Inclusive Education in India

A note on Inclusive Education Historically, attempts towards development and ensuring equality and justice for all have commonly been found to conform to the norms and systems of the majority. Most of these attempts have articulated the need for inclusion of all segments of the society – however, in most cases this articulation took the form of ‘special care systems’ that ultimately led to further exclusion of these communities – physically, mentally and psychologically. For a variegated and multi-segment society like India it is even more common. CRY, having taken cognizance of this phenomenon, has continually made efforts through the range of interventions to include all segments (social, cultural and economic) in the collective battle for child rights. More specifically, CRY has been advocating for a Common School System (CSS) that has as its bedrock the principles of equality, justice and inclusion. CSS has been defined from varied perspectives reflecting on the diverse backgrounds, knowledge base, skills, concepts, ideologies and experiences of people and institutions involved. An attempt to provide a comprehensive definition of CSS was made while proposing to the CABE Committee on ‘Free and Compulsory Education’ as follows – ‘Common School System means the National System of Education that is founded on the principles of equality and social justice as enshrined in the Constitution and provides education of a comparable quality to all children in an equitable manner irrespective of their caste, creed, language, gender, economic or ethnic background, location or disability (physical or mental), and wherein all categories of schools – i.e. government, local body or private, both aided and unaided, or otherwise – will be obliged to (a) Fulfill certain minimum infrastructural (including those relating to teachers and other staff), financial, curricular, pedagogic, linguistic and socio-cultural norms and (b) ensure free education to the children in a specified