All-India protest against commercialization and communalization of education
By Prof Madhu Prasad, Dr Vikas Gupta* The All-India Forum for Right to Education (AIFRTE) organized on February 18 in Delhi a protest demonstration at Parliament Street, a nation-wide referendum on education policy, a People’s Parliament (Jan Sansad), and an evening of cultural resistance as part the full-day All-India Shiksha Hunkar Rally. Thousands of students, teachers and education activists from across the country participated in the programme. They opposed the policy of privatization, commercialization and communalization of education. They demanded public-funded free and equitable quality ‘common education system’ from KG to PG based on mother-tongue with social justice for Dalits, bahujans, adivasis, laboring masses, linguistic and religious minorities, transgenders, disabled, de-notified and nomadic tribes, especially girls. The programme began with a protest demonstration at Sansad Marg addressed by Brinda Karat (CPI-M); Kavita Krishnan, CPI-ML (Liberation); N. Rama