Chapter 5: Educational Rights of a Girl Child in India?: Examining Intersections Between Fundamental Right to Education Act and National Curricular Framework

India is a vast and highly diverse nation with approximately 1.2 billion people, 22 official languages, numerous dialects, and people practicing major world religions. This complexity is further intensified by the co-existence of government schools and private schools that reflect the socioeconomic divisions in the Indian society. The patriarchal nature of Indian society adds another layer of complexity to this conversation. This is revealed by the literacy imbalance between males and females shown in 2001 census data. Access to safe environment, quality of educational experiences, and support from the parents are some of the issues that affect the [im]possibilities of providing equitable opportunities to a girl child. In this context, providing robust, equitable, and quality education to ALL children (specially a girl child) remains a major challenge. In this chapter we give overview of historical development of various national policies in India and accommodations specifically made for a girl child. We then try to accomplish 2 goals. First, share 2 major reform efforts taken at the national level by the Government of India: (a) Right to Education Act (RTE), 2009 that describes the provision of free and compulsory education for children between 6 and 14 in India under Article 21a of the Indian Constitution; and (b) Nation Curriculum Framework (NCF), 2005 to reform the national education policy in the new globalized and international contexts. The second goal of this book chapter is to share the implications of these policy documents (RTE and NCF) for school-aged girls in India. We will be examining these policy documents to identify challenges and opportunities presented to school going girls in the new context.