Moneylife: Pune: Friday, May 20,
2016.
The lesson in
the 8th standard text book on Social Sciences of Rajasthan State Board schools
was titled `Kanuno ki samajh’ (knowledge of Laws) and the lesson was about the
citizens’ historic movement to bring in the Right to Information (RTI)
legislation in Rajasthan. Led by Aruna Roy, the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan
(MKSS) in village Devdungri of Rajasthan had sowed the seeds of an era of
transparency and right to information, inspiring enough, for Rajasthan’s
education committee to include it in the Social Sciences curriculum.
The Rajasthan
government, however, seems to think that this knowledge would empower citizens
of tomorrow, who may demand accountability from the rulers and thus may have
decided to nip this education, in the bud. RTI has been removed from the
Rajasthan text books. Activists across Rajasthan are piqued with this decision
and are demanding an explanation from the state government.
Aruna Roy, in
a letter dated 15 May 2016, to CS Rajan, Chief Secretary of Rajasthan, writes,
“In the hurry to re-write history and manipulate textbooks for political
reasons, the government is hurting the sentiments of ordinary people, burying
the truth and actually attempting to obliterate acknowledgement of a
contribution that should be of pride to the whole state.”
Roy demanded
that “the changes to the text book be put on hold and an open dialogue be
established to determine if there is any need for amending text books, and if
so, what these amendments should be.”
An RTI
application has been filed by Kamal Tank, a citizen, on 10th May to the Primary
School Department seeking copies of decision of the proposal to remove the
chapter, report of the Committee, if it has been instituted for this purpose
and copy of the decision of the fate of the second hand books, in case the
chapter gets deleted.
The Suchna
Evum Rojgar Ka Adhikar Abhiyan, in a press note, has stated that, this seems to
be political motive and this decision has hurt the sentiments of the citizens,
who are very proud of this historic campaign. The organisation protests against
keeping people in the dark, before making an outrageous decision.
Noted RTI
activist, Subhash Chandra Agrawal, states, “It is definitely a step in reverse
direction. Rather Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) should
co-ordinate with Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MoHRD) to ensure
incorporating chapters on RTI in school text-books of all the states to develop
student from schools to become informed citizens for not only availing their
rights through RTI Act but also performing their duty to use the
transparency-Act in larger national and public good.
Agrawal
suggested that the central government should modify RTI rules for copying
charges to ensure that first 20 copied pages are part of basic RTI fees (say
Rs50) but uniformly for all public-authorities and states with no provision for
any more fees payable at stage of first or second appeals. “Attractive RTI
stamps in denominations of Rs2, Rs10 and Rs50 can be introduced along the lines
of erstwhile radio and TV license fees stamps not only to save funds on
handling postal-orders (handling cost rupees Rs37.45 per postal-order) but also
to popularise the Act,” he says.
It may be
recalled that in the late 2000s, Maharashtra government had taken up the issue
of including RTI lesson in the secondary school curriculum. However, after much
media hype, the proposal went into oblivion.
Roy rightly
reminds the government that, “I do not need to remind the government about the
fundamental role played by ordinary people and peoples’ movements in Rajasthan,
in fashioning the RTI for the whole country. This contribution is acknowledged
and is part of many curricula the world over, including the Kennedy School of
Governance in Harvard and in eminent universities in Europe and the Americas…We
would like to know what was objectionable to warrant blacking it out.”
Sure, the
government needs to provide a lot of explanation for removing RTI chapters from
school textbooks.