1.5 Lakh Tribal Children Send Postcards to CM Devendra Fadnavis Demanding Free Education
Nearly 1.5 lakh tribal children from Thane, Palghar, Nashik, and Raigad districts participated in a week-long postcard campaign that concluded on Thursday, July 4, demanding free and compulsory education up to the age of 18. The campaign, which was organized by the tribal rights organization Shramjeevi Sanghatana, aimed to draw the attention of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to the educational needs of children in tribal areas.
Throughout the week, thousands of children used humble yellow postcards to urge the state government to provide free and compulsory education for all children in Maharashtra. On July 2, the children took active steps to send their messages. Some of them dropped their postcards into nearby postboxes, while others handed them directly to local postmasters. Many children also placed their written appeals in specially decorated boxes set up at local schools as part of the wider awareness campaign.
The children addressed their messages directly to Chief Minister Fadnavis. The postcards carried a uniform message: “Dear Devabhau, only you can provide free and compulsory education to every child in the state of Maharashtra up to the age of 18.”
In support of the children's campaign, representatives from Shramjeevi Sanghatana met with Chief Minister Fadnavis on Wednesday, July 3. During this meeting, the representatives submitted a formal memorandum to the Chief Minister. They also presented him with an enlarged, framed version of the postcard that the children had been sending.
Currently, the Right to Education (RTE) Act guarantees free and compulsory education only up to the age of 14. Shramjeevi Sanghatana is demanding that the Maharashtra government extend this provision to cover all children between the ages of 3 and 18.
The organization stated that such an expansion would align Maharashtra's education system with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 framework. Furthermore, they noted that the extension matches the recommendations made by NITI Aayog regarding senior secondary education in India.
