In May 2007, the High Court passed an order stating that the 384 private schools built on government land were required to reserve 20 per cent of their seats for children belonging to the economically weaker sections.

Those schools that filed an affidavit and agreed to follow the order were given a concession of five per cent; 200 have filed an affidavit to date, says advocate Ashok Agarwal.

But 53 schools have failed to admit any students from the category at all; the High Court issued a notice of contempt to these schools last week.

According to NGOs Social Jurist and Pardarsita, who jointly set up a helpline for parents from the economically weaker sections two months ago, over 500 parents have complained about the admissions procedure to date.

Problems range from difficulties in obtaining application forms to facing discriminatory comments at schools.

After receiving its own share of complaints, the Education Department has decided to centralise the application system for students from the category who are eligible for pre-school and pre-primary class.

“NGOs and parents have told us that schools are not listening, so we will be taking applications directly and getting in touch with schools, to ensure they fill the required quota,” said Education Secretary Rina Ray.