Anita Kaul

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Anita Kaul
Born19 September 1954
Died10 October 2016
OccupationIndian Administrative Service

Anita Kaul (née Kripalani;19 September 1954 – 10 October 2016) was an Indian Administrative Service officer[1] best known for her contributions to the Indian education sector.[2][3] She was one of the principal architects of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act[4][5] which was the consequential legislation under Article 21-A of the Indian constitution that made education a fundamental right for every child in India. She retired as Secretary, Department of Justice, the highest ranking civil servant in the Ministry of Law and Justice.[6]

Career

Education

Between 2006–2012, she served in the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human Resources Development.[7] During this period, she coordinated the passage and implementation[8] of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (Right to Education Act) as well as the successful constitutional law defence of the Right to Education Act before the Supreme Court of India.[9] She had previously served as Secretary, National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT),[10] an autonomous organisation of the Government of India where she led efforts in the process of social deliberation for the National Curriculum Framework 2005 (NCF). The NCF set out what should be taught to children in India and how.[11]

In the 1990s, as Project Director of the World Bank funded District Primary Education Programme (DPEP)[12] (1996-1999) and Secretary, Department of Education in the Government of Karnataka (1999-2000),[13] she played an important role[14] in bringing the Nali Kali (or joyful learning) approach to learning to Karnataka's primary schools.[15] Developed with UNICEF assistance, the Nali Kali strategy adopted creative learning practices in a joyful, affirming, non-threatening environment that helped improve enrollment, particularly of girls, in rural primary schools in the State of Karnataka.[16]

Earlier in her career, she had served as Director of the National Literacy Mission (1988-1992) where she advocated reforms[17] and implemented the highly successful district-based Total Literacy Campaigns across India.[18][19] The Total Literacy Campaigns started in 1989 in Ernakulam district and was founded on the principle of wider public participation linking elected representatives in local bodies, district administration and voluntary agencies to create an upsurge of people's participation for achieving the goal of eradicating illiteracy from the district.[18]

Other career highlights

In her last posting with the Government of India, as Secretary, Department of Justice, she facilitated the passage of the National Judicial Appointments Commission Bill, 2014 (NJAC). The NJAC was enacted to bring about transparency in the appointment and transfer of judges to the higher judiciary in India.[20]

Earlier in her career, as Director, Women and Child Development, Government of Karnataka (1993-1995) and around the time of the passage of the landmark 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act, she initiated training programmes for women elected local body members encompassing cross sectoral issues of health, education, water and sanitation and common property resources.[18] Later, as Director General of three institutes in Karnataka: the Administrative Training Institute (ATI), State Institute of Rural Development (SIRD) and State Institute of Urban Development (SIUD),[21] she carried this initiative forward in conceptualising and implementing a large-scale, participatory, satellite-based training programme which reached out to more than 80,000 elected representatives of local bodies in Karnataka.[22][23]

Anita Kaul Memorial Lecture

The Anita Kaul Memorial Lecture is an annual lecture organised by the Centre for Equity Studies, Rainbow Foundation India and Mobile Creches in memory of Anita Kaul.

The 1st Anita Kaul Memorial Lecture was delivered on 15 October 2017 by Professor Krishna Kumar, former Director of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and chaired by Professor Shanta Sinha, Founder, MV Foundation and former Chairperson of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Government of India. The lecture was titled "Education and Inequality in India".[24]

The 2nd Anita Kaul Memorial Lecture was delivered on 13 October 2018 by Professor Amita Dhanda, Professor of Law, Nalsar University of Law, Hyderabad in October 2018 and chaired by Aruna Roy, Founder Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS).[25] The lecture was titled "Realizing the Right to Education for All: At the Altar of the Courts or in the Hands of the People".

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Anita Kaul, a 1979 batch IAS officer of the Karnataka cadre, took charge as the Secretary, Department of Justice in the Ministry of Law & Justice on Thursday". The Times of India. 1 August 2013. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
  2. ↑ "Anita Kaul: A civil servant devoted to educational reform". The Hindu. 12 October 2016. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
  3. ↑ "Anita Kaul's role in reforming education system was vital". Times of India. 13 October 2016. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
  4. ↑ "Remembering IAS Officer Anita Kaul, Who Reformed Our Education System with the RTE Act". Yahoo News. 25 October 2016. Archived from the original on 9 November 2016. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
  5. ↑ Ramachandran, Vimala (2016). "In Memoriam: Anita Kaul". Seminar. 687 (November 2015).
  6. ↑ "Anita Kaul new Secretary, Justice in Law Ministry". Business Standard.
  7. ↑ "MHRD official visits block resource training centre". The Hindu.
  8. ↑ "About Bureaucrats In India". 12 October 2016. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
  9. ↑ "Supreme Court upholds constitutional validity of RTE Act". 6 May 2014. Retrieved 27 October 2016.
  10. ↑ "Focus on developing fluency in mother tongue". The Hindu. 10 July 2005. Retrieved 26 October 2016.[dead link]
  11. ↑ "National Curriculum Framework 2005" (PDF).
  12. ↑ "Top Down Travails". 30 March 2000. Archived from the original on 20 November 2016. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
  13. ↑ "Centre for Innovations in Public Systems - Education".
  14. ↑ "Anita Kaul: A civil servant devoted to educational reform". The Hindu. 12 October 2016. Retrieved 27 October 2016.
  15. ↑ Nali Kali - A not so silent revolution for joyful learning (PDF). Planning Commission of India. "The Nali-Kali approach is unique and precious, because it is entirely primary school teacher created." Anita Kaul, Education Secretary and ex-State Project Director, DPEP, Karnataka
  16. ↑ "Nali-Kali initiative - Karnataka". UNICEF India.
  17. ↑ Mangla, Akshay (June 2017). "Elite strategies and incremental policy change: The expansion of primary education in India". Governance. 31 (2): 381–399. doi:10.1111/gove.12299. ISSN 1468-0491. It bears emphasizing that the officials advocating for reforms were in some ways unconventional....Perhaps, for that reason, social programs attracted highly committed officials. For example, Anita Kaul, who led the NLM during its first two years, spent more than 25 years of her IAS career working in social sector programs, including education, nutrition and women and child development.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 Ghosh, Avik (1997). "Looking Beyond Literacy Campaigns". Economic and Political Weekly. 32 (51): 3246–3248. JSTOR 4406195.
  19. ↑ Bordia, Anil; Kaul, Anita (March 1992). "Literacy Efforts in India". The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 520 (1): 151–162. doi:10.1177/0002716292520001016. S2CID 144724694.
  20. ↑ "Parliament passes Judicial Appointments bill".
  21. ↑ "Minister committed to strengthening Gram Sabhas". The Hindu. 25 December 2004. Archived from the original on 8 October 2009.
  22. ↑ Kato, Rika (2004). "Research Visit to India" (PDF). Research Centre for the Local Public Human Resources and Policy Development.
  23. ↑ Balasubramaniam, Dr. (21 October 2016). "Anita Kaul , one of Karnataka's finest Bureaucrats".
  24. ↑ "1st Anita Kaul Memorial Lecture". 24 December 2018.
  25. ↑ "2nd Anita Kaul Memorial Lecture". 24 December 2018.
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