 bill no  345 of  2015 the constitution (amendment) bill, 2015 byshri jayadev galla, mp a billfurther to amend the constitution of indiabe it enacted by parliament in the sixty-sixth year of the republic of india as follows:—2 for article 21a of the constitution, the following article shall be substituted, namely:—substitution of new article for article 21a"21a  (1) the state shall provide free and compulsory education to all children upto the age of sixteen years in such manner as the state may, by law, determine5right to e d u c a t i o n , nutrient meal and/or nutrient supplements(2) for the purposes of implementing the provisions of sub-section (1), the state shall, till a child gets admission into a school, provide nutrient meal and/or nutrient supplements to every child in need to ensure proper development of the child's mental and physical capabilities10(3) it shall be the responsibility of every school to provide nutritious meal and/or nutrient supplements to every child in need after he is admitted in school so as to ensure continued development of the child's mental and physical capabilities"a m e n d m e n t of article 51a3 in article 51a of the constitution, for clause (k), the following clause shall be substituted, namely:—"(k) who is a parent or guardian to provide opportunities for education to his child or, as the case may be, ward under his care" statement of objects and reasonschildren are the torchbearers of any nation and it is the onerous responsibility of every country, including india, to protect them from every form of neglect, harm and exploitation there is no doubt that early childhood (below six years) is the phase of maximum vulnerability and such deprivation will seriously impact a child's health, learning process and potential the protection of our children becomes more important since india is going to become the world's youngest country with 64% of its population so, to reap the benefit of this demographic dividend which potentially offer growing economy an unprecedented edge and could add 2% of growth to gdp, there is a need to do something concrete  immediately with regard to children below six years of ageas per the 2011 census, india has 1587 million children comprising about 16% of its population who are below the age of six years in the period 2008—13, 43% of india's children under five years of age were underweight and 48% had stunted growth according to world bank report published in 2013, the mortality rate of children under five years of age is 53 per 1000 alive births and according to unicef report in 2013, more than 60 million children under five years of age are stunted and, unfortunately, india has ranked at 112th position in the child development index published in 2012there is no doubt that the government of india has come out with the nation early childhood care and education policy in 2013 and host several schemes and programmes to take care of early childhood and need of education to children but, if one reads the above statistics, it becomes clear that the policies, programmes and schemes made little impact on the objective since they only incorporate promises and do not create a justiciable right for early childhood care, protection and education as they are not legally binding on the states and the centresecondly, article 45 of the constitution says that the state shall endeavour to provide early childhood care and education for all children until they complete the age of six years being a part of directive principles of state policy, it does not create any binding commitment on part of the statethirdly, the national commission to review the working of the constitution recommended for making child's right to basic care and assistance an enforceable rightfourthly, the world is debating over the sustainable development goals which are going to become gita for all countries also speaks about the guarantee of providing early childhood care, protection, development and educationfifthly, the law commission has also in its 229th report submitted recently recommended for giving constitutional protection to the rights of children below six years of agein view of the above, it is proposed to give a statutory backing to the existing schemes and policies in order to create legal entitlements to children below the age of six yearsthe bill seeks to achieve the above objectives hence this bill financial memorandumclause 2 of the bill provides for free and compulsory education to all children upto the age of sixteen years by the state clause 3 provides that a parent or guardian shall provide opportunities for education to his child or ward under his care the bill, therefore, if enacted, will involve expenditure from the consolidated fund of india a recurring expenditure of rupees five hundred crores is likely to involve per annuma non-recurring expenditure of rupees two hundred crores is also likely to be involved annexure extract from the constitution of india   right to education21a the state shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to fourteen years in such manner as the state may, by law determine   51a it shall be duty of every citizen of india —fundamental duties   (k) who is a parent or guardian to provide opportunities for education to his child or, as the case may be, ward between the age of six and fourteen years    ———— a billfurther to amend the constitution of india————(shri jayadev galla, mp)gmgipmrnd—3505ls—14-12-2015