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On behest of RTI activist, Delhi govt in talks with NCERT to include RTI Act in school syllabus
With sheer perseverance RTI activist Ajay Kumar from Dudhali, has compelled CM Kejriwal to acknowledge his campaign to include RTI Act in school syllabus. Earlier Ajay received a letter from the CM saying that they have initiated talks with NCERT.
That the Right to Information (RTI) Act is changing lives is a foregone conclusion. Every day we come across tales of empowerment when an ordinary individual decided to use RTI to know what the authorities have been upto. In many instances RTI has worked as a wakeup call, while in others it has brought better education, facilities etc to the under privileged. If the RTI has such a powerful impact, then why isn’t anyone talking about formally educating our youth and children in the Act? The hows and whys of the Act are not being communicated to them today.
However, it took only one RTI activist Ajay Kumar from Dudhali village to change all that. After his idea of including RTI in the school curriculum found little local support he wrote to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, outlining the importance of teaching about the act to schoolchildren. Kumar's efforts bore fruit when he received a letter from Kejriwal last week, informing him that the matter was being taken up with NCERT.
Kumar said, "I firmly believe that having the RTI Act in school textbooks will help make an entire generation aware of the power of RTI and also the procedure involved. The children of today will be the adults of tomorrow who are better informed and seek transparency."
Kumar, who has been working towards creating RTI awareness since 2008, first started at the local level where he tried to persuade his village and Dehradun to make RTI a part of school syllabus, but he received a cold response. Not one to sit back on his failures, Kumar then wrote to the state government. While the government was quick to appreciate his efforts and replied that it would consider the matter, no concrete promises were made.
Finally, in April this year, Kumar wrote to RTI activist-turned-politician Kejriwal about the importance of including the RTI Act in the school syllabus. "I knew that Arvind Kejriwal would understand the importance of the RTI in the school curriculum," said Kumar. This set the ball rolling and soon letters were being exchanged between the 2 parties which ultimately culminated in the matter being taken up with NCERT.
"I got the official communication last week stating that the Delhi education department has written to NCERT to include the RTI ACT in the school syllabus."
Kumar realized the power of RTI in 2008 when through an RTI query he discovered that ₹ 54 lakh had been earmarked to build a road but no work had been initiated on the project. "After my RTI reply became public, the work started. That is when I realized the power of RTI," said Kumar.
Earlier this month, Kumar had written to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to get his village digitally connected and has received a copy of instructions that his village, Dudhali, be provided internet facilities under the PM's Digital India initiative which aims to connect rural areas with high-speed internet networks.