Education: States miss the mark

Inclusive education is a fundamental human right recognised globally as a means to ensure equitable access to quality education for all individuals. India, as a signatory to various international conventions, is obligated to ensure an inclusive education system that respects the rights and dignity of all individuals, including those with disabilities. To operationalise this, India enacted the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (RPwD Act) — a watershed moment in the disability rights landscape of the country. It set the tone for the National Education Policy, 2020 (NEP) which underscores the importance of gearing policy towards better implementation of inclusive education.

However, despite the RPwD Act cementing the right to inclusive education and the NEP providing a detailed framework for the same, statistics reveal that approximately 70% of children with disabilities of school-going age are not in an inclusive education system. This is because Union-level education policies are not directly enforceable at the state level and states have the option to modify and contextualise such policies as per local requirements. In doing so, if the state education policies do not prioritise capacity building for inclusive education and incorporate a disability rights perspective in state education laws, this gap will only broaden.

The RPwD Act extends to all educational institutions funded or recognised by appropriate government and local authorities. As such, the onus of including a disability rights-based perspective in education policies and implementing inclusive education systems lies with the “appropriate governments”, which specifically include state governments. To emphasise this need further, the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities introduced the Draft National Policy for Persons with Disabilities in 2022. It highlights the need for states to ensure that educational institutes comply with the provisions of the RPwD Act and inclusive education norms.

Being a subject of the Concurrent List, the holistic vision and broad principles of educational development are established by the Union government. However, the states separately have a responsibility to prioritise incorporating a disability rights perspective to ensure effective administration and implementation of inclusive education. Judicial precedents have also held that the needs of children with disabilities that manifest in the right to meaningful, inclusive and effective education must be met by all educational institutions funded or recognised by the Union or state government (Rajneesh Kumar Pandey and ors vs Union of India). This reading of the extant legal framework indicates that the responsibility of setting up and operationalising inclusive education systems lies equally with the Union and state governments.

Despite the Union government’s power to dictate the overarching vision for education policies, the adoption of the NEP has been met with resistance from multiple state governments such as Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala. Though the resistance primarily stems from linguistic and political differences, it has resulted in delays in the implementation of inclusive education policies.

These issues were evident in the first state education policy introduced by West Bengal in 2023 (WB Education Policy). For instance, the NEP directs states to conduct routine school surveys to identify physical barriers faced by children with disabilities, whereas the WB Education Policy is silent on this. On the other hand, the Karnataka government recently extended the scope of applicability of reasonable accommodations to children with disabilities writing class 1-9 examinations. However, this approach relies on government discretion and is not comprehensive in addressing the gaps in policy.

As such, states have either explicitly rejected the provisions of the NEP without implementing viable alternative policies, or have failed to integrate a comprehensive disability rights-based perspective into their education frameworks. The failure of states to incorporate a disability rights perspective in their education policies has far-reaching consequences. It perpetuates educational inequity, denying children with disabilities the fundamental right to inclusive education and impacting their academic growth and socio-emotional development. It also undermines India’s commitments to international conventions and its own constitutional mandates.

To implement a clear disability rights perspective at the state level, states need to re-evaluate their current fragmented approach. Primarily, this requires interventions from the state governments at every level, inter alia regular data collection and audits of education systems, focus on early intervention and early education, removing physical and systemic barriers that impede inclusive education, and providing reasonable accommodations on a case-to-case basis. Only by embedding a disability rights perspective in state education policies can India move closer to fulfilling the constitutional promise of an equitable and inclusive education for all.

(The writer is Research Fellow, Disability Inclusion and Access, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy)