The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 mandates eight years of elementary education to all children in the 6 to 14 years age group. While supply side provisioning is being done by the Government, at the same time creation of demand in a rights based perspective is also of utmost importance. Different media tools have been used in this regard and the RTE Anthem is an attempt to do it in a joyful and child friendly manner, wherein children will imbibe the RTE message from popular public figures in a creative melody.
National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) supported the Ministry in creating the Anthem, which has been written by renowned lyricist Shri Javed Akhtar and sung by Sonu Nigam and Sunidhi Chauhan. The video of the Anthem features children from different part of the country and reflects the pan-India essence of RTE. The Anthem depicts child-centered principles and entitlements and has been shot in government schools.
The anthem will be dubbed in English and 15 regional languages (Assamese, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Dogri, Gujarati, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Naga, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu) to generate constructive awareness among the community and stakeholders for the implementation of RTE.
The melodious RTE Anthem was launched by Union Minister for HRD Dr. M.M. Pallam Raju, in the presence of MoS HRD, Dr. Shashi Tharoor and also the lyricist and MP Shri Javed Akhtar. The Minister reiterated the Government’s commitment to the RTE Act at the launch function. The function was attended by school children and also featured performances by students of Bal Bhawan.