary School throughout the State since 2014. ii. The Commission took cognizance ofthe matter on 07/11/2016 and sought action taken report ANNUAL REPORT 78 2021-22