Now, India's children have to receive at least eight years of education. The gnawing question is whether it will remain on paper or it will become a reality. One hardly needs a reminder that this right is different from others enshrined in the constitution, in that the beneficiary, a six-year-old child, cannot demand it, nor can he or she fight a legal battle when the right is denied or violated.

In all cases, it is the adult society that must act on behalf of the child. In another peculiarity, where a child's right to education (RTE) is denied, no compensation offered later can be adequate or relevant. This is so because childhood does not last long.

If a legal battle fought on behalf of a child is eventually won, it may be of little use to a boy or girl because the opportunity missed at school during childhood cannot serve the same purpose later in life. This may be painfully true for girls because our society permits them only a short childhood, if any at all.

The RTE has become a crucial point of law in India's history when the ghastly practice of female infanticide resurfaced in the form of foeticide. This is symptomatic of deeper turmoil in society, which is compounding the traditional obstacles to girls' education. Tenacious prejudice against the intellectual potential of girls runs across our cultural diversity, and the system of education has not been able to address it.