The lackadaisical approach of education departments and State Commissions for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCRs) in implementing and enforcing the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009—particularly Section 12(1)(c)—has allowed this constitutionally mandated provision to steadily wither away. In the absence of robust enforcement, private schools have increasingly exploited loopholes to evade their statutory obligations. For far …

