Bhubaneswar, August 6 - The bill passed by parliament Tuesday to ensure free and compulsory education is unacceptable in its present form, child rights activists said Thursday.

'It is unacceptable because by no means it guarantees the quality of education,' Prabir Basu, national convenor of Campaign Against Child Labour (CACL), told IANS.

CACL is an umbrella organisation of over 6,500 groups working to eradicate child labour in the country.

'The bill is going to exclude or deprive in some way or the other millions of children from different age groups, social and economic categories,' he said, adding it did not recognise

the right of children in the 14-18 age group to free and compulsory education.

Basu also said the legislation did not have any clear directions or commitment on the financial responsibility of state and central governments.