The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

All-women institutions
Interface with the outside world a must

Since the gangrape of a medical student in Delhi last December, the issue of crime against women has dominated the minds of the masses and the policy makers alike. In this context, it was befitting for the UPA chairperson to express concern over the skewed sex ratio, female foeticide and crimes against women in Haryana while inaugurating the first women’s Government Medical College of independent India at Khanpur Kalan, Sonepat. Her assurance to the young women of the state that soon a new law will be framed for their safety acquired greater significance since the women of Haryana are at the receiving end of the most widespread expression of misogyny.

Though Haryana is the first state in the north to have established an all-women university –BPSWU in 2007 — after SNDT University of Mumbai(1916) and Banasthali Vidyapeeth, Rajasthan (1948), the decision to open a university exclusively for women has come a bit too late. On the one hand it is the first government-funded major project that will usher in much-needed empowerment to the women of the state by opening opportunities for their education and training. Being an all-women residential university on the other hand, it will restrict their exposure to the world, so needed to gain confidence in dealing with the real world.

The concept of establishing all-women banks and all-women medical colleges and universities has lost its significance at a time when there are no gender-specific professions. A few decades back when these concepts were in vogue segregating women meant preparing them for nursing or teaching, which were then dominated by women. Today women need an interface with the outside world in all professions and compete. An exclusively women institution may instil a false sense of empowerment, but, as the UPA chairperson rightly mentioned, women need to take over important positions to face the challenges of the future. And future lies in making the world secure for women not by excluding them in all-women institutions but by their inclusion in all spheres of life.

Protect children
From abuse in all forms

The rape of a seven-year-old girl in a school in Delhi, a city that is acquiring the notorious reputation of rape capital, has once again underlined that children in India are not safe anywhere. Each time a horrific incident of child abuse comes to light, the country stands aghast in shock and horror. The startling revelations are often met with anger too. While incidents of stone throwing and violent protests cannot be condoned, anti-rape demonstrations echo the helplessness and frustration of the public and their lack of faith in the police.

Since 2009, instances of child abuse have more than doubled. While cases of child abuse are on the rise, sexual assault is one of the major crimes against children. One in three rape victims happens to be a child, according to a UNICEF report. The insidiousness of child abuse finds a match only in the failure of the justice system to address the problem and the insularity of society that continues to turn a blind eye to the pervasiveness of the malaise. The Human Rights Watch’s report “Breaking the Silence: Child Sexual Abuse in India” examined the failure of the government, both in protecting children from sexual abuse and treating victims. In 2007, a government-sponsored survey found that only three per cent of the cases in which children said they had been abused were reported. While the fear of social stigma deters parents from reporting the crime, the low conviction rates further discourage the victims from coming out in the open.

More recently, India has passed the landmark legislation Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012 which not only defines different forms of sexual abuse but also provides for stringent punishment. Many of its provisions regarding reporting, recording of evidence, investigation and trial do bear the interest of children in mind. But like all other laws in India, the real test would lie in its effective implementation. Addressing child sexual abuse is a challenge that has to be met with sensitivity and alacrity. Institutions, be it schools or child care centres, too cannot escape the onus of responsibility.

Thought for the Day

You must be the change you wish to see in the world. —Mahatma Gandhi

ARTICLE

Time to focus on employability
Education sector must be deregulated
by Suresh K. Chadha

A heart-warming sight in any part of India is a stream of children in their school uniforms, going their way each morning with their bags and books. The conviction and commitment of parents is the force propelling India out of its relative backwardness. We had high hopes from education that it will maximise human potential, facilitate a vibrant democracy in which we have an informed electorate, hone the skills, capabilities and attitudes that will help our economy remain prosperous and economically competitive, and nurture an atmosphere that can make people see things differently. Swedish Steel Co 15 years ago quoted Rs 30 crore for selling technology to SAIL, when the IIT-Madras and the IIS-Bangalore analysed its advantages. Their elementary analysis revealed that technology was not up to the mark. The price was dropped to Rs. 15 crore — such is the power of education.

In 1947, there were 25 universities, 700 colleges and around 1,05,000 students, but now there are more than 575 universities, 33000 ordinary colleges, 3400 engineering colleges and more than 16 million students enrolled. Education is a fundamental right, but the quality of education needs to be improved as this is the best way the progress of a country can be ensured. Unfortunately, education has lost its edge in India, with little innovation, lack of relevance and an ill-devised regulatory framework. Indian college education generally induces unacceptable skills, leading to a large mass of unemployable job-seekers coupled with a shortage of skilled people. The problem is that the kind of education students get does not measure up to what is required to make them employable. Jobs require more than just a functional level of literacy.

We could achieve enormously if higher education provided indepth knowledge and skills. Annually, India produces more than eight times the number of undergraduates than the figure in the case of the US. But 60 per cent are not well trained and as a result, over 50 per cent of the engineering students are unfit for employment. The regulator must recognise that education needs to keep up with the demand for skills, and also that the demand for a certain type of expertise changes with the time. In India, more than 3, 00,000 people every year go overseas to pursue higher and technical education. This results in foreign outflow of more than Rs. 15 billion per year. This is sufficient to build more than 40 IIMs.

The performance of teachers and their accountability cannot be ignored if education has to be something to which children relate and their guardians aspire for. It is imperative to impart domain knowledge and relevant skills through teaching methods, pedagogical tools, industry and alumni interface, etc. The faculty is the cutting edge of their domain knowledge and the curriculum is in sync with the business requirements. Experts say that one of the reasons for Indian educational institutions not getting quality teachers is the government's old mindset of treating everybody alike in terms of salaries, research funding and other factors. China has introduced a star system under which leading academics are paid higher salaries and research funding. That's sensible as getting the best researchers is the only way pockets of excellence can emerge.

Teaching is an art, a skill, a story telling ability, an ability to hold the audience’s attention for an extended period of time, ensure the understanding of the concepts and encourage intellectual participation of students, field questions satisfactorily and raise the quality of learners in terms of their capability to disseminate knowledge through presentations, projects, debates and assignments. The IITs and the IIMs could not have been built without the lifelong commitment of its teachers.

India will be stuck with millions of middle-aged bewildered technicians who are unable to respond when the needs of the labour market change. The shortage is not of people in general but of people lacking skills. Therefore, a relatively small part of the population has joined the growth process and reaped its benefits while the excluded majority watches from the margins in despair. This is a recipe for not only the loss of economic competitiveness but also social seclusion and criminality. It is important to ensure that youngsters acquire vocational skills to become employable. The right talent does not suffer from lack of opportunities. The need of the hour is to promote vocational education on the pattern of China, which has more than five lakh vocational schools to provide the needed training to job-seekers.

The education policy has to be demand-driven to fulfil the promises made. If India makes the necessary investments in training and infrastructure development, it will fuel economic growth in a dramatic manner. The ultimate resource is the country's people, especially the skilled youngsters.

If India wants to tackle its unemployment problem and get more people off agriculture (which is the only way to increase productivity and wages), the solution has to come from a stimulated manufacturing sector. The textile and clothing sector continues to provide the highest quantum of direct and indirect employment, but we need to create enough jobs in other sectors like science and technology, green technologies, leather, food processing, tourism, medical tourism, gems and jewellery, pharmaceuticals, bio-technology, automobiles and auto-components, etc.

There is also need to convert the country's demographic challenge into an opportunity by nurturing an entrepreneurship culture with right policies and by facilitating cost-effective access to capital through vibrant markets. Fiscal incentives to angel investors would help attract further investments and support fragile start-ups. The government is spending huge amounts on Bharat Nirman, MNREGA and other such schemes, but these have some side-effects in the form of higher inflation. These schemes have a negative impact on productivity through rising wages without a commensurate increase in the output.

We must keep in mind that India not only lives in its villages but is also born, grown up, works and grows old in its villages. And it is these villages that require a huge investment for providing basic education in an effective manner. Once education spreads in a big way in village India — Bharat — it will push up growth faster than ever experienced.

The focus, however, must be on new economy that requires high-tech skills and open mindedness for lifelong learning to keep up with the constantly evolving demands of the information age we live in. According to Narayana Murthy, we have not fully liberalised our education sector even after two decades of economic reforms. The need of the hour is to deregulate learning to bring about a revolution in this sector.

The writer is a senior professor at the University Business School, Panjab University, Chandigarh.

MIDDLE

Getting over testing time
by Pritam Bhullar

WHILE I was sitting in the living room after having my lunch a few months ago, a colleague of the olden days dropped in unannounced and said: "I had come for a bhog ceremony in the adjoining sector and thought of paying a visit to you." Seeing me sitting alone, he asked me: "Isn't any of the family members staying with you?" My answer was 'no'. "You must be finding it difficult staying alone at this age (86 years), especially when you have the knees' problem?" he further asked. My answer was that the power that has taken her away, has also taught me how to make an adjustment with life.

My wife, who passed away in January last year, often used to quote this from Gurbani: "Toou kahee dolat paranian, tudh rakhega sajan har; jin padaish toou kia, so hi karega sar." (Why are you feeling wobbly, oh man? God will take care of you. The one Who has created you will look after you).

Our society bid goodbye to the joint family system several decades ago. The subtle advantage of this system was that the aged were taken care of by the younger members of the family. Today, you find small families of three to four members — husband, wife and one or two children. In some rare cases, an older member (surviving father or mother) is also staying with them. This oldie has to stay alone for the better part of the day and night because all the younger members remain occupied in their vocations or studies. This scenario changes with time and a day comes in the majority of the cases when only one of the two life partners is left alone to fend for himself or herself. This is your testing time and you cannot wish it away.

You come to this world alone and you have to leave this world alone. And now in your life you are once again left alone. But remember one thing that you are never alone; your creator is always with you. Granted that you have remained busy in your life and rightly too. But now is the time to realise that nothing is in our hands and all that happens to us is ordained by God. So, we should obey him without cursing others or ourselves.

Having fallen in this situation, one has to create one's support system and it is imperative to do so if you are in your eighties. Those who have economic security and are used to living in comfort, necessarily would be having their staff to take care of their comfort and household chores. This could be a couple and a driver depending on the requirement and your pocket. When you are left alone, they are your prized possession. Consider them as a great asset, if they have already been with you both (you and your partner) for a few years and you have developed a sense of belonging to them and they have reciprocated with a convincing nod.

Now is the time to treat them as your family members, if you did not do so earlier. Give them long-term security and own them up. In nine out of 10 cases, they will also own you up and see you through. This is one of the suitable ways to get over your testing time.

OPED DOCUMENT

Replying to the debate on the President's Address in the Lok Sabha on March 6, the Prime Minister took on the BJP, pointed to its "arrogance" and emphasised that the average growth rate in nine years of UPA rule is 7.9 % compared to 6% of the NDA's six-year rule.
‘Judge UPA by its performance’
Dr Manmohan Singh

Our economy has faced a difficult situation in the past one year. Members are aware that our growth has slowed down and the fiscal deficit has risen. Inflation has been a persistent problem in the last two years. The Current Account Deficit is substantially higher than what we would like it to be. The Finance Minister has dealt with all these issues in his Budget speech, and before that the Economic Survey tabled in this House gave a fairly comprehensive picture of the state of the economy. I would therefore be brief in speaking about the challenges that confront our economy and what we need to do to overcome them.

However, Madam Speaker, I do wish to emphatically endorse the view of the Finance Minister that the slowdown in the economy need not persist, and that we are fully capable of putting the country back on a high growth path of 7 to 8 per cent per annum in the next two to three years. To achieve this, we need to increase the rate of investment, especially in infrastructure. Our effort, therefore, will be to raise domestic savings, contain the growth of subsidies and encourage private investment.

Inclusive growth implies not only reducing poverty, but also improving regional equality across and within States, uplift of the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and minorities, closing gender gaps and generating more and better employment opportunities.

While our aim is to achieve an average GDP growth of 8 per cent during the 12th Plan and agricultural growth of 4 per cent, the focus will continue to remain on inclusive growth. Inclusive growth implies not only reducing poverty, but also improving regional equality across and within States, uplift of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and minorities, closing gender gaps and generating more and better employment opportunities. Our policies have been designed to fulfill these objectives.

Madam, I listened with great interest to the speech of the hon. Shri Rajnath Singh ji, and the best I can do is to compare the nine years of UPA rule with the six years of NDA rule so that our country men and women can draw a proper appreciation of what has been done in these nine years. Madam, first I take the growth of the GDP. If you look at the period of nine years including the current period of slowdown, our average growth rate in these nine years will be 7.9 per cent. As against this, the NDA six years yield is no more than six per cent.

It is true that growth in 2012 has slowed down, but nowhere else this growth profile is in an upward direction. Europe is in recession, the US’ growth rate is very low; Japan is stagnating; Brazil’s growth rate is less than 2 per cent, South Africa’s growth rate is 2.3 per cent and in the light of the prevailing global situation, our growth rate looks to be impressive even though we are not satisfied with it.

Inclusiveness of the growth process can be judged in many ways. The first and foremost is the concern with the wellbeing of our farmers, what happens to agricultural production and as I said earlier from 2004-05 to 2011-12, that is the UPA period, the growth rate of agricultural production and allied activities was 3.7 per cent. The corresponding growth rate from 1998-99 to 2003-04 of the NDA period was no more than 2.9 per cent. Because agriculture has grown at a faster rate, also because of a number of inclusive policies put in place by our Government, like Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme, the per capita consumption in rural areas during the UPA period is 3.4 per cent. In the NDA period the per capita rural consumption was no more than 0.8 per cent.

I come now to real wages in agriculture. Real wages in agriculture in the

Eleventh Plan Period have grown at an average annual rate of 6.8 per cent. In the previous decade the growth rate of real wages in agriculture was no more than 1.1 per cent.

Madam, with regard to poverty, in the UPA Period, poverty declined at an average annual rate of two per cent per annum. In the preceding ten years, the decline was no more than 0.8 per cent.

Promoting inclusiveness

Madam, it is not my case that what we have achieved is the optimum level. I do recognise that growth requires efforts and further efforts to boost it — we need to do lot more to promote inclusiveness — that health and education require greater attention, that environment protection measures have to be adopted with greater amount of firmness. But I would respectfully submit to this august House that what has been achieved is not something which can be belittled as Shri Rajnath Singh ji tried to do.

I know that BJP has a particular view towards economic and social policy of the UPA. A few days ago, a conclave of the National Council of BJP assembled in Delhi, used the choicest abuses for the Congress establishment and Congress leadership including myself. It is not my intention to reply them in that language because I do believe that our work and our performance are the best judges of what we have achieved.

We have seen this arrogance not for the first time. The Shining India campaign in 2004 led to disastrous results for the BJP. In 2009, they fielded the iron man Advani ji against the lamb that Manmohan Singh is, and we all know as to what was the result. I am convinced that if the people of India were to look at our record in these nine or ten years, they would repeat what they did in 2004 and 2009.

State of agriculture

Madam, several members have expressed concern about the state of agriculture. I share that concern. Farmers in our country are the most important constituent that the UPA cares for. We have done utmost to give our farmers remunerative prices, and here I make bold to say that the procurement prices of wheat, of rice and other products have been raised in a manner which was never seen ever before in the history of this country.

Madam, it is the result of the hard work of our farmers and our policies that the average annual rate of growth in the agriculture and allied sector which was stagnating at the level of 2.4 per cent and 2.5 per cent during the Ninth and 10th Plans respectively increased to 3.7 per cent during the 11th Plan despite the occurrence of a countrywide drought in 2009.

It is true that the growth of the agricultural sector during 2012-13 is, at present, projected at 1.8 per cent. But the revival of the monsoon during the latter half of the kharif season and improved prospects of rabi due to conducive weather conditions give me hope that the actual growth rate during this year would be higher than the figure that I have mentioned. To address the issue of shortage of covered storage capacity, the Government had formulated the Private Entrepreneurs Guarantee Scheme in 2008. A capacity of 181 lakh metric tonnes has been sanctioned under this Scheme, of which 43 lakh metric tonnes of capacity has already been created.

Violence against women

Madam, several hon. Members, cutting across party lines, have expressed concern over incidence of violence against women. This is an issue, which unites all sections of our House; and I sincerely appeal to all sections of the House to speak with one voice. If there are any legislative measures, which we can agree upon, they can be then pushed forward at a much higher speed than is normally done when it comes to legislation through Parliament. I sincerely hope that we will, with one voice, agree to go forward in a manner, which will do justice to 50 per cent of India’s population, that is, our women and children. Let me reiterate to this august House the commitment of our Government to ensuring the dignity, safety and security of every woman of our country. We have adopted a series of measures — legislative, institutional and procedural — which reaffirm the collective responsibility of this Government in this direction as more and more women enter public spaces. The Government has been prompt in acting on the recommendation of the Justice Verma Committee, by promulgating an Ordinance amending and strengthening the law to deal with crimes of sexual violence against women. I am happy that ‘The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Bill, 2012’ was passed by Parliament last week.

We have a number of schemes in place to provide the restorative justice to victims of rape and sexual violence through financial assistance and support services. The National Mission for Empowerment of Women would be implementing ‘One Stop Crisis Centre’ of providing all necessary services for women victims/survivors of violence at a public hospital in 100 Districts. A new umbrella scheme for protection and empowerment of women and a toll free 24x7 helpline for women as a Central Sector Scheme across India is on the anvil.

The Government’s resolve is further reflected in the announcement of the Finance Minister in his Budget Speech that an additional amount of Rs. 200 crore has been allocated to the Ministry of Women and Child Development to address issues of gender discrimination. The Nirbhaya Fund of Rs. 1,000 crore announced by the Finance Minister is further testimony of our Government’s solidarity with our girl children and women as we pledge to empower them and keep them safe and secure. However, real and effective change in the status of women in our country can come only if there is a change in our societal values. We need to collectively work towards this goal.