 bill no xlvi of  2006 the girl child (compulsory  basic  education)  bill, 2006 a billto provide for the compulsory basic school level education for the girl child free of cost in order to eradicate their illiteracy and for deterrent punishment for those who prevent the girl child from going to school and pursuing her studies in any manner and for matters connected therewith and incidental theretobe it enacted by parliament in the fifty-seventh year of the republic of india as follows:—1 (1)this act may be called the girl child (compulsory basic education) act, 2006(2) it extends to the whole of indiashort title, extent and commencement(3) it shall come into force with immediate effectdefinitions2 in this act, unless the context otherwise requires,—(a) "appropriate government" means in the case of a state the government of that state and in other cases the central government;(b) "basic education" means education in a school up to senior secondary level or twelfth standard or class;(c) "girl child" means any female human being who is below the age of eighteen years;(d) "parent" in relation to a girl child include her father and mother, guardian and every person who has the actual custody of the girl child for the time being;(e) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this act3 (1) notwithstanding any custom, usage or belief of any section of the society, every parent shall compulsorily admit his girl child in a school, on completion of five years of age in order to enable her to get basic education and shall not restrain her in any manner from attending the schoolparents to compulsorily admit the girl child in school for basic education(2) whoever contravenes the provisions of sub-section (1)  shall be guilty of an offence under this act4 for the purposes of section 3 no parent or person shall engage a girl child in any household chore or employ a girl child in a manner which may prevent the girl child from attending her school and deprive her from basic education5 (1) the appropriate government shall provide free and compulsory education to every girl child who is ordinarily residing within its territorial jurisdictionprohibition of employing girl child hampering her school education appropriate government to provide free and compulsory education to girl child(2) for the purposes of sub-section (1) the appropriate government shall establish such number of schools within its territorial jurisdiction as it may deem necessary and for the physically challenged girl child shall establish special schools at such place or places as the appropriate government may deem necessary with such facilities as may be prescribed(3) if any girl child intends to pursue higher studies beyond the basic education stage, the appropriate government shall provide free higher education to such girl child(4) the appropriate government shall also provide training to the girl child in vocations like home science, doll making, tailoring, painting, knitting, weaving, food preservation, beautician, interior decoration, nursing, computer education, etc for her development6 the central government shall, after due appropriation made by law by parliament in this behalf, provide necessary funds, from time to time, for the purposes of this actcentral government to provide necessary fundspenalty7 (1) if any parent of a girl child, for any reason whatsoever, does not admit, prevents, restrains or in any manner obstructs the girl child from receiving basic education, he shall be liable to simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months and also with a fine which may extend to twenty thousand rupees(2) whoever employs a girl child resulting in obstructing her from attending the schoolfor basic education shall be liable to imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than two years but may extend to five years and also with fine which may extend to one lakh rupees2 of 1974offences to be cognizable8 notwithstanding anything contained in the code of criminal procedure, 1973 theoffences under this act shall be cognizableact to have overriding effect9 the provisions of this act and rules made thereunder shall have effectnotwithstanding anything inconsistent therewith contained in any other law for the time being in force, but save as aforesaid, the provisions of this act shall be in addition to and not in derogation of any other law applicable to the girl childpower to make rules10 the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, make rules forcarrying out the provisions of this act statement  of  objects  and  reasonsit is awesome and pitable that even in this age of scientific advancements, modernization and progress in all walks of life, the girl child is the most neglected and unwanted in the world and more so in our country most of the families do not want to have a daughter the girl is killed in the womb of her mother itself if the female foetus is detected in the sex determination tests, which are conducted illegally on a very large sale throughout the country the latest census (2001) has revealed a stunning fact about the steep decline in male-female ratio in the country and more so in the northern and western stakes where the female ratio has declined to the dangerous levels further, the hapless girl child is consistently neglected in many homes the condition of girl child in the orthodox families particularly in rural and tribal areas is the worst while the boy gets the best of attention, the girl is generally neglected every family tries to send the boy to the best school but the girl is not sent for school education girls are denied even the basic schooling they are forced to do the household chores and married off at a very tender age in the cities the poor girls can be seen working as maids in households which, in fact, is their school going age in the cities and metropolitans many families give equal treatment to the girl child and in some rare cases the girl child is given more weightage and facilities, love and care but their percentage is negligible majority of girls remain illiterate and exploited throughout their lives this leads to further illiteracy among the future generation of the girl child and this vicious cycle goes onhence it has become necessary to take some drastic steps by making basic education compulsory and mandatory so as to remove illiteracy amongst the girl child if the girl child becomes literate she will not allow her children later to remain illiterate this will eradicate illiteracy from the country it is therefore, proposed in this bill that the parents must send the girl child to school for basic education otherwise they should be punished the government too should open adequate number of schools for the girls and provide necessary facilities in such schools this will have the desired results and illiteracy amongst the girl child will be eradicated very soonhence this billsushma  swaraj financial   memorandumclause 5 of the bill provides for free and compulsory education to girl child by opening schools, special schools, etc clause 6 provides that central government shall provide necessary funds for the purposes of the bill the bill if enacted will involve expenditure from the  consolidated fund of india it is estimated that a sum of rupees two thousand crore may involve as recurring expenditure per yeara sum of rupees five thousand crore may also involve as non-recurring expenditure memorandum  regarding  delegated  legislationclause 10 of the bill gives power to the central government to make rules for carrying out the provisions of this bill the rules will relate to matters of details onlythe delegation of legislative power is of normal character rajya   sabha———— abillto provide for the compulsory basic school level education for the girl child free of cost inorder to eradicate their illiteracy and for deterrent punishment for those who prevent the girl child from going to school and pursuing her studies in any manner and for matters connected therewith and incidental thereto————(shrimati sushma swaraj, mp)mgipmrnd—1770rs(s-4)—28-07-2006