Growth without governance

By Vikas Chawla
30 Aug 2010

India can take pride in its high economic growth rate but shoddy implementation of government programmes force majority of citizens to live without basic amenities.

Good governance can be described as a term in which public institutions allocate resources judiciously, monitor implementation of projects and meet the socio-economic aspirations of people. It also involves establishing transparency in government systems to ensure equitable, effective and hassle-free delivery of public services to the citizens.

Post independence, government of India has initiated several programs to alleviate poverty and improve the socio economic conditions. Thousands of crores of rupees have been spent on subsiding food, promoting education, providing low cost housing, improving rural infrastructure, waiving of loans etc. But because of poor governance, inefficiency and corruption, government efforts are not resulting in tangible results on the ground.

The end result is that most Indians lack provision for health, education, food, housing, employment, transport, drinking water, infrastructure, security, pollution control & basic sanitation.
In spite of rapid economic growth, the social sector indices portray a very poor image of India. Some stats are worse than even the war torn sub-Saharan African countries.
More than a third of India's people live below the poverty line

India ranks 171 out of the 175 countries in the world in public health spending

An estimated 72% of Indians still lack access to improved sanitation facilities

Of the 2.5 billion people that defecate openly, some 665 million of these live in India

India currently has the largest illiterate population of any nation on earth

About 49 per cent of the world's underweight children are in India

Dismal scenario in public education
After so many years of independence, 35% of the population is illiterate and only 15% of the students reach high school. That is in spite of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, education cess, mid-day meal, national policy on education and the thousands of crores spent annually in education sector.

Due to poor governance and lack of political will the most critical sector i.e primary education, has been ignored. We have to suffer the ignominy of being the nation with most number of illiterates in the world.
There is a genuine lack of will power in today’s politicians to translate government goals, objectives and policy priorities into tangible economic benefits for poor people.

Politics and Governance
The most surprising factor in India is that people will not necessarily vote for those political leaders or parties which provide or promise good governance. People mostly vote on the basis of identity and it is very easy to sway them. Political parties also engage in vote bank politics and focus more on populist measures rather than focussing on improving the socio economic condition.

more @ http://www.d-sector.org/article-det.asp?id=1352&idFor=1352

Right to Education: Time for a giant leap

By Swaty Prakash
23 Feb 2010

The HRD Minister of India has new and innovative ideas to mould the education sector. His challenge lies in converting plans into concrete actions.
BT Brinjal has a strong rival fighting for news space these days —India's education sector. Suddenly, news about raising the age bar for nursery admissions to allowing foreign universities into the country has become a talking point.

To begin with, President Pratibha Patil, in her address to the Parliament, has announced that a law to make education a fundamental right of every child in the age group of six to 14 has been notified and will be effective from April 1. The Act, which was passed by Parliament in the August last year, also earmarks 25 per cent seats to children from economically weaker sections in private schools. It stipulates that the local governments ensure that the children in the specified age bracket get elementary education.

But as always, the intentions sound good, but the implementation looks bleak. When I informed my sweeper about the Right to Education Act, he just shrugged his shoulders. Since three of his children fall in this age-bracket, I rephrased the question for better understanding. I needn't have bothered because the indifference was not due to lack of understanding. He calculated the money he would have lost if his three children went to school every day for a few hours instead of working. He didn't care if education was free or compulsory.

Nevertheless, the Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal has also said that his ministry would hold consultations with the states to resolve issues such as fee structure and teachers’ salaries — issues that are likely to arise while implementing the Act. This is good thinking on the minister's part because in the no- o distant past teachers in Delhi University went on a strike when the move to extend classroom hours by a few minutes was proposed. They demanded everything from a salary hike to more leave to tackle the so-called 'stress' caused by the change in their schedule.

Sibal also said that the government will take steps to prevent commercialisation of education, and that the consultation would be undertaken to evolve a policy so that “poor, marginalised, and disadvantaged” students are not adversely affected.

“Our aim is to ensure that all children in India get quality education, but we are against commercialisation of education. Incessant fee hikes and overcharging from parents is something we do not support. I will talk to every state government on issues regarding implementation of the RTE Act from April 1." he said.

All these claims look very impressive on paper. But one wonders if these are just that...claims.

The 10-point admission process for Delhi schools was a great way of putting an end to the vulgar exchange of wealth and power through school admissions but we all know how the elite schools still find ways to coin that 11th invisible point that matters most to them and least to the children. Mid-day meal has been a wonderful idea but a quick survey in the neighbouring MCD schools is enough to explain why even those poor hungry children reject the meals that are otherwise meant to lure them to school.

The ideas have been good. It is time to turn that small step into a giant leap to ensure that the implementation is visible and effective.

Will the idiots make us any wiser?

By Sushant Sharma
21 Jan 2010

The record success of the movie 3 idiots has brought Indian education system into focus. How do students view it: will they aspire for excellence or use the 'system' as an excuse for their failures?

At about the time 3 idiots were making news; a spate of student suicides in Mumbai had rattled the nation. For once, the ‘reel’ was projecting the ‘real’ – addressing the ordeal the younger generation has to pass through. While the story has contemporary relevance to woo the masses, the script has tenacious narrative to swing the box office. But will 3 idiots make us any wiser?

Can real ‘Farhans’ like his reel counterpart, mock the society’s orthodox rules and chase their unorthodox dreams of a much happier and satisfied life, even if that did not exactly translate into a prosperous life too? Or can the real ‘Rajus’ shed their fears and rise from abject poverty to shine in life much like the reel Raju?

Can the masses really be stirred and awaken to bring about the much needed change in our education system that sacrifices quality for quantity? Students no longer learn, they are made to learn, all to achieve monetary success. The system is modelling them to become a memory machine, ready to pour the facts on the answer sheets. The mind remains subservient to the system!

One does not necessarily need to be bright to top in a class, human versions of a Xerox machine can be the toppers too. One no longer feels the thirst for knowledge. The only drive that makes everyone strive is for good grades and the consequent pay package. Dreams have no place in the world where money has become the ‘sole’ indicator of success.

Teachers or gurus of the past were revered by their students and the teachers respected their pupils too. But nowhere is that inkling of the past seen in today’s paradigm of teaching. The denigrating educational system has reduced teachers to being repetitive, teaching what they taught a decade ago. The only change being the number of grey hair on their scalp.

The head professor in the movie is shown delivering the inception speech umpteenth time to fresh entrants. His speech is repetitive to the last word that even the chai-wala boy who has overheard it each year repeats each line with utmost ease, mocking the inherent flaw in the system. Young dreams are ruthlessly killed, reproduce what is taught. Period!

What the young mind yearns to be is nobody’s concern. The tag line - ‘chase excellence, success will follow’ says it all. Take parents’ mindset, teachers’ attitude and the rigid system into count and the guiding mantra gets reduced to ‘success’. Excellence is for some other time, some other place because it is an exception that is at best told as fairy tales.

Rajkumar Hirani scripts the crises through the story of 3 idiots who find themselves different in the world of clones because they were convinced that `even if one wins the rat race, one remains a rat’. Led by Rancho, the 3 idiots script distinct goals for themselves. Each of the three characters is so close to real life, you seem to identify with them instantaneously.

Farhan, the first ‘idiot’, yearns to become a wildlife photographer but his father thinks otherwise. He dismisses his son’s passion as a stupid dream. Farhan toils without interest, earning the distinction of being the last in his semester examination. As in real life, parents reprimand their only son to catch up before it is too late.

The second ‘idiot’ Raju hails from a poor family background and sees engineering as the ladder to climb out of poverty. A paralyzed father, an ailing mother and an unmarried sister are banking on his success. Fear of failure turns the otherwise intelligent student into a nervous-wreck who does extremely bad in the semester results.


Rancho, the lead ‘idiot’ is a true learner. He studies not for grades but for the fun of learning. A natural rule breaker who has frequent run-ins with the professors makes him infamous with the teachers.

The story builds up to show the three protagonists overcome their fears and realise their goals. The story is narrated by Farhan (now a professional wildlife photographer) and Raju (now well-off and successful) as they recall their college days and set out to find their best friend Rancho who had quietly cut off the ties with his friends after leaving the college.

Using a combination of humour and powerful satire, the script punches many one-liners that are thoughtful and haunting. Delayed arrival of ambulance to take Raju’s ailing father to hospital has her mother lamenting: `it’s a strange country, a pizza gets delivered in 30 minutes but a life-saving ambulance takes more time to reach’.

Credible performance by Aamir Khan, R Madhvan, Sharman Joshi and irresistible Boman Irani lend strength to an interesting script. Without being preachy, Rajkumar Hirani delivers the message with utmost sincerity. Innovative as he is, Hirani binds the audience with ‘all iz well’ – a simple phrase that means ‘stay positive’.

Can this movie bring about much needed change in the way education is currently being perceived in our country? Will teenage suicide be a thing of past? The ‘3 idiots’ film has used the medium effectively to convey a simple message – liberate the young generation from the pressures of parental obsession and change the definition of ‘success’. Excellence is waiting for them next door!