Economic development with social justice

Mantra of CM Nitish Kumar

It seems that all governments (mostly Congress government) ever since independence have neglected primary school education, particularly in rural areas, and concentrated on show-pieces like Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). Of course, we do need higher institutes of learning, but not at the cost of primary and upperprimary level schooling which is the starting point, writes Prof Ashish Bose

   In a special function at Rashtrapati Bhavan President Pratibha Patil honoured five girls from West Bengal who resisted child marriage. She said “Economic progress is not the only indicator of a country’s development; a nation requires its people to show courage against social pressures and overcome social evils”. (The Hindu, Dec. 8, 2011). The five girls were called icons because they resisted parental, community and social pressures to get married early which would have launched them in a cycle of misery, poor health, a large number of children and poverty. All these girls were to be married when they were not even 12 years old.

      In my article in Power Politics (Oct. 2009) I had said that India’s most shameful failure since independence was rampant illiteracy. But it must be noted that literacy figures are collected during the decadal census enumeration in a rather cursory manner. To my mind a better index would be the enrolment rate of children in primary and upper primary classes in rural areas.

         One of the reasons why boys and girls do not go to school is their involvement in child labour which is banned by law but hardly implemented. The small income generated by children is welcomed by poor families. In the case of girls, they are married away before they are 13 or 14, in contravention of the law against child marriages which again is hardly implemented. The five girls who were honoured by the President of India could resist parental pressures mainly because of the meagre education they had received in schools. They wanted to be in school rather than get married. It should be clear that education is the key to empowerment of girls. An even better method of empowerment of girls and women is skill formation. Kerala’s nurses (mostly Christian) are known all over the world for their efficiency in their professional work and above all, their humane attitude towards the patients. In the recent tragic fire which engulfed Kolkata’s AMRI hospital where over 93 patients died, it was reported that two young nurses from Kerala pulled out and saved the lives of eight patients. When they tried to pull out the ninth patient from the noxious smoke-filled female ward, they themselves succumbed to the smoke and heat. The Chief Minister of Kerala has announced that Kerala will accord official recognition to the great sacrifice made by the nurses and honour Kerala’s valiant daughters.

        In table 1 we give the latest official data on the state of affairs about primary and upper primary school education in India.

Source: Elementary Education in India: Analytical Tables 2008-09 published by the National University of Educational Planning and Administration (under the auspices of Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India). Note: The states and UTs are arranged in descending order of the enrolment of boys in Classes I-IV. (from the highest to the lowest). It will be seen that the percentage of boys enrolled in primary schools is 51.6 and 48.4 for girls. In regard to upper primary school education the percentage of boys enrolled is 52.4 and 47.6 for girls. This is indeed a shocking state of affairs. It seems that all governments (mostly Congress government) ever since independence have neglected primary school education particularly in rural areas and concentrated on show-pieces like Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). Of course we do need higher institutes of learning but not at the cost of primary and upper primary level schooling which is the starting point.

Manmohan Singh

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is very proud of India’s high rate of growth of GDP (gross domestic product) though he does talk of “inclusive” development. But alas, the number of poor persons is increasing rapidly notwithstanding the Planning Commission’s estimates of population below poverty line (BPL) which according to them is continuously decreasing from one five year plan period to another. To top it, Montek Singh, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission gleefully announced that Rs. 32 per day is the cutoff point between the poor and non-poor. He did not clarify if Rs. 32 was per day per person or for the entire family. Some months later when he went to Beijing to attend a conference, he clarified that the figure of Rs. 32 was for each person and not for the family.

Nitin Gadkari, BJP Chief has ridiculed the Planning Commission’s Rs 32 per day poverty cap and asked the Prime Minister and Congress chief to “show the way” by living on the meagre amount for a day.    It is most unfortunate that not only the number of poor is increasing but the inequality between the rich and poor is also increasing. A recent OECD study says that inequality in earnings has doubled in India over the last two decades, making it the worst performer on this count of all emerging economies.

Nitish Kumar