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Right to vote Universal literacy |
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Lahore, Tuesday,
March 10, 1914
Indebtedness in
agriculture sector
Waiting for you,
dearie
Social segregation in
‘Shining India’
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Universal literacy While
India’s progress in education leaves a lot to be desired, Himachal Pradesh has often taken the lead. The hill state has not only achieved the goal of universal primary education, even its literacy rate is far above the national average. So when experts proclaim that 100 per cent literacy is very much possible in the state, one is tempted not to dismiss it as empty rhetoric. However, one can't ignore the underlying challenges, considering that often states which have high literacy rates do reach a plateau after a certain level. Since Independence literacy rates in India have increased substantially, from 18 per cent in 1951 to 74 per cent in 2011. However, certain harsh facts too can't be belied. India still bears the major burden of illiteracy. A UNESCO report pegs the number of illiterate adults in India at 287 million. According to the Sakshar Bharat Mission, literacy does not merely mean the ability to read and write and calls for 300 hours of learning to make adults functionally literate. Yet the dismal reality is that there is a gnawing gap between education and learning even among those who go to regular schools. No wonder after completing four years of school, 90 per cent of children from poorer households remain illiterate. No country can hope to progress, let alone become a knowledge power, if a vast section of its population remains ignorant. Illiteracy is the biggest stumbling block in the way of not only an individual's growth but also a nation. India loses 53 billion dollars on account of illiteracy. Add to it the social cost, the direct link between illiteracy and low income power as well as crime, and the need for a literate society becomes paramount. Universal literacy is a desirable goal, not just for Himachal Pradesh that has several appreciable initiatives on its blueprint for increasing the literacy rate, but for the whole of India.
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Thought for the Day
All anyone asks for is a chance to work with pride.
— W. Edwards Deming
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Outlet for “congested India”
IT would appear that Indians are wanted as “coolies” to earn profits for capitalists in the Solomon Islands and Sir William Lever has generously offered an invitation to the coolies in congested India. We are sure the suggestion will not be appreciated. Although the Government of India has not yet abolished the indentured system of labour, there is a very strong opinion that no more Indians should be sent out of India as labourers until more satisfactory arrangements could be made for their proper treatment. In India the problem is not only one of congested population but of increasing poverty and want of employment. Labourers therefore may be easily induced by recruiting agents to go to any country on promises of good wages and liberal treatment. The Indian economic problem must be solved by the Government of India and the policy of lending Indian labour for industrial exploitation outside India should be deprecated. The Indian Press Act
MR. Zafar Ali Khan, editor of the Zamindar, now in England, has issued in the form of a pamphlet a powerful appeal to the members of Parliament against the Indian Press Act. He describes the Act as "The most arbitrary collection of tyrannous measures conceived by the malevolent ingenuity of man" and says: that originally intended as a measure for the suppression of terrorism and anarchism this measure is now being employed for purposes far beyond its original intention. Any criticism of the action of Indian officialdom, however pure in its motives and however constitutional in its character, renders a writer or a newspaper under this lawless law liable to penalties which mean extinction." After stating that the Press Act has driven sedition under ground and describing some of its provisions he deals with his own paper, the Zamindar and gives an English translation of the offending articles which induced the Punjab Government to order the forfeiture of the security and confiscate the Press.
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Indebtedness in agriculture sector
No
worthwhile enterprise in any sector can be established and can flourish without institutional production loans. Agriculture is no exception. In the USA and Europe almost all farmers are under debt to banks. Banks there are virtual partners in the business of agriculture. As technology improvements are taking place at a faster rate by the day, farmers require higher and higher doses of finances for updating their resource use patterns and production technologies. This makes them more and more dependent on institutional finance. Perhaps the highest indebted farmer in the world is the American farmer. In India industrial enterprises and large businesses are the highest-indebted entities. In the secondary and tertiary sectors i.e. industrial enterprises and businesses, the loans obtained are used by and large for productive purposes as per the projects envisaged and evaluated by the banks for financial support. Non-performing assets (NPAs) in these sectors are primarily generated because of projects not succeeding as per plans. In the agriculture sector, if loans obtained are actually used for the purposes for which these are obtained, these investments would yield additional income and repaying capacities. The main problem in agriculture is that of diversion of production loans to meet the consumption needs of the family either directly or to retire the loans obtained earlier from money-lenders to meet the emergency needs or social obligations. Although banks have issued credit cards to farmers, yet the limits do not meet their consumption requirements because these requirements are not embedded into the total entitlements. As a consequence, loans obtained for production purposes in large part get used for consumption purposes. Often production priorities get superseded by consumption necessities. It is therefore of paramount importance that while advancing production credit, reasonable consumption requirements, if any, must be taken care of. It is bit of a paradox that farm sector financial distress is more common and more sever in the agro-climatically better placed areas compared with states having a not-so-conducive soil-water-climate environment. The Punjab farm sector is much more in the grip of indebtedness and suicides than the agriculturally handicapped states like Bihar, U.P. and Rajasthan. One of the dominant reasons is the higher entitlement of crop loans per unit of land here because of two-crop irrigated lands. Farmers in financial distress borrow money to the limit of entitlement and divert a large part of it for consumption purposes. This leads to a higher level of NPAs in the farm sector. There is therefore a dire need for proper evaluation of the needs for institutional borrowings and continuous monitoring of the expenditure made to meet the objectives specified in the loan applications. Unfortunately the target-oriented approach has vitiated the credit culture of the country. It is not only in the financial sector for the advancement of loans to various sectors and laying down priorities and earmarking of their share in the total lending, in every sector the concept of targets set from the supply side over the last more than six decades has created a situation similar to the pouring of food on closed mouths. The recipient system in the country has not been paid the needed attention. For instance, in planning targets, the money spent is taken as achievement. No where any impact analysis is done whether the money spent has achieved the intended objectives. Similarly, in priority lending the achievement is the loans advanced only. What happens to the impact of these credit advances on generating additional incomes and repaying capacities is nowhere looked into. As a consequence, the financial institutions have been accumulating NPAs over time and government-owned banks had to be recapitalised again and again at the cost of the exchequer. It is quite a disquieting situation that the premier bank of the country, the State Bank of India, incurred the highest additional NPAs during the first half of the financial year 2013-14. The 40 listed banks of the country had a 38 per cent increase in net NPAs from March 31 to September 30, 2013, from a level of Rs 93,109 to Rs. 1,28,533 crore. Five major banks —SBI, Bank of Baroda, PNB, CBI and Union Bank — reported an above 30 per cent increase in NPAs in this period. By the end of the financial year the net NPAs are likely to increase to Rs. 1.5 lakh crore. It is the push effect from the supply side that the SBI registered the highest NPAs in agriculture at 9.4 per cent of their lending in the sector compared with 5.7 per cent in both the industrial and services sectors and only 2 per cent in retail. It is all due to the shoddy evaluations under pressure to achieve the targets of priority lending in the sector and virtually no effective monitoring of the end use of the finances advanced to the borrowers. The fact is that the government banks have no solid competence to evaluate the loans and later monitor the use of advances because of lack of knowledge of the sector at the level of bank branches, specially the rural branches, that deal with farm sector loans. Low interest rates and subventions on timely repayments are very appropriate policy interventions in the farm sector lending, yet it is a double-edged weapon which has also promoted some unscrupulous large farmers get into money-lending to small and marginal farmers as well as non-farming families at higher rates. Although these land owners do not need any loans for themselves, they borrow to the full limits of entitlements and indulge in informal money-lending. It is therefore of paramount importance that where the supply side of the farm credit is being emphasised, the institutional lenders must take equal care of the recipient side through proper evaluation of the loan cases and then effective monitoring of the use of the money advanced for specified purposes. This requires the appointment of agricultural technocrats with an orientation in the business of banking at lending branches in the rural sector. Bankers need to keep in mind that they are the trustees of the depositors' money and recapitalisation of the banks due to escalating NPAs comes from the honest tax payers' money. The probity demands that they realise that they are the superior partners in the business of borrowers and their stakes are much higher as financiers of the business, particularly in the agriculture and rural sectors of the economy.
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Waiting for you, dearie Suddenly my eyes get fixed on something attired in crimson huddled like a coy bride near roses of varied hues and tempting marigold. The scene fascinates me like anything. To my surprise I find crimson melting till it becomes illusive white. In no time it lies down on the green carpet laid down by nature to welcome it. Good heavens! Hardly have I taken a sip or two when I find it lazing around on the courtyards. O mine too! How elated I am you can't imagine. More than my cup of tea I get interested in its enchanting movements. Springs like a butterfly from one place to another in a jiffy. Worth watching, indeed, is all the flower beds getting bathed in its brightness. Just can't express déjà vu I derive getting soaked in its warmth. I can't help pulling my chair wherever it moves. Feel I have fallen in love with it deeply. The naughty one has settled in my window making me feel on the top of the world. Perhaps, it is challenging me to catch hold of it. Not only mine but beyond anybody's reach. Something slippery virtually. Up on the move like Time. In no time it jumps like a juggler to the wall. It is covering walls of other houses too. Awakening the sleeping planet. Imparting life to its inhabitants. One by one windows open. Very cleverly it taps on them and peeps into rooms bringing them to life. A rejuvenating force, indeed. I get immensely involved in its captivating and alluring movements that don't feel like going in. In fact, a heavenly pleasure to watch toddlers in multi-coloured jackets and pullovers holding their mother's hands coming out in the open. Some bring their bats and balls. They too can't resist enjoying its reinvigorating power. Lo, the aged warm up their arthritis-afflicted joints in its cosiness while gossiping. My goodness! The restless one doesn't stay there too. Daily chores campel me to go in for some time. By the time I get back, it has selected one corner of the roof for its playfulness. Perhaps not satisfied with it too, it rests on the uppermost branches of trees nearby. Finally visible is the crimson sky in the far distance only. Gradually evening shadows envelope the earth. Like a mischievous babe enjoying crawling fast and finally hiding behind the curtains, it too hides behind the hills. It is gone……gone displaying its beauty and charm. Gone leaving us in the lurch. It did show its face after a long, long wait. Alas! it vanished so soon. Thou the sunshine of winter-end do come again to cheer us up. Waiting for you,
dearie.
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Social segregation in ‘Shining India’
The
slow shift in the mid-1980s and the full-blown liberalisation in 1991 have changed the path of India’s economic and social development. There is the building of a ‘New India’ image by the media as an inspirational symbol of techno-optimism. This is reflected in the changed attitude of youth from the educated middle class, who are no more the passive recipients of state favours but demand solutions to problems through their own initiatives and actions. Their actions are oriented towards transparency, accountability and efficiency in the delivery of government services. Given their talent and aspirations, they have a firm faith in technological solutions. The whole discourse is built around unlimited potentials of technology, managerial skills and forces of globalisation. The aspirational educated youth identify themselves with the educated youth of the advanced world. The knowledge of English comes handy in participating in the globalised world. In the new policy frame the space for state activities has shrunk and the space for private players widened. The market forces and technologies are thought to provide efficient solutions as compared to the bureaucratised public sector operations. Any discussion on inequality based on class and caste is perceived as old-styled politics and orthodox economics.
The aspirational techno-optimist image of ‘New India’ has pushed forward solutions to problems through the market forces. This can be seen in the private housing sector in the urban areas and private institutions in education and health. It is argued that the amount of investment required to solve housing problems or provide education to large masses and make arrangement of their healthcare, is so large that the private sector has to be involved with a large amount of concessions such as exemptions from taxes, land at concessional rates and liberalisation of rules. This has set in motion the market forces and private players who want to make quick returns in the form of profits. In the process costs and prices have become very high, playing an exclusionary role for the poor. Although private colonisers are supposed to keep some percentage of the built-up area for the poor, the poor are missing from the walled posh colonies which have come up in every city with the round-the-clock supply of water and electricity and provision of private security for residents.
The exclusion of the poor and low-caste population is more visible in educational and health institutions created in the private sector. The fees and user charges are so high that the poor cannot access high quality private English medium schools and five-star hospitals and clinics in the private sector. The passing of the Right to Education Act, 2009 has reserved seats for economically weaker sections (EWS), yet private players are reluctant to fill such seats. Wherever EWS students are admitted, this is done symbolically. A few students from low paid employees of the schools or other neighbourhood students are admitted to show their presence in the schools dominated by upper castes and rich sections of society. The situation is very clear in private clinics and hospitals. One hardly finds any patient from the weaker sections. In many cases private hospitals have been built on the land provided by public agencies at concessional rates. In most of the states government agencies have not put in place a mechanism to refer patients from poor classes to private hospitals to meet even the legal obligations. The consequences of the unchecked operation of the market forces, especially in the social sector, include the institutional segregation of the population. There is a clear divide between the haves and the have-nots. Children of the poor depend entirely on government or government-aided schools. Private unaided schools are exclusively for the rich. In schools for the poor there are serious drawbacks. There is lack of infrastructure such as buildings, furniture and teaching aides. There is an acute shortage of teachers. Above all, most of these schools remain headless for years together. The monitoring and supervisory mechanism has been destroyed by teachers’ politics, maladministration and apathy by governments. On the other hand, schools for the rich are well managed and properly supervised. There is an adequate number of teachers (though low paid), proper infrastructure and no political interference. The schools for the have-nots are not allowed to function as teachers are asked to do non-teaching jobs such as census operations and implementation of government programmes (mid-day meal, data collection for ration cards, taking students for political rallies etc). This writer worked on the IAS probationers’ (2003-09) reports of 23 villages in Punjab supplied by LBSAA, Mussoorie. The results are an eye-opener. The shortage of teachers is a common problem in most government schools. The rural government schools are attended by wards from SCs and distressed peasants. In 50 per cent of the villages unaided private schools have come up where wards of upper castes and rich people study. In villages where private schools have not come up, children of the rich study in private schools in other villages or cities. There is no interest among the upper castes and the rural rich to improve government schools because their wards do not study in these schools. The number of teachers is inadequate They have also no interest in improving these schools because their wards do not study there. Many teachers manage their appointments and postings through political pressure. They lack motivation and commitment to improve these schools. The government schools are orphans. The government, the teachers and those who matter in the rural areas and urban colonies of the poor are not interested in improving these schools. Consequently, the dropout rates are very high and students from such schools rarely go in for higher education. The story is not different in case of primary healthcare. Doctors are not willing to serve in the rural areas. In most parts of the country a large number of vacancies both of doctors and paramedical staff remain unfilled. The dispensaries and primary health centres are run with a skeleton staff, with minimum medicines and test facilities. The rich generally access private healthcare facilities in the urban areas. The poor use facilities available in the poorly managed public healthcare. The rich are withdrawing from the crippled institutions and have no interest in their improvement. This has produced the segregation of the poor both in the rural and urban areas. The poor live in the notified or non-notified slum areas in cities and on the western side of the villages, sometimes at a distance. The colonies of the poor lack portable water supply, cleanliness, sewerage and regular supply of electricity. Their wards study in government schools and they access only non-working/ailing healthcare system. This is a consequence of an unbridled market system which works brazenly against the resource-poor buyers. Social segregation is a method to keep human resources of the poor in bad health and without education and skills. This will perpetuate their exclusion from the fast-growing modern sectors of the economy. The experience of the last three decades brings out that India has left the rank of low-income countries to join middle income countries but has produced two sets of Indians. One set of around 20-23 per cent Indians represent ‘New India’ which is shining and aspirational in outlook. Another set constitutes nearly 77 per cent of the population which represents distressed and depressed India, lacking shine as well as aspirations but this set is slowly becoming angry. The narrative of ‘New India’ is built in the media while the narrative of the poor is not known to the new India and it is a narrative of suffering, pain and neglect. Without looking into their needs and generating hope among them, India will experience what Amartya Sen calls ‘an uncertain glory’. Without sharing the prosperity of ‘New India’ with the large masses and building an integrated society by ending institutional segregation, neither India’s democracy nor sustained economic development can be ensured. This would require change in the commitment and attitude of those who matter in policy-making and its implementation. The stress on merely economic growth cannot ensure a unified and integrated society. The distribution of income and wealth, long ago stated by classical economist David Ricardo, has to be made as the principal issue of policy. The way Indian policy has worked, it has produced stark inequality. The slogan of inclusive growth seems to be rhetoric. The concrete steps like MNREGA have marginally improved the rural labour wages and incomes of the poor. The food security Act may improve the nutrition and poverty situation. They are not enough to counter the forces of market operating in the health, education and housing sectors. In the housing sector the real estate operations have sky-rocketed the prices of land and houses/flats. The poor can be allotted house sites free of cost in the rural areas and provided liberal financial support under Indira Awas Yojana. In the urban areas the poor can be provided flats/houses at much subsidised and affordable prices under Rajiv Awas Yojana. In these areas critical intervention is needed. These are the sectors which need to be insulated from rent seeking and profiteering. They need to be governed with motives of social returns rather than profitability. The research in these sectors shows a very high rate of profit earned by the investors, especially in the family-run enterprises. The narrative of the poor is faced with big road blocks which can be removed by a powerful movement of the poor. The big challenge remains how to provide quality education and healthcare to the poor, especially SCs and STs, at affordable cost in institutions accessed by the rich. — The writer is the Director General, Centre for Research in Rural & Industrial Development, Chandigarh
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A
cosy and warm morning. How nice! The azure sky has shown its face after dark cloudy days. Fog too has gone into hiding. So is the teeth-clattering and bone-chilling cold with its chilly winds. A little nip in the air along with warmth impels men and women to come out in the open. I too am sitting in the lawn with my morning cuppa. 