EDITORIAL

REVAMP CABINET

It has been repeatedly stressed in these columns that present cabinet in J&K besides being unwieldy is as well incompetent. This stands duly confirmed by the Chief Minister when he has taken to task his education ministers right inside the Assembly for dismal performance in every sense of the game. He also warns shocks in store for his other cabinet colleagues on the budgetry provisions sought by them for their respective ministries howsoever awkward for them......more

POPULATION POLICY

At long lost some initiative has been taken to evolve a National Population Policy. A group of cabinet ministers directly concerned with the burgeoning population have been appointed to expedite formulation of policy ....more

Pollution : Sources,
Hazards and management

R.D. Gupta, Swami Raj Dogra and
M.R. Khajuria'

Pollution at hazardous levels can take place in land, water and air, and in fact .....more

Indian planning: Neglected human factor

By: Dr Mrs Vishiesh Verma

In 1997 Mr L K Advani while go-ing through the Report of Human Development Index, where Indian was ....more

Marketing Reproductive Health, Janani Style

By: Ranjita Biswas

Patna, ---- "For the first time the concept of social ...more

EDITORIAL

REVAMP CABINET

It has been repeatedly stressed in these columns that present cabinet in J&K besides being unwieldy is as well incompetent. This stands duly confirmed by the Chief Minister when he has taken to task his education ministers right inside the Assembly for dismal performance in every sense of the game. He also warns shocks in store for his other cabinet colleagues on the budgetry provisions sought by them for their respective ministries howsoever awkward for them. There is the classic example of Minister for Housing and Urban Development who is the largest defaulter of sales tax payment with about Rs 15 crore arrears to be recovered from him. If such be the example set by the Ministers one really cannot blame others for evading sales tax payment. On Government's own admission ST recoveries alone have accumulated to the tune of 334 crore. It hardly matters whether it is from this side or that side of Banihal. The fact remains such defaulters have charged this sales tax from the customers but failed to deposit the same with the ST Department. It tantamounts to cheating both the people as also the Government. And once such defaulters are present right inside the cabinet, the type and quality of governance can be easily judged. The victims are of course hapless citizens who are now sought to be burdened with unprecedented taxation. If only it was an honest, sincere and dedicated team of ministers, the recoveries in several departments and economies in others would have obviated the necessity of heavy imposts on the people. If only there was proper accountability and ministers had exercised their powers for proper governance, there was no need to blame Centre for the financial mess in which State has landed. If only they had fear of God and were truly religious men, the State would have not reached present sorry pass which has made the life of the people hellish. Here is the PHE Minister raiding offices in Akhnoor, Jammu and may be other places also on cards and finding most of the schemes dead despite having incurred heavy expenditure and even exhausted the budgetry allocation. In fact, whichever side one looks it appears to be case of bad team of white elephants who are not only liability on the State coffers but a total liability on the Chief Minister who has to bear the consequences of their bad performance and unaccountability.

The time is ripe when Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah instead of pricking his team mates right inside the assembly should exercise his right to revamp the cabinet. He is in an unviable position of being a tall leader with massive mandate from the people to provide good governance. The two and half year rule by popular Government has failed to meet the expectations and aspirations of the people who find themselves badly let down. For they never wanted a Government that would expose them to long dark hours. They also did not want a Government that would reduce the water supply to a trickle. They hate to stand in queues for kerosene or LPG supply. They voted for a Government that would respect merit and open employment vistas for large number of unemployed. Unfortunately, nothing has happened as per their expectations as most of the pledges and promises besides manifestos have been defied and life of citizens made hellish. And all this because most of the ministers either have no power or it is gross misuse of power. If only they had been fast on delivery, not only there would have been massive recoveries but even current account payments would have been flowing adequately. It seems cabinet is due for total revamp. Those who have delivered nothing and have failed to come upto the requisite level must be shown the door forthwith and their portfolios entrusted to hands which are known for sincerity, experience and good delivery. The size of the cabinet in true spirit of austerity also needs to be trimmed to one-third its present size to make it a viable and accountable team. Pulling up his own cabinet colleagues right inside the assembly dwarfs them further in the esteem of heavy-headed bureaucracy as also in the esteem of people. Remedy lies in pulling them out of the cabinet Jumbo is awkward looking. Small is always beautiful.

POPULATION POLICY

At long lost some initiative has been taken to evolve a National Population Policy. A group of cabinet ministers directly concerned with the burgeoning population have been appointed to expedite formulation of policy so that it could be placed before the Parliament during current session itself. It has been noted that if population is allowed to go on increasing at current rate, there would be enormous problems that would defy and solution. Already a lot of lead time has been wasted on frivolities during the last five decades. The net result of such lethargy by successive Governments manifests its ugliness in population crossing one billion mark next year when it was only 36 crore immediately after partition in 1947. Budgetry allocations have been the lowest for family welfare measures. There have been too much ingress of politics in promoting small family norms for preserving respective vote pockets. Illiterate masses have been exploited to the hilt and provoked and encouraged to produce maximum rather than adopt any family planning means. Invariably political expediency out weighed adoption of meaningful National Policy on population. In this context one can refer to the Swaminathan report which submitted its recommendations to Narasimha Rao Government in 1994. But the Government did not muster enough of courage to push forward and implement the recommendations. The successor UF Government did not bother to look at Swaminathan report. The BJP led Government has woken up to the dire necessity of adopting some policy that would not only make good for the lost time but also go ahead courageously in stabilising India's population by the year 2026 at 2.1 children per family. Even this is on the higher side. One must derive motivation from Japan which has shown zero growth in population for the last so many years. Same happens to be true of most of the prosperous western countries where population has remained stable. That explains their prosperity. In India all the progress made since independence has been negated by the ever burgeoning population which has eaten up all gains. The present problems faced by the country in terms of production, consumption, illiteracy, unemployment, bad health are the direct result of uncontrollable population.

It is to be noted that literacy remains the key to voluntary control on population. Literacy of women in particular is crucial to the success of any population control measures. In Kerala literacy is 100% and hence birth rate per thousand is the lowest at 21 which is far less than national average. Contrarily, illiteracy is the highest in UP, Bihar and MP. Incidentally, these are the States where birth rate is highest at above 32 which is more than the national average. Government has also been very reluctant to introduce incentives and disincentives to make the erring couple conform to two child norm. Let there be no more politicking and all national and regional parties owe it to posterity to support National Population Policy largely based on the Swaminathan Committee report.

Marketing Reproductive Health, Janani Style

By: Ranjita Biswas

Patna, ---- "For the first time the concept of social marketing is being used to reach rural areas. In the area of contraceptive use we are trying to create a model..... which will be relevant to reproductive policy matters in the future," says K Gopalakrishnan (Gopi to all), who heads the Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Jammu.

It was in 1996 that the NGO Janani (meaning 'woman' in Hindi), launched a reproductive health care programme in Bihar, one of the most backward states in India. In a population of 96 million, (which makes it the country's second most-populated State), 55 per cent live below the poverty line.

The state, which has the lowest per capita domestic product among all the Indian states at Rs 304, a poor record on social development indicators. In a population of over 86 million, with a growth rate of 2.35 percent, the ratio of females to males has dropped from 946:1000 in 1971-81 to 911:1000 in the decade ending 1991; close to 65 percent of the people are illiterate; 55 percent of the people -- that is, nearly 50 million people -- live below the poverty line.

It was in this backward setting that Gopi and a small team of workers took up the challenge of evoking a greater interest in clinical and non-clinical reproductive health products and services from the state's rural populace and making these easily accessible to them.

According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS), 25 percent of Bihari women of childbearing age do not want another child, either now or ever, but are apprehensive about using contraceptives. As a report by the Delhi-based NGO, Healthwatch, says, "there are a lot of reservations among women in Bihar actually accessing family planning services.... due to their restriction of mobility and other social barriers." The report quoted Sumitra Sinha, a trainer of auxiliary nurse midwives (ANMs) in Bihar in describing the reluctance of Bihar women to step out of their homes to Government 'family planning clinics.

The state adopted the 'Target-Free Approach' (TFA) to population programmes in 1996. Under the previous target-oriented policy, with its emphasis on 'fulfillment' of the numbers of people reached, there was actual deterioration in the quality of services.

In surveying the needs for implementing the new TFA policy, the Government found that if services had to be introduced all over the state, health infrastructure facilities in the districts had to be augmented. It was suggested initially that ideally there should be a Primary Health Centre (PHC) for every 5,000 people. But since this would mean escalated costs, it was decided to ensure one SC for every 5,000 people. Further, shortage of manpower has undermined the efficacy of TFA.

It was in this scenario, soon after the TFA policy was announced, that Gopi judged that NGOs had a role to play and founded Janani.

"The priority was --- and is -- definitely to approach the poorest section," says Gopi, but Janani refused to work as a charitable reform group. The NGO chose, instead, to work through the market.

Its first undertaking was to establish a market structure so that contraceptives could be easily distributed and available to users. For this, the NGO chose existing market outlets, giving shops incentives such as free advertisement through colourful posters, and other promotional products to stock the products.

Janani markets the non-clinical products in partnership with the Government of India under the Contraceptive Social Marketing Programme of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The ministry provides the products at highly subsidised prices to ensure easy access. But the brand promotion -- of the Mithun condom for men and Apsara oral pill for women --- from designing the package to advertising is done by Janani.

Gopa Chatterjee, in-charge of communication at Janani, says that market research conducted by Janani field workers showed "that contraceptive products are often hidden away from sight due people's embarrassment."

Janani designed the packaging for the contraceptives to look like everyday products such as sweets that could be displayed easily on the shelves of stores.

Today, Janani has 30,000 outlets in 50 stocking points throughout Bihar.

Next, the NGO began to study on how to make contraceptive more freely available in the interior and more remote areas of Bihar. One method that Janani adopted was to sell the contraceptives cheap or even distribute them free.

"The Ministry of Social Welfare spends Rs. 8 per product, while the cost of production itself is just Rs. 2, which means 80 percent of the internal budget is spent only to popularise the contraceptives. Yet, the impact has been poor," says Gopi.

Janani released that lack of motivation was the main obstacle. "We tried to find a match for the urban chemist at the village level. It was the rural medical practitioners (RMP), the equivalent of barefoot doctors. At the grassroots level the RMP provides treatment and also goes to the market to get stocks. In short, the RMP is the most effective first contact person," says Gopi.

The 200,000 RMPs in Bihar do not have medical degrees. They are compounders or have learnt that working with medical professionals, or may have skills in traditional systems like Unani, Homeopathy or Ayurveda. Many -- maybe 80 percent --- also prescribes allopathic medicine.

Given their close participation in the community, Janani found them ideal for training to popularise contraceptives, but found also that the RMPs were not interested in family planning, as financial returns were low.

On the other hand, Janani workers also found that village women were reluctant to discuss sexual health problems with a male RMP.

Janani addressed the first problem by subsidising the products heavily. The RMPs collects the products from the market, and nothing is given on credit.

To resolve the second problem, Janani offered to train RMPs who had literate women partners -- a wife, sister, daughter-in-law or sister-in-law, but not a daughter, because upon marriages they often leave the village. Around 95 percent of the partners are wives, which adds to the family income. Today there are 2075 RMPs and their wives in 11 districts of Bihar.

Then, in its third phase of activities, Janani recently launched the Surya Clinic concept, providing clinical services such as contraceptive injectibles, intra-uterine devices (IUDs), and safe abortion services in rural areas. Currently, less than 10 percent of the women seeking abortions get clinical help, says Gopi.

Janani would like to expand its programme to include doctors, but "at this stage doctors can't be expected to go to the village, as there is a lack of infrastructure and motivations," says Gopi.

Janani has begun expanding its work to the states of Madhya Pradesh and soon to Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Orissa. The same model will be used with modifications taking into account local needs.

"We are not interested in setting up something that is applicable to only one place," says Gopi. "The model has to be such that it can work in any part of the country, any part of the world."

'Any part of the world' may sound too ambitious, but recently the Albanias Government approached Janani for consultation of social marketing strategies.

Moreover, Janani's international credentials got the stamp of approval from the University of California, Berkeley, also, when it judged Janani one of the three most innovative NGOs in the world.

"It is an experiment, a model, hopefully incorporating transformation as and when necessary," says Gopi, modestly.

For Janani the model is based on a management theory, which is about finding a solution within resources available. "Our logic is to work with what is possible under the circumstances, not what we think should happen, but what can happen," explains Gopi (WFS)

Pollution : Sources, Hazards and management

R.D. Gupta, Swami Raj Dogra and M.R. Khajuria'

Pollution at hazardous levels can take place in land, water and air, and in fact it has taken place in most parts of the world. India too has not escaped from these hazards.

Despite the Environment Protection Act (1986) and the creation of Central and State Pollution Control Boards, there is virtually no control over deforestation, grazing of the pastures and establishment of industries both in the public and private sectors as well as those owned by multinational corporations, spewing toxic wastes into the atmosphere, water resources and food chain. Under the present conditions of population pressure (both of human beings and livestock) and with no change in trees cutting policy of the State, 58 per cent of the present forest stock would be lost by the year 2023.

Jammu city was unique in its sylvian beauty till 1950. It was then surrounded by a massive green belt comprising famous rakhs of Ramnagar, Plaura, Roulki, Kheri, Karen and Bahu etc. which abounded in a variety of wild life and flora. The process of urbanisation over the last four decades has deprived the citizenry of Jammu of these great gifts which the nature had given to us. But deforestation of Jammu city and its magnificent surroundings had raised the level of health hazards and has lowered the quality of life.

"Jammu city was very famous for its cool breeze during the region of Dogra rulers, locally known as Tadu", the elders say. But now we are living to languish in this heavily water and air polluted, congested and practically treeless city. Similarly Mahamaya hillock earlier known as "Bahu Rakh" was a densely forested area. It was a hallowed place and even Mian Dido used to hide himself there. It was full of wildlife". Stressing the importance of wildlife Sardar Sohan Singh, former Chief Conservator of forests, lements, "Wildlife is the index of health and quality of natural environment". The past four decades have been a period of the destruction of the forests.

With the increase in population and vehicular traffic, Jammu has earned the proud distinction of having the largest population - vehicle ration in the world, next only to Tokyo. The city has thus achieved the dubious record in pollution emission, causing a major health hazard. The rate of the growth of pollution emission is more than double the increase in the number of vehicle. In 1971, there were a total of 10615 registered vehicles on the roads with the pollutant emission about 30,000 tonnes every year. By 1991; the vehicular traffic was seen to be showing an eight fold increase with 85,000 registered vehicles. Much of the congestion on the roads and consequent pollution is caused by the mini buses. Their number were merely 60 in 1978 which contributed around 360 tonnes pollutants every year, but the number has increased to 1750 in 1991 exhibiting a 60 fold increase in pollutants. Similarly in the city of Srinagar, there has been an enormous growth in the number of registered vehicles which increased from 25253 in 1986 to 80143 during 1997: In addition the vehicles of the Armed forces are also contributing largely to the vehicular exhausts. With no control on their emissions as a result of which the air quality in this city, is perhaps, the worst in the country. This problem will pose itself in greater dimensions in future. In addition vehicles continue plying on the roads for a pretty long period as there is no fixed period certification. The old vehicles emit more vehicular exhaust. The quantity of the fuel used in the vehicles is also a matter of concern as use of adulterated fuel is very common with the unregistered fuel Vendors in many parts of the State.

The most dangerous gaseous pollutants of the air are smoke, sulphur dioxide and fluoride. The pollutant emission or the smoke emitted by the motor vehicles, comprises mainly of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and oxides of nitrogen. Carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide have a telling effect on lungs and cause several respiratory heart and renal diseases. Carbon dioxide is not washed out but accumulates in the atmosphere if not used by the plants. It lets the sun light through to heat the earth, but prevents some of the heat from being rediated back. The result is the Green House Effect. Smoke also acts as a screen against sunshine and this causes corrosion. Oxides of nitrogen and carbon monoxide are poisonous gases and kill living organisms.

The quality of the air of other regions of Kashmir, has also been affected directly owing to the increase in vehicular traffic, emitting thereby tremendous smoke (CO2, CO) in the air. This effect has been observed more in the regions having steep slope where the rate of fuel combustion is high (Bhat 1992). Although on the whole, the air quality does not appear to be adversely affected as yet in the valleys but some tourist spots like Sonamarg, Kangan Tullamulla and Gund show vulnerability to damage the air in future if proper management practices are not followed to control this hazard.

Besides, large volume of smoke, offensive odours from open burning of solid waste is a common scene in the North Indian cities especially in Jammu city. The burning of the solid waste is generally done either in community bins or near the trunk of living tree planted on the road sides. This is being done by the Municipal staff (Safai Karamcharies) who are quite ignorant of its draw backs. It is not only creating air pollution, fire hazards and destruction of useful trees but it is also wastage of useful resource which could be recycled. The quantity of refuse generated per capita per day in Jammu city varies from 115g to 500g with a density of 100 to 500 kg per cubic meter. The refuse may contain paper waste, metals, glass, plastics, ash, fine earth, cotton, nylon rags, Vegetables and fruit peels, leather left over, covers of medicines.

Another problem related to atmospheric pollution is the growth of cement factories, brick Kilns stone crushers and smelting industries which are polluting the air unabated. The effects of the industrial dust are showing up, in the diseased crops of saffron and many fruit trees in Kashmir Valley. Yet another area of grave concern is the use of pesticides in the state. Very little of the applied pesticides reach the target and most of it is observed by the environment. Against the national average of 560 g ha -1 of pesticides, Kashmir region uses 6000 to 12000 g ha -1. The extensive and continuous use of the pesticides will not only have a deleterious effects on the atmospheric air but will also influence the water and soil resources.

Control Measures

To prevent further deterioration of the air pollution certain urgent actions have been highlighted by a number of renowned environmentalists. Fortunately, some of these urgent actions discussed below are workable solutions to this man-made hazards.

Plantation

Intensive plantation in the region considerably helps in reducing dust, smoke and other pollutants. People shold be made aware of role of trees and forests in air pollution control. Urban forestry and rural forestry programmes should be encouraged while planting the trees.

Urban Forestry :

Urban forestry aims at protection & preservation of existing trees and growing new trees in vacant spaces, along roads, in private and govt. compounds etc.

Green belts should also be raised in urban and industrial areas as well as in cold arid areas of the state. Such programme will also check soil erosion, desertification as well as improve the microclimate.

Rural Forestry : It is also called Extension Forestry. Rural forestry encompasses forestry on community and panchyat lands, degraded forest waste lands, roads and railway sides and canal banks etc. for meeting the needs of the rural people. It also includes restoration of degraded areas hearing scares of quarrying, mining, road, construction, lime burning and brick kilns.

It has been found that trees with simple broad leaves i.e. Pipal (Ficus religiosa), Borh or banyan (Ficus benghlensis) Teak (Tectona grandis), Sal (Shorea robusta) Mango (Magnifera indica) and Kachnar (Bauhinia Variegata) etc. are more effective in removing dust particles suspended in the air than those having compound & smaller leaves like Ashoka (Sarca indica) Palas (Butea monosperma), Neem (Azardirachta indica) and Gulmohar (Delonix regia). Therefore, along the road side and at places where maximum dust generation is possible, trees with simple broad leaves should preferably by planted.

Ventilation/Exhaust fans : Indoor air pollution can be controlled by proper ventilation, avoiding biomass fuel and using gas for cooking. Exhaust is a dire necessity in the kitchen.

Use of certain types of Fuels : In a relatively more polluted and high traffic intensity regions, pollution due to automobiles can be controlled by restricting the use of certain types of fuels. For example, in extreme cases of air pollution, a complete ban on diesel driven vehicles can be imposed within certain areas.

Air pollution caused by the automobiles can also be easily countered by adopting a series of measures like well run public transport, using bicycle, encouraging to walk on foot, avoiding frequent use of cars, using lead-free petrol, regular servicing of vehicles, stricking to speed limits and fitting the vehicles with catalysers to minimise out-put of carbon monoxide.

Physical Methods : Physical methods include the suitable height and design of the stack in factories. The minimum height of chimney stack has been worked out to be 38 metre in order to ensure proper mixing of the discharged pollutants into the adjoining atmosphere. In fact, by this method the effect of pollutants gets diluted. So this method is also called dilution method.

Chemical methods : These methods are used for removing sulphur dioxide from air, resulting from coal burning with rich sulphur content. Several chemical methods have by now been developed to have an effective control over air pollution problems.

If these methods are followed alongwith the protection of the environment raising of plantations on the vacant land, the pollution of air, soil and water can be considerably reduced.

Indian planning: Neglected human factor

By: Dr Mrs Vishiesh Verma

In 1997 Mr L K Advani while go-ing through the Report of Human Development Index, where Indian was ranked 135th out of 174 countries said, ‘‘I know India couldn't be in first twenty so I started looking in the first fifty but we weren't even there then I started looking the last fifty and was ashamed to discover we were 135th behind even Sri Lanka’’.

This should not have surprised Sh Advaniji for the reasons. It is one of the poorest countries of the world. The latest report of National Council of Applied Economic Research estimates that 39 percent of Indians live below the poverty line (the people who can barely afford one meal a day).

Reasons for Backwardness in Human Development.

The basic ingredients of human development health care programmes and primary education for all, were neglected by Indian Planners in the past. Social Justice was perceived in our country as ‘Welfare’ goal and was treated as such to be pursued when there was more money and often the more earnest tasks of building modern nation has been completed. Even a leader of the status of Pt Jawahar Lal Nehru didn't fully realise the importance of social development in contrast to his deep commitment to industrialisation. It is not that Pt Nehru did not fully support health care of education, but when it came to allocation of plan funds he didn't make degree of investments in these sectors that was necessary. All the successive Governments followed his footprints.

The Budget presented by Sh Man Mohan Singh in the year 1995 had total expenditure on public health, education, sanitation and irrigation less than the expenditure on Atomic Energy.

World Defence Report 1996 (WDR) reveals only 6 nations spend more on defence than on social sector, India happens to be one among them. Its defence expenditure is highest in the third world after China, Saudi Arabia and South Korea.

Because of the neglect of Social Sector in the past, imballanced development deprived the majority of the population of the fundamental rights granted by Universal Declaration of Fundamental Rights of 1948 and the fundamental rights granted by Indian Constitution 1950.

The recent economic theories have emphasized that driving force of all the economic growth is human capital, the quality of which can be raised though investments in the health of the people and education especially Primary Education. Health and Education enable and individual to be aware about alternatives. Without these inputs human capabilities are reduced to their lowest levels and thus people are rendered incapable of taking advantage of economic opportunities.

To begin with education, founding fathers of our Indian constitution made the provision of free compulsory primary education as a constitutional commitment to be fulfilled within ten years of commencement of constitution. It is sad that on the eve of Golden Jubilee of the Independence, the commitment remains yet un-fulfilled.

Present scenario of school education

No doubt, that a fairly good infrastructure has been created in our country since independence. Education today is the largest enterprise and the system has registered enormous growth.

Whatever the official claims with regard to enrolment and enrolment ration the National Sample Survey (NSSO) 52nd round has reported that in 1995-96 the net attendance rate in primary schools was only 66 percent and in upper primary schools 43 percent in the relevant age groups, that is, one third of the children of the age group 6-10 and more than half of the children of the age group 10-13 are out-side the school. Three quarters of out of school children live in six states, of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

About a decade ago in 1986-87 it was found that there were 70 millions children outside the school system in India (NSSO 42nd).

According to the NCERTS' All India Educational survey as high as 50 per cent of the habitations in rural India do not have primary schools within their own habitations (in 1993). Interestingly the ratio increased to 51.2 per cent in 1993 from 49.8 per cent in 1986.

Similarly 22.2 per cent of the population have no schools in the habitations that they live in (1993), the corresponding ratio was 19.6 per cent in 1986.

The literacy rate in India is 52 per cent, China has literacy rate of 81 per cent, Malasia 84 per cent, South Korea 98 per cent, Phillipnes 95 per cent, Thailand 94 per cent, Indonesia 84 per cent and Sri Lanka 84 per cent.

The quality part of education is enshrined in the Public Report on Education ‘‘probe’’ released by Professor A K Sen in January 1999. It is a sample survey of rural schooling of 5 Northern States Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, which account for 40 per cent of Indian population.

The PROBE reports:-

An overwhelming majority of parents in rural areas desparately want their children to go to school. It shatters the myth that poor illiterate villagers wards are dis-interested in the education of their wards.

The proportion of never enrolled learns is falling but at the same time dropout rate is increasing.

Most of the school building surveyed by the team needed repairs in one way or the other.

The schools were short of teaching aids, books even blackboards.

Forty seven per cent of schools had no teaching activity going on at the time PROBE team visited their schools.

The socalled non-formal education centres which (PROBE) team visited, were found to be totally dysfunctional concentrated in poor localities.

Most of the teachers in the villages are neither motivated nor accountable. Schooling isn't a pleasant experience for most of the students.

The irrelevance of the curriculum is perceived both by the parents students and children as well. Elementary education is free for all but for the 39 per cent living below the poverty line.

If there is some satisfactory programme of education it is in Himachal Pradesh.

Professor Amartya Sen Pioneer of Human Development Index once posed a question as to why illeteracy didn't become a political issue in India. The answer probably lies in the fact that literacy had no meaning for people below the poverty line and the vociferous middle class which provide the ruling elite were interested in State funding of secondary and higher education. The seeds of two Indias' that is present rural urban devide are thus sown.

The thoughtless expansion has encouraged two types of education system. One for the town rich and other for the rural poor. In fact the term ‘‘Public School’’ is a misnomer since in no instance does the institution cater for the needs of general public. It is out and out private and seeks to meet the needs of the rich and powerful accentuating the startification among schools. There is no second opinion that quality education is available only to the rich.

The 5th All India educational survey too has registered discrimination against rural areas in context with the provision of educational infrastructure to primary schools.

The over all facility of urinals in urban and rural primary schools is only 15 per cent.

Only 40 per cent Government schools have library the corresponding percentage of rural and urban schools with library are 37.1 per cent and 58.00 per cent respectively.

There are striking disparities in the per-capita expenditure on the education on each child in the states. Some of the examples are given below:-

Table

Out of every 100 rupees spent on primary education, Rs 90 to Rs 96 go to salaries of the staff. Disparities of context of school going children of different states are extreme as while nine out of every ten children go to school in Kerala, in Bihar only five and in Punjab six students attend the school.

The much talked about lagislation to make free, compulsory primary education as a fundamental right is currently lying in cold storage. It is being realised that much a move couldn't be practical for the reasons:-

1. It is a country whose annual population growth equals to entire population of Australia,

ii. If all the children are to be put in primary schools in the next five years this would creating school facilities for 65 million children and training about 2 million teachers.

iii. To provide black boards to all the existing schools alone may entail expenditure of over Rs 7000 crores.

iv) The minimum amount India would need to spend over the 9th FYP to educate all children's worked out as 40,000 crores.

v) Large number of children don't attend schools because either they don't have access to them or the education provided over there doesn't catch their interest. Under such conditions the much talked about lagislation for compulsory education if passed may well result in a situation when there will be less students in schools more parents in jails.
 

 

| home | state | national | business | editorial | advertisement | sports |
| international | weather | mailbag | suggestions | search |
subscribe | send mail |