Anita Kaul

Anita Kaul (née Kripalani;19 September 1954 - 10 October 2016) was an Indian Administrative Service officer best known for her contributions to the Indian education sector. She was one of the principal architects of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act which was the consequential legislation under Article 21-A of the Indian constitution that made education a fundamental right for every child in India. She retired as Secretary, Department of Justice, the highest ranking civil servant in the Ministry of Law and Justice.

Education

Between 2006-2012, she served in the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human Resources Development. During this period, she coordinated the passage and implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE) as well as the constitutional law defence of the RTE before the Supreme Court of India. She had previously served as Secretary, National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), an autonomous organisation of the Government of India where she led efforts in the process of social deliberation for the National Curriculum Framework 2005 (NCF). The NCF set out what should be taught to children in India and how.

In the 1990s, as Project Director of the World Bank funded District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) (1996-1999) and Secretary, Department of Education in the Government of Karnataka (1999-2000), she played an important role in bringing the Nali Kali (or joyful learning) approach to learning to Karnataka's primary schools. Developed with UNICEF assistance, the Nali Kali strategy adopted creative learning practices in a joyful, affirming, non-threatening environment that helped improve enrolment, particularly of girls, in rural primary schools in the State of Karnataka.

Earlier in her career, she had served as Director of the National Literacy Mission (1988-1992) where she planned and implemented the highly successful district-based Total Literacy Campaigns (TLC). The TLC started in 1989 in Ernakulam district and was founded on the principle of wider public participation linking elected representatives in local bodies, district administration and voluntary agencies to create an upsurge of people's participation for achieving the goal of eradicating illiteracy from the district.

Other career highlights

In her last posting with the Government of India, as Secretary, Department of Justice, she facilitated the passage of the National Judicial Appointments Commission Bill, 2014 (NJAC) which was enacted to bring about transparency in the appointment and transfer of judges to the higher judiciary in India. The NJAC was subsequently struct down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of India.

Earlier in her career, as Director, Women and Child Development, Government of Karnataka (1993-1995) and around the time of the passage of the landmark 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act, she initiated training programmes for women elected local body members encompassing cross sectoral issues of health, education, water and sanitation and common property resources. Later, as Director General of three institutes in Karnataka: the Administrative Training Institute (ATI), State Institute of Rural Development (SIRD) and State Institute of Urban Development (SIUD), she carried this initiative forward in conceptualising and implementing a large scale, participatory, satellite-based training programme which reached out to more than 80,000 elected representatives of local bodies.