Policy Bazaar thinks, not Right to Education but insurance ensures kids' schooling

By Rajiv Shah

While frequent advertisements on TV are extremely jarring, I was a little amused while watching a Policy Bazaar-sponsored advertisement. The advisement by one of India's most well-known online insurance brokers sees a woman asking a kid entering the house why he hasn't been to school. The kid enters in with a bag full of vegetables in his hand which he presumably bought in the market at a time he should have been in the school.

The kid's mother -- visibly annoyed with drops coming out of her house -- responds by stating that the kid, named Rishi, couldn't go to school because she failed to pay his fees for the last three months, hence he was forcibly "dropped out". In the background one can see the kid's father's garlanded and framed photograph hanging on the wall, suggesting his was an untimely death.

The commentary ends by insisting upon the viewers that one should buy a Rs 2 crore health insurance plan starting at as little as Rs 690 per month to avoid such an eventuality. It's available on policybazaar.com. This, says the commentary by a woman in the background, is needed to ensure that the child's dreams do not go awry and keep the family's life secure.

I was left wondering: Does the Policy Bazaar not know that under the Rights to Education (RTE) Act, which came into effect in 2010, provides for free and compulsory education in private schools for up to 8th standard for children from economically disadvantaged communities? Since the kid's age in the advertisement is not mentioned, a look at his face made me assume that he should be in the 7th standard!

While 25% of seats are supposed to be reserved for the economically disadvantaged sections, the management cannot take any capitation fees or donations for admission, nor can there be any interviews while admitting a child in this quota. Or should one believe that Policy Bazaar seeks to indict the private schools for taking fees from economically backward children, or rather non-implementation of the RTE Act?

Scanning through the internet I stumbled upon a decade old well-researched story in Down to Earth regretting that "only 5% schools in the country meet RTE provisions. In strict legal terms, recognition to the remaining 95% schools should have been withdrawn. But this is not possible in a country that does not have enough schools to meet the demand." The story adds, while enrolment in government schools has drastically gone down, it has increased in private schools.
Has the situation changed in any manner? Doesn't seem so, especially considering that the present powers that be are increasingly emphasising on privatisation in every sphere, including education. Let me quote from a recent (April 2024) Newsclick report: "Contrary to the Modi government’s promise of improving access to education, the reality is that between 2018-19 and 2021-22, the total number of schools in India decreased by 61,885, dropping from 15,51,000 to 14,89,115. The most significant decline was observed in Central and State government schools, accounting for 61,361 closures.”
The report adds, "The decrease in the number of government schools has been accompanied by a rise in the number of private schools, which makes accessibility a big question for the marginalised sections." So, is this Policy Bazaar's imagined kid made to suffer thanks to government indifference towards making education compulsory, and failing to ensure that he can have free education in a government school?

Or does Policy Bazaar think that all kids must be educated in private schools, and government schools have no reason to exist. RTE or no RTE? For, an insurance policy would lose its importance if no fees would need to be paid!

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