Press Release: 26 November 2015

Thousands of people from far and near, fom Tamil Nadu,
Kerala, Andhra, Telengana, Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh,
Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Jammu & Kashmir and Delhi collected at
Ramlila Maidan and then marched to Parliament Street demanding that the
Government end the privatisation and commercialisation of Education and
that Education be kept out of the WTO/GATS. Responding to the call of
the National Platform in Defence of Education (NPDE), teachers from
schools, universities and colleges, students, university employees,
organisations working in the field of education, youth, women and
concerned citizens moved towards Parliament Street, carrying banners,
wearing placards round their necks and shouting slogans in various
Indian languages. (CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE PHOTOS)

The
marchers reached Parliament Street at around 1.30 where the gathering
was addressed by representatives of the many organisations who have
become a part of the NPDE. These included the AIFUCTO, FEDCUTA, STFI
(School Teachers Federation of India), AIUEC (All India University
Employees Confederation), AIFRTE, All India Peoples’ Science Network,
Forum for Engineering Professionals, many student organisations – SFI,
AISF, AISA, AIDSO, Disha, Pachhaas, JNUSU – women’s organisations such
as NFIW, AIDWA, AIMSS, etc.  Participants also included teachers and
employees from DU, AMU, Jamia, JNU, Ambedkar University, Pondicherry
University and Visvabharati. 

The
NPDE had sent out an appeal to all Members of Parliament across the
political spectrum urging their intervention during the Winter Session
of Parliament which started today. Several Members of Parliament came
and expressed solidarity with the protestors and assured them that they
would raise the issue of withdrawing the “offer” made by the Government
to open market access to Higher Education under WTO/GATS: Badruddoza
Khan (Lok Sabha, West Bengal), Shankar Prasad Dutta (Lok Sabha,
Tripura), K.J. Rakesh  (Lok Sabha, Kerala), M.B. Rajesh  (Rajya  Sabha,
Kerala) and Mani Shankar Aiyar (Rajya Sabha, Tamil Nadu). 

It
is clear from the conditions of the WTO/GATS that Education would
become a completely commercial, for-profit business which would go out
of the reach of the common people. Existing public funded institutions
would be forced to commercialise or get destroyed as the government
grants/subsidies on which they run would be withdrawn. The WTO/GATS
regime would have its most adverse impact on the deprived sections of
the people as Reservation would be ended, scholarships for needy
students would be withdrawn and the needs of the girl child, the
different -abled and the underprivileged would be ignored.

The
organisers announced that the Rally held today was a first step to
highlight the grave threat to Education from the WTO/GATS and other such
(often secretly negotiated) trade deals and that the next step would be
to constitute State level platforms to carry the campaign to the
furthest reaches of the country and mobilise the common people from all
walks of life to join the battle to save education for the future
generations.