W
|
|
Land Rates |
|
|
|
Industrial Plots per sq. mtr |
: |
7000 |
|
Residential Plots per sq. mtr |
: |
14000 |
|
Commercial Plots per sq. mtr |
: |
15000 |
Whereas in Aurangabad Region ( distance from Pune 230 Km.) the same are quoted as follows
|
MIDC has acquired 34.95 hectares of land on Satara Village road for industrial development. The land, in the heart of Aurangabad city, lies near the railway station. Skilled and unskilled manpower is amply available at Aurangabad. |
|
|
|
Land Rates |
|
|
|
Industrial Plots per sq. mtr |
: |
1200 |
|
Residential Plots per sq. mtr |
: |
1800 |
|
Commercial Plots per sq. mtr |
: |
3000 |
At a place called Khultabad ( Where Aurangjeb’s tomb is situated) the rates are
|
Khultabad (Group D) |
|
|
|
Land Rates |
|
|
|
Industrial Plots per sq. mtr |
: |
25 |
|
Residential Plots per sq. mtr |
: |
40 |
The water
rates charged by MIDC e.g. in Aurangabad are as follows
Water rates of MIDC In Aurangabad Region are 15:50 per
Cu.meter for Industrial purpose and 6.00 for Domestic Consumption inside
Ind. Area and the same are 23:25 and 8:25 for outside Ind. Area
Now let turn our attention to CIDCO : The single largest
state corporation for housing.
Brief History of CIDCO:
On
realising the emerging problem, in 1958 the then Government of Bombay
appointed a study group under the Chairmanship of S.G. Barve, Secretary of
the Public Works Department, to consider the problems of traffic
congestion, deficiency of open spaces and play fields, shortage of housing
and over-concentration of industry in the metropolitan and suburban areas
of the city, and to recommend specific measures to deal with these.
The Government of Maharashtra accepted the Barve Group
recommendation. To examine metropolitan problems in a regional context the
government appointed another committee chaired by Prof. D.R. Gadgil, then
Director of the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune in
March, 1965. The committee was asked to formulate broad principles of
regional planning for the metropolitan regions of Bombay. Panvel and Pune
and make recommendations for the establishment of Metropolitan Authorities
for preparation and execution of such plans.
The
Formation of CIDCO
The board recommended that the new metro-centre or Navi Mumbai as it is
now called, be developed to accommodate a population of 21 lacs. The
recommendation was accepted by the government of Maharashtra. Accordingly,
the City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra Limited was
incorporated on 17th March 1970 under the Indian Companies Act, 1956.
By February 1970 the government notified for acquisition of privately owned land covering 86 villages and admeasuring 15,954 ha. ( Fifteen Thousand Nine Hundred and Fifty Four) within the present limits of Navi Mumbai. Land belonging to further 9 villages, admeasuring 2,870 ha. (Two thousand eight Hundred and seventy) was additionally designated in August, 1973 for inclusion in the project area.
Vasai - Virar Sub region
The State Government appointed CIDCO the Special Planning Authority for the Vasai-Virar region in 1990.
|
Appointment of CIDCO as S.P.A. |
14.05.1990 |
|
Total Notified Area (Ha.) |
38000 |
|
Urbanised area (Ha.) |
9353 |
|
Area approved for development (Ha.) |
1425 |
|
Total tenement approved |
1,26,417 |
|
Tenements given occupancy certificate |
77,076 |
Thus we find that two major suburbs, rather, twin corporations around Mumbai set up by CIDCO had acquired about 57,000 hectors.
Before we move on to the last issue let me underline the fact that both MIDC and CIDCO are products of late sixties and seventies unlike the popular perception of such bodies being floated mainly after the economy opened up, ie the nineties
Central Budget and Agriculture Land
We quickly look at the Central budget to find out what are the main sources of its income. In the earlier part we have given the analysis of different factors contributing to the GDP. If we take a look at the centre’s annual budget, the 2009-10 budget outlay was 11 lakh crore.
- India’s budget outlay is over 1.1 million Crores and GDP in Rs. is about 3.4 Million Crorers
- Major sources of Receipts to the Central Government are
- Corporate Tax contributing about 40% of direct receipts
- Union Excise contributing about 18 %
- Income Tax (17%) and Customs (16%)
Most of these receipts are from the Non-agriculture sector (nearly 90% +) thus Direct revenue from agriculture and taxes collected from agriculture are negligible. (Of course, mere taxation does not tell you a full story as Michael Lipton has rightly pointed out in his book … “ without trying to put taxation in to its (usually very small) place in the context of the total burdens borne, and benefits received by agriculture and other sectors. ….. ignores non tax transfers – including the huge price twists- but that will be yet another subject for a not only national but International convention/s.)
The point I am trying to drive at is that the Government in a country like India no longer looks at Agriculture as a means to raise revenue. That is evident from the annual budget receipt sources.
The secondary and Tertiary sectors in India may continue to grow even faster given their past performance but may not put much pressure on the agricultural land. The pressure from the housing sector around the Mega, metro, Big and small cities will continue on the outskirts of these urban communities. The housing pressure on land could be eased if proper plans are drawn and multistoried buildings are allowed in the cities.
Losing Land and Livelihood
In the event when land acquisition becomes unavoidable, we need to equip the person who will lose land and the person who will be deprived of livelihood to negotiate an appropriate price. Needless to say there cannot be one price for all lands.
Even if the land owner gets proper compensation (with or without the pressure from civil societies), it will not guarantee that the all land dependants, who are not necessarily only owners but also those who till it and labour on it for their livelihood will get any compensation under “land-acquisition”. Infact they will definitely not get any compensation. We need to make special efforts and raise demands for restoration of livelihood for those dependent on the acquired land.
In a majority of cases of land owners the piece of land they possess is far too inadequate for their needs. Our experience of working with such families shows that they cannot afford to live with single livelihood but they need to have a basket of livelihoods to keep them alive for the whole year. In the event when the land of such families is acquired, not only are they deprived of their land but alongwith that they are also deprived of the basket of livelihood opportunities. Thus when making demands for compensation, one must demand better opportunities than what existed before for the landed as well as landless and / or land dependants.
The present bill, happily talks about Rehabilitation and Resettlement (though it has several areas that need improvement). Let us together make suggestions that will help restore livelihoods with dignity!
Important elements from the proposed Bill that need discussion
Public purpose: Needs much deliberation within and outside national boundaries, We must learn from the past, before we allow government to decide it arbitrarily and force people to suffer. There are interesting debates on this issue and it is worth looking at them while deciding which ‘public purpose’ is worth putting poor people to suffering.
Price for loss of Land & livelihood- both: - Extracting consumer surplus is good business sense, something we have learned from Business friends and must be used in price fixing exercise not only of land but of loss of opportunities and bearing the pain of R & R.
Finally land acquisition must acknowledge the restoration of livelihoods of all affected. May be we could ask for a suitable name – Calling it “Restoration of Opportunities and Rehabilitation Bill’ instead of and Acquisition!
(http://www.midcindia.org/Pages/AboutUs.aspx#)
- http://dacnet.nic.in/eands/latest_2006.htm http://mines.gov.in/writereaddata/Contentlinks/be6cfa52b2fa4283bc947acf918be5eb.pdf
- * Irfan Habib (2009) Medieval India
** (Laxman Satya (1997)- Cotton and famine in Berar 1859-1900 )
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Micro-Credit in the rural areas: Nature, Scope and Possibilities.
(Nature of difficulties, Limitations of scope and Possibilities in Urban arena)
Pravin Mahajan, Janarth Aurangabad
Background:
From mid seventies from the last century, the NGOs in development field started with the strong belief that “ (even) poor people can save”. Thus this saving was envisaged as a good way out to come out of the clutches of the moneylenders. Hind-site one feels that the belief may have originated from the understanding that poor are poor because they do not save and subsequently are trapped in the vicious circle of Poverty. Until early nineties of last century it was considered “Normal” to give matching grants (to be passed on to the poor yet who are saving money) to the projects those who would encourage savings among poor families or target groups as it was referred to. There was and still is a general confusion among the NGOs about the definition of “saving”. Money deposited with the group is by and large considered as “Savings”, the source of this amount is considered immaterial.
Subsequently, the groups were lent money to circulate among themselves as Credit Fund. Thus until early nineties the popular term within the development field was “Savings and Credit”. The money was lent on high rate of interest without considering the capacity of the activity to bear that high rate of interest. The argument used to be that the moneylender is charging even higher rate of interest and that people can afford to pay (a popular misconception) thus why not charge relatively high but lower than money lenders rate of interest. The rate of interest plays a significant role in any business activity and it becomes even more important for a business activity in rural areas, where customers and purchasing power is relatively extremely limited. In the last 10 years or even less the rate of interest has occupied prominence in all sectors including development sector.
1990s saw a major change when the Term Micro credit and subsequently Micro Credit ++ and finally the entire plus plus area was covered under the term ‘finance’. Thus Micro finance term thrived in the development sector. Relatively large amounts of money within the development sector started flowing for Micro finance. There were and still are major arguments about how big (in terms of amount) this “micro” could be. Thus came up the MFIs i.e. Micro Finance Institutions with specialized skills of dealing with money and enterprises. It will be interesting to look at the balance sheets of these MFIs as far as their lending are concerned. The rate of repayment of the loans given by the NGOs or MFIs may look smarter but whether the repayment has come from the activity for which the money was lent, is a big question mark. The earlier term of ‘savings and Credit’ became service delivery approach as against Micro finance was/ is seen as Rights based one. It was conceived that poor must have right to access credit. Many people argue about the need of micro-finance for needs beyond business activity or livelihood activity, as is popularly known in development sector. The overall concept is to make financial and other related help available on the condition of returning the amount with interest and would continue the livelihood activity without external support. In the following pages we shall see what it really means at the grass-roots level.
The apparent Philosophy of micro-credit / micro finance
Micro-Finance has the belief that if credit is made available to the poor, they (the poor) can come out their poverty. At one point of time the amount of micro credit requirement was (ridiculously) quoted to be just US $20 only. The belief that credit availability will end poverty of the poor is still strong in the sections of the development world.
It is not easy to understand what poor people will do with the credit? One of the understandings (or assumptions) is that they can start a business / livelihood activity and this activity will drag them out of their poverty. This is a half-truth! It is true that the business can have a potential to generate enough surplus to pull (even) the poor family out of their poverty, but this statement is complete only along with a rider. The rider is, it is possible provided if the business is able to capture sufficient customers, required turnover and profit. This is dependant on many factors that are decided by the economic activities within the given boundaries. This has many (unnoticed) linkages with the local economy and outside. Merely setting up a livelihood activity is not a sufficient condition to come out of poverty, partially or completely. There is no automatic guarantee of even improving economic condition of the participating poor family just because the (poor) family has started livelihood activity with Micro-finance support. Accessing micro credit or micro finance neither proves to be neither a sufficient condition nor even an essential condition to get rid of participant family’s poverty. At best accessing Micro credit / Micro finance for livelihood activity could be one of the ways for some families, this is not a general prescription for alleviating poverty. Lets us see why I am saying so.
Rural areas & Livelihood activities:
This issue of Micro-credit or micro finance available becomes even more complicated when it comes to setting up livelihood activity, especially in the rural areas in country like ours.
The rural areas are characterized as majority population dependant on Agriculture (in most of the cases predominantly dry-land agriculture), along with skewed resource distribution, with low surplus creation (as compared to Industries or service sector) and relatively low growth rate. Rural sector by and large contributes as “primary sector”.
To understand the intricacies of setting up business/ livelihood activity (through Micro credit or Micro finance) in the rural area one needs to take the productions and needs relationship, in the light of skewed ownership of resources, and the broad pattern of spending in the rural area.
The Statement:
Let me start with a simple statement. Any business / livelihood activity requires demand for the product backed up by monetary support.
Now we shall take a look at a village economy and shall take stocks of production, the surplus availability and subsequent demands from the available surplus.
We shall make these calculations in two different methods one by deriving from macro level picture to the village level and another by integrating at the grass-roots/ village level, to understand how is the market size within the village.
Let us assume that a village has a population of lets say 1000 persons with normal demographic distribution.
Lets accept government figures that claim only 30 % are below poverty line and another 40% are above poverty line but can be termed as middle class and only 30 % are financially well off.
It is difficult to know the exact land ownership pattern but if we go by classical claims of skewed distribution the top 20% owns about 80 % of land and the rest 50 % own only 20 % of land and about 30% of population is landless, in other words 30% are entirely dependent on wage labor.
For the sake of illustration we shall take the real figures given by the Government of Maharashtra on their official web site. (Accessed on 20th June 2006)
The study related highlights are as follows:
Net sown area per capita is 0.18 Hec.
Gross Cropped area per capita is 0.23 Hec
Gross irrigated area per capita is 0.03 hec
Gross Cropped to Gross irrigated percentage 16.4 %
The average operational holding is just about 1.87 Hec
Derivative method:
The State income calculations show that the contribution by Primary sector to Gross income is merely 12.83% and the population (rural) engaged in primary sector accounts for about 57% of total population. Thus broadly speaking primarily the 57% population accounts for only12.83 % of gross income of the state.
If we make rough calculations, the per capita income of the state is stated as Rs.32,170/-, the same figure when calculated for rural areas stand at only Rs. 7631/- (States total income stands at Rs. 328451 Cr. And the population is 9.68 Cr.; contribution by primary sector is Rs. 42,169 Cr. And if we broadly assume that only the rural population is all engaged in primary sector i.e. Agriculture. Thus the population of 5.52 Cr contributes Rs. 42,169 Cr, thus this works out to Rs. 7631/- per capita in the rural area)
(Figures for all India :If we take the percentage share of Agriculture in the Country’s GDP, the GDP is quoted as Rs.14,24,500 Crores and the share of agriculture is Rs.3,15,800 Crores i.e. 22.1%, the corresponding rural population is shown as 74.2 Crores. Thus the per capita income in the rural area stands at Rs. 4256/- only- (Ref: Indian Economy, Dutt & Sundaram, 52nd Edition, pp 486-487))
For the sake of making calculations simple we take the irrigation percentage as given by the sate i.e. 16.4% in 2004, and we assume that the rest 73 % of the land will be under food crops.
The broad break up for the state shows that about 27 % of land (dry land) is under pulses crops and 73 % is under food grains like Rice, Wheat, Jawar, Bajri etc. The state production averages are also quoted as Rice 1.43 MT/Hec, Wheat 1.3MT/Hec, Jawar 0.83 and Bajri 0.74 MT/Hec.
Let us also take the total production of crops like Sugar Cane, Cotton Lint and Groundnut as uniform. Thus we divide the total production of the same by the rural population and arrive at a per capita figure to cover the irrigated area. (We also assume that there is irrigated area to the tune of 16.4% in each village). This averaging comes to sugar Cane 690 Kg/ Capita, Cotton 9.05Kg / capita and Groundnuts 9.09 Kg/capita. These figures can be multiplied by some price (as realistic as possible) to arrive at the village’s income possibility.
Lets first look at the broad average of Rs. 7631/- per capita per annum income of a village. (Based on primary sector income divided by rural population) Thus for a population of 1000 the total income is Rs.76,31,000/- (Seventy Six lakhs, Thirty One thousand), lets add another 10 % of secondary sector contribution as Income at Rs. 15,43,000/-, plus add another 8 lakhs from contribution to Tertiary sector income thus the total comes to say 100 lakhs (rounded figure). (For assuming Secondary and Tertiary Income no definite logic has been used, but to stretch the village income some share is assumed, I don’t think this will change drastically to upscale village income)
Thus this amount shows the maximum possibility of any transactions in that village (within the geographical boundary) for a total not exceeding Rs. 100 lakhs. If we assume that any reasonable business in the village is likely to make 10% net profit (of its turnover), the 100 lakhs would give 10 lakhs as net profit availability in that village. Lets look at what these 10 lakhs suggest in terms of supporting population, this net profit figure of 10 lakhs for a year comes to Rs. 2740/- per day. In our state the minimum wage prescribed is Rs. 65/- per day per person. Thus in terms of Minimum wage this figure of 2740/- indicates the possibility of 42.1 persons could be engaged in gainful manner (for 365 days, at minimum wage only), within the village boundaries and making business within the village resources.
Now we shall turn our attention to the reality, given the skewed resource distribution including land ownership. Lets assume the top 30 % will corner about 45% of total income, the middle 40% will hold 40% and the bottom 30% will have only 15 % of total income. (This is just an assumption, the search for more accurate figures would further deteriorate the share of the poor in the economy, and thus taking these figures on the higher side has no harm. It is very difficult to find unanimously agreed figures on this)
Thus out of Rs. 100 lakhs the top 30% will have 45 lakhs, the middle 40% will have 40 lakhs and the bottom 30% will have only 15 lakhs. This shows that the bottom-rung families would earn little above the BP line. I.e. Rs. 26,000/- p.a. (for a family of 5.2), The Middle class will have family income of Rs.52,000/- per annum (family size of 5.2) and the top 30% will have an average family income of Rs. 78,000/- p.a.
Let us make further assumption (based on same as above, as no unanimous figures are available) that the bottom 30 % families spend about 70% of their income on Food, the middle 40 % spends about 40% on food and the top 30% spends only 20% on food. Thus the total expenditure on food would be about 35.5 Lakhs i.e. 35.5 % of total Income. This expenditure on basic food needs in the villages would reduce the amount available for other needs. This reduction would reduce the available market size thus subsequently, the number of persons who could be gainfully, but at the minimum wage limit, employed / involved in the livelihood activities. This number will get reduced to 27 businesspersons in a village of 1000 population with the total gross income of 100 lakhs per annum. (Just 2.7 % population)
These calculations could be further refined to broadly trace the needs of the top 30%, Middle 40% and the bottom 30%. The needs of the top 30% and of the middle 40% would indicate what interventions are possible in a given village. But this will change from area to area and hence I am not attempting to refine it here.
The grass root Integration method:
The village income can be estimated by using cropping pattern in the village, the average yield of the crops and the normal range of price offered to these products, plus calculating any other income by participation in secondary and tertiary sectors within the village.
Let us take the other route of integration to understand the village income and surplus possibilities.
The gross cropped area reported in Maharashtra stands at 22,198 thousand hectors and the rural population is 55221 thousand persons thus the per capita gross cropped area comes to 0.4 Hec per capita. Therefore our village with a population of 1000 persons will have a gross cropped area of 400 Hectors.
The broad break up shows that 16.4 % area is gross irrigated area of gross cropped area, this gives a fig. of 66 hectors as irrigated area within our village under question. We shall reduce this from the total area and take our calculations further. We are left with 334 hectors for dry land crops.
The break up of crops shows that of the total area under total food-grains, pulses occupy 27 % of land under total food grains and 73 % is under different grain crops. The majority crop is Jawar that accounts for over 51% of land under grains, followed by Bajri and Rice (16.59 and 16.48 respectively) and finally Wheat accounts for 8.2 % of gross cropped area. The Average productions of the same are quoted as follows
Rice: 1.43 MT/ Hector, Wheat: 1.35 MT/Hec, Jawar: 0.83 MT / Hec and Bajri: 0.74 MT/ Hec. Total pulses production is shown as 1665 thousand MT (2004), and the area under total pulses are quoted as 3384 thousand Hectors thus the average productivity turns out to be o.49 MT/ Hec. Thus the total grain produce in our village would be as follows
Crop Area Production Price Total Amount
Rice 55.04 78.71 MT 10 7,87,100
Wheat 27.38 36.97 MT 10 3,69,738
Jawar 170.34 141.38 MT 8 11,31,057
Bajri 55.41 41.00 MT 7 2,86,026
Total Pulses 91.00 44.59 MT 20 8,91,800
Total Income 34,65,721
Irrigated land 66.00
Sugar Cane 33.00 3300.00 MT 1000 33,00,000
Cotton 33.00 82.50 MT 20000 16,50,000
Grand Total 84,15,721
The prices are taken on slightly higher level as MSP (Minimum support price) for grains is about Rs. 5000 to Rs. 6000/- per MT, the same for pulses is around Rs. 12,000 to 14,000 per MT, I have taken prices on higher side as the current highest price in the whole sale market.
Thus the total income from agriculture at all state averages (applicable to rural areas) comes to about Rs. 8415/- per capita per annum.
As we did in the earlier part of this paper (in the derivative method) lets add 10% contribution in secondary sector as coming from rural parts thus the total income would go up to Rs. 99,58,721/- (15,43,000+ 84,15,721). If we further take the contribution to tertiary sector income at 5 % from rural population we can add another 18,21,000 to our village income kitty. Thus by stretching it from all sides the village income calculated at an average does not exceed more than Rs. 11.77 millions in other words Rs. One crore Seventeen lakhs seventy nine thousand +. An addition of just about 17 % to the calculations above by derivative method from Macro to Micro, (but this rise can be wiped out if we calculate income on MSP or average prices)
Normally the villages where we are trying to support micro finance activities are the ones those who are significantly below the state averages.
If we take the food expenditure (after taking weighted averages) of 35.5 % of the whole market size within the village reduces to just about Rs. 75 lakhs as Market size. Thus at 10 % net profit possibility, and at earning equal to a minimum wage in the area the total number of persons who would be gainfully employed for 365 day will be just about 31 persons on the higher side. (Just 3 % population)
Despite these limitations one can look forward to designing the livelihood activities in such a way that the activity would serve the demands of those who have sizable surplus available for demanding products other than food items. Even the food demands from the urban area could also be a niche for some livelihood interventions in the rural area with a bridge to urban area (with surplus availability). While designing the livelihood options for the rural poor one can look at the local weekly markets to understand demands from the rural surplus holders, and the supplies that come from urban areas that can be reduced though not completely avoided.
To understand the majority needs of the majority in the rural areas, weekly markets are one of the best sources that reflect the needs of these people. Looking at the weekly markets one can decide how best those needs could be satisfied in the village itself. The weekly market trading provides clues of what is involved in trading in any particular commodity, what consumer base is required to deal in any particular item. It will be an interesting exercise to analyze the commodities exchanged in the weekly markets, on issues like predominant production area, predominant consumption area, produced in rural or urban area. Shelf life of the product in terms of long, medium short etc. to get some idea of what all would be involved in setting up any business activity in the rural area.
With the arguments above one would understand the difficulties to set up business activity in the village and in the rural areas. Firstly, the income of the village from participation in secondary and tertiary sectors is a bit stretched argument considering the reality. Secondly, the villages where one is trying to help poor people to set up business activity is certainly not a clean slate for business activities. There are already existing businessman in the villages and majority actually belong to middle and top 30 % class who control business activities in the villages except the traditional service sector that still goes by and large on traditional social sanctions. One almost doesn’t find a space within the village domain of business activities.
To consider the possibilities of setting up business activity within the village or in the rural area, shall aim at fulfilling real demands of those who have considerable surplus that the business can attract and get control over by exchange.
Once again if we look at the state income coming from secondary and tertiary sectors and match it with the population that creates this income. We find about 85 % of the income is coming from the urban areas that accounts only 42 % population. Thus this 42% population has income of about approximately 2 Crores as compared to just about a Crore income of nearly 58 % of population.
Even if we suppose the skew in the distribution is the same in urban area too, lets take a look at their average incomes.
The tertiary and secondary income in absolute terms is Rs. 2,76,000 Cr.s that is distributed among the urban 4.16 Cr. Population. Thus the average per capita income works out to be approximately Rs. 66,300/- p.a. Thus the lowest 30 % families who have only 15 5 share in the total kitty, accounts for a per capita income of Rs. 33,170/- p.a., thus per family it works out to be about Rs.1,72,500/- p.a. The middle-income group will account for 40% thus the per capita for the middle class works out to about 66,340/- and families annual income of 3.45 lakhs. The same for rich class is 99,519/- per capita and Rs. 5 lakhs + per annum.
If we assume that the lowest strata would be spending about 30% on food (actually much less) the middle strata about 20 % and the rich strata just about 7.5 % on food. The food expenses would account for a total of 43,815 Cr.s from urban areas. The rest would be divided in to several products and the surplus available would be Rs.2,32,185/- Cr. This works out to be nearly Rs. 23,700/- per capita of the entire state.
Thus to enhance income of the rural poor, this theoretical possibility can be converted in to reality only and only if the rural–urban economic bridges could be built in some way or the other that will also favor the rural poor.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
The inclusive way
Discussion paper - by Pravin Mahajan, July 2005
The debate:
You can’t find a Human being without some knowledge; similarly you can’t find a school without some quality.
Talking about deterioration of quality of education is a common subject. Any one who is not part of the education system is found to be a strong critic of deteriorating quality of education. Recently, Janarth had conducted a largish survey to get details of educational facilities in the rural areas. As a part of the survey parents (who were mostly illiterates) were interviewed. These parents were also criticizing the education system, but none could say what is required to correct it. Many serious critics in the field of education are no exceptions than the illiterate parents.
Quality of education is also invariably referred to as something that is deteriorating over a period. It is also said that in India, we have achieved spread of education but have lost quality of education. This issue becomes even more serious as Quality as the measuring stick has been used as whipping stick, not only that the worst is it is used to exclude and dismiss the schooling by saying there is no “quality”, or you have compromised quality. Strong measures like closing down such schools are recommended where invariably poor children are studying. Attempts to open schools to suit these poor children’s needs are also labeled as schools without quality. The argument gets stretched so much that one starts doubting reasons behind this strong opposition.
Quality is the only issue on which arguments enter in a deadlock. Those who attack the schools saying this lacks quality finds this as handy but very strong weapon, the critics almost never declare what elements are missing. Unfortunately, the implementers of such scheme are found sheepish and shy away from asking these questions that what is it that is missing in this school to make it a quality school.
A debate on this issue will help in making the quality approach more inclusive than the way presently it is used i.e. to exclude and force closure of schools. The demystification and unpacking of the jargon viz. Quality Education is urgently needed. Once this is unpacked, to make the stakeholders understand what we mean by quality, working towards achieving the same by different stakeholders will become far easier, than it is kept mystified. The unpacking will also help the school in deciding their own levels on the scale of different parameters. This will also tell the schools and stake holders about the areas of improvement required in the school to make it a comparable school with any other quality school.
Background
Education forms an important ingredient of sustainable development, and also an important instrument of achieving sustainable development
National scenario in brief:
J.B.G.Tilak aptly covers the growth of education in India, when he says
The Constructive criticism:
We are tempted to quote Mina Swaminathan who to our mind represents the class of constructive criticizers, she, in her paper describes the school as
“ Over all, the picture of the ECE classroom is of an overcrowded, didactic, highly verbal, group–oriented, school related, and authoritarian one, mirroring the primary school, with little awareness or concern for the developmental needs of the young child.”
To read it between the lines, a school imparting quality shall not be what she has written in words and spirit.
In fact she actually helps us listing many elements of quality school as having Trained teachers who are reasonably paid in well-equipped and safe classrooms imparting necessary information by involving the willing children in the process by appropriate methods.
We read her further statement again with positive view as how to change it.
Over all, the picture of the ECE classroom should not be overcrowded, non-didactic, using appropriate teaching material, child-centered, and activity oriented, non-authoritarian, with required understanding, awareness and concern for the developmental needs of a young child.
On this backdrop of the international scenario, the national achievement and as has been correctly pointed out that much remains to be achieved. Mina Swaminathan’s constructive criticism with critical eye looking at the majority schools in India also suggests us what needs to be achieved.
The question is not one of analysis (alone) but how to change it!
With this in mind we shall take gist of different criticisms and analysis and look for the ways to make every school a quality school. We shall not get bogged down by the criticism but shall take an inclusive view of “quality” rather than a vague criterion to exclude even those schools that are the mainstream schools in India. We keep in mind that majority of Indian children and youth are learning and are definitely learning and acquiring skills from those schools that are hated and excluded by using a measuring indicator like quality as a whipping stick!
The Issue: How to improve the schools
Finding out where all we need to improve them
With the Universalization of Elementary Education (UEE), and especially its spread in the rural and remote areas many concerned organizations and individuals have raised the question of “quality” of education.
This issue becomes even more important for organizations like ours who are involved in reaching out to even migrant children at the place of their migration.
Given the fact that the number of such children is large, one needs to cover them in some or other schooling system. While extending this coverage, one needs to be conscious about the "quality" of such educational system.
To our mind this is high time we start unpacking the word quality to simplify it and make it understand by all the stakeholders involved.
Unpacking quality of Education
While scanning thru' the available material, we realized that there is not "one" standard definition of "quality" education. Many aspects are different in different definitions, depending on the future expectations from the child. Some expect the children to be the "Change agents" in the society. Some others expect them be "high achievers". Yet another set expect them to be "fulfilling citizens", in some other case the expectation is to make them "responsible citizens".
Quality of Education as seen by J.P. Naik, he strongly advocates the Linkage between quality and privileges. According to him
- All concepts of quality have deep socio- cultural roots
- Similarly, quality can be defined on egalitarian and in-egalitarian basis according to the value premises one adopts.
Thus one needs to be careful while considering the issue of quality of education.
He advocates “… is a close link between the ‘quality’ of education and the social power structure that defines it. The British administrators of the period (1921) defined quality in the interest of the British imperialism with the primary objective of displacing the elite trained in indigenous system by a new class of people who would be favourable to their rule and the capitalist system they were building up.
1: Ends and means
2: Capacity: Potential of given Education system to achieve its stated end.
3: Level of performance: (or standards) Actual performance of the system on the basis of given criteria and techniques
4: Efficiency: (of input –output relationship
5: Comprehensive evaluation: Comprehensive evaluation of education in other words from every point of view.
Quality depends on Standards and efficiency, Significance, relevance and Capacity
(The terms have been explained as follows :
Significance : discuss ends and means together
Relevance: Relationship between an education system and the individual and social goals of development
Capacity: Potential of the education system to realize its goals irrespective of its actual performance
Standards: level of attainment of students in a given system of education
Efficiency: Relationship between actual performance of a system to its potential or questions relating to input-output
Goal of Education: Today we regard Preservation, dissemination and acquisition of knowledge as the goal of education.)
We limit our expectations to be just "(good) common citizens, we are not sure whether we are "aiming" at making these children either "change agents" or "high achievers" etc. Our expectations are simple, expecting these children to be (good) common citizens.
Let us also look at the following set of parameters that could be good starting point to move towards achieving quality education. This will also help us to put this concept of quality in some measurable indicators so that this can be used to help schools to improve, wherever required.
Other Elements of Quality education
Let’s look at what this "quality education" is all about as seen by others too …..
If we put together the different definitions we get the following parameters as indicators of quality education.
1. *The acquisition of basic skills of writing, reading and mathematics
2. *The development of sound moral character (learning good values) and good citizenship
3. The acquisition of general knowledge about our country, about science and technology and our world.
4. An understanding of fundamental disciplines of science, literature, geography, history and technology. (In the books we use, there is a mention of developing a scientific attitude, we just felt that the above description is bit wider than just saying developing scientific attitude)
5. Aesthetics, social and cultural development.
6. *Physical fitness,
7. *Preparation of students for post primary education
8. Functional use of additional language i.e. English in our context
*Of these eight indicators, first, second, sixth and seventh were found common in almost all the definitions, or explanations we came across. We have listed all the eight points we came across to clarify our own understanding on the issue.
Thus any talk on quality education includes 1:Basic skills of reading, writing, and mathematics 2: Physical fitness 3: Preparing for higher-level education and 4: making children good citizens with values.
Quality Education – another view
We came across a little different and more market oriented thinking on quality education, how relevant it will be in a situation like ours (where children and parents have no choice) is not very important at this stage, but it is interesting to take a note of this view.
By the by, we are not viewing this issue as necessarily clashing with the above parameters of quality education. This view can be summarized briefly as follows
It reads "… quality no longer be patronizingly defined by the providers of goods and services, or "… (armchair intellectuals etc). Today, quality means meeting or exceeding the expectations of customers. In other words, something isn't good quality unless customer says it is.
Modern quality is about outputs, not inputs. Yet, status quo educators define quality primarily in terms of inputs to the education system, such as funding level, class size and teacher certification, facilities in the schools etc. (One of the web pages, of the school in the US, draws your attention to the conclusion drawn that "studies in some jurisdiction, for example, have found that the “more school boards spend, the worse students learn.")
Thus quality should not only go beyond the "inputs", but should be able to fulfill expectations of students and their parents (as customers).
Before we add on some more views lets look at these two closely to understand it more clearly in terms of our intervention.
If we look at the first eight parameters we are close to confuse between quality education and Methods of teaching. Quality education would encompass methods of teaching, along with the output achieved too.
The scenario in Maharashtra State:
If we narrow down our attention to the Primary school curriculum( in the state), we look at the following capacities to be built with a set of values, which are also listed below. We need to keep in mind that there is a clear emphasis on following the " Competency-based primary education, since 1995, the same has been revised as SARAS in 2001 in the state. (Maharashtra)
The Competency is defined as " using 'information' and 'skills' keeping context in mind".
The competencies are defined for three major separate subjects viz. 1: language 2: Mathematics and 3: Science
Under language the following competencies are expected to be developed
1: Listening 2: Speaking 3: Reading and 4 : Writing 5: Comprehension ( thru' listening and reading) 6: Functional grammar 7: Self learning 8: language Use 9: Vocabulary control
Under mathematics
1: Knowledge of numbers: ability to count numbers, to understand value of a number and ability to read and write numbers
2: Operation on numbers: Converting oral argument in the mathematical argument
3: Measurement : To be able to judge ( guess correctly), be able to measure with the help of a scale
4: Fractions :To be able to use mathematical concepts and skills in the day to day life
5: To be able to think logically
6: Geometry : To be able to recognize sequences and figures ( Akrutibandha)
Under Science competencies are listed as
1: Observation 2: Comparison 3: Compilation (Sankalan) 4: Classification 5: Statement (Nivedan) 6: Understanding cause and effect relationship 7: (Analysis &) Drawing Inferences. 8: Making Generalization ( samannikaran) 9: Skill or dexterity in carring out experiments (Prayog koushalya) 10: Scientific temper in terms of Logical thoughts, independent thinking. and Diagnostic attitude ( Chikatschak vrutti)
The values listed are 1: Nationalism (Rashtrabhakti) 2: National integration ( Rashtriya Ekatmata ) 3: Secularism ( Sarva Dharma Sahishnuta) 4: Men-women equality 5: Respect for (physical) labor ( Shrama Pratishtha) 5: Scientific attitude ( Vaidyanic dhrushtikon) 6:Sensitivity ( sanvedanshilata) 7: Politeness ( Soujanyashilata) 8: Punctuality 9: Neatness
There has been a very clear emphasis in the State on "Competency- based teaching". In the General science Book for Standard III, it mentions that " The main objective of competency based teaching is to ensure that all (emphasis added) the students develop the competencies specified in the syllabus. It also reads that " … for collective attainment of certain competencies by the students. For this purpose, it is necessary to utilize the scientific equipment and apparatus (emphasis added) available … "
" … approach to teaching is expected to serve a dual purpose of enhancing the quality of education (emphasis added) and giving rise to the team spirit in the process of teaching -learning.
" .. it is necessary to use the remedial activities ( to ensure competency is being attained and retained).
"The general approach of the (Mathematics) committee was that the entire process of teaching and learning should become child-centered, and activity oriented; .."
" A spiral arrangement has deliberately been adopted in order to ensure revision and reinforcement of mathematical concepts" …. " exercises have been included to facilitate self learning". " .. "the process of their education should become enjoyable and interesting".
"… children's natural power of observation and thinking has been emphasized…"
"… tries to underline the fact that Mathematics provides equal scope to both logical thinking and memory."
Looking above quotes ( taken from the preface of the Text-book) lets try to make a list of indicators that would guide us to making our efforts quality conscious.
1: all (emphasis added) the students develop the competencies specified in the syllabus
2: it is necessary to utilize the scientific equipment and apparatus (emphasis added) available
3: dual purpose of enhancing the quality of education (emphasis added) and giving rise to the team spirit
4: necessary to use the remedial activities
5: teaching and learning should become child-centered, and activity oriented
6: ensure revision and reinforcement of mathematical concepts
7: education should become enjoyable and interesting
8: children's natural power of observation and thinking has been emphasized
9: Mathematics provides equal scope to both logical thinking and memory.
To summerize the above argument, the nine expectations listed above are about the Inputs, the process, the facilities and the Output. A good quality school would have the above listed elements in teaching–learning process.
Interestingly, the text book preface listed elements and the elements considered necessary (however negatively it is put) by Ms. Swaminathan do not differ significantly.
Now lets take a look at the inputs, the processes, the facilities made available / accessible in the school along with the output achieved and its relationship with quality!
the Inputs,
the process
the Facilitating systems
the Output.
The input side by and large will take care of the teaching practices, teaching methodologies, the teacher pupil relationship, the curriculum, teacher certification etc.
The process is to deliberately make the child learn more through doing rather than just observing or listening or an appropriate combination of the three. To ensure the process takes place could involve the inputs and using the facilitating systems with a view to achieve the expected output.
The facilitating systems will be all those facilities provided in the school to all students. These facilities are expected to help enhance children's capacities and inculcate values among the students. The facilitating systems would enhance the possibilities of unfolding the natural qualities of children. The facilities provided at different schools would take in to account of the local context. Among these facilities made available at school could be classified ( to our mind it is a must to be inclusive) as non-negotiable, optional, Additional etc.
In the main stream schools (the stream that carries the biggest chunk, in this case the highest number of children) , in a state like Maharashtra the input side doesn’t look that weak atleast on paper, significant number of teachers do have teaching qualifications decided by the State govt. though there are exceptions.
The process, by and large is a matter of practice or it would be in Jallaluddin’s words …”making “the teacher” the ultimate arbiter of “little policy” regulating classroom……” This is not something that would cost much, or this is not something that could be said to absent just because it is the main stream school.
When it comes to facilities available in the mainstream schools, the situation is a lot pathetic. The schools we have visited (hundreds of them) seriously lack facilities, may it be issue of hygiene, or play material or Teaching-learning material. This area needs to be looked at more closely and we need to decide the non-negotiable in this
The inputs :
This is consisted of Teachers, Teachers certifications, Curriculum etc.
The government prescribed curriculum appears to be fine and good enough at this stage as one does not come across any parallel but different curriculum available to compare the government prescribed.
Training the teachers could be the ongoing efforts. Though as a general rule one would agree that a more qualified teacher is better than less qualified, nevertheless the less qualified could be exposed to the essential process as the more qualified would have undergone. As we shall be dealing with the adults the duration need not be as per university recommendations, but it could be tailored to suit the needs.( The teaching certifications process in Maharashtra is worth spending a minute on. During seventies the state government started distributing the “Education Colleges” to the Party colleagues as a steady source of income. As after granting the Education colleges, it was made compulsory to have a degree or diploma for getting appointment as a Teacher in the government school (this guaranteed the students in the colleges distributed to their party colleagues), later on in every school. We have seen many colleges in two room tenements that was good enough to get diploma/ degree to the student irrespective of the fact whether education was imparted or not. It is difficult to understand in a state like Maharashtra, when some one insists on this certification who’s welfare are they keeping in mind?
The Process : The process in the school any time is expected to be satisfying the criteria of being “Child Centered and activity oriented”. This is possible by suitable supervisory support and practice.
Facilities in the school:
Different facilities made available will be fulfilling different needs, there by fulfilling some or the other parameters or elements of Quality education. There is also a possibility that some facilities may be necessary in a particular context but cannot be generalized as essential for ensuring quality education. This listing of non-negotiable will help tremendously to improve the facilities in the school that are essential to impart quality education by following Government curriculum .
Many times the glitter of having many facilities or access to facilities tend to misunderstand facilities as quality itself. Merely having a facility is not a sufficient condition to fulfill Quality criteria. Provision or providing access to facilities could be an essential condition but not a sufficient condition to ensure quality.
We shall take a quick look at different facilities that are present in schools and what purpose it fulfills.
1: Facilitating Physical fitness: (Doing) also facilitates team spirit
1: Play ground,
2: Gymnasium,
3: Indoor sports facilities like Table Tennis, Badminton,
4: Play Equipment etc
2: Facilitating extra curricular talents ( Doing &/or listening &/or observing)
5: Cultural activity hall,
6: Theatre,
7: Educational films,
8: Organizing Annual gathering,
9: Musical Band
10: Arranging Educational tours, arranging picnics,
11: Encouragement to extra curricular activities
12: Organizing cultural and sports competition,
13: Inter class competitions,
14: facilities for Class Monitor,
15: facilities for debating competitions,
16: facilities for scout guide, NCC type activities,
17: Swimming tanks,
18: separate drawing class,
19: No home work,
3: Facilitating reinforcement of values (Doing and listening)
20: Prayer hall,
(Doing )
21: Laboratories,
22: Co-education facilities
23: Celebration of different events and events on the historically important days,
4: Facilitating team spirit
24: Uniforms,
5: Facilitating health safety
25: Mid day meal,
26: Drinking water facility,
27: Health check ups,
28: Separate Dining halls,
29: School cleanliness,
30: School hygiene standards,
31: Adequate and safe school space ( protecting children from all season's vagaries or harshness,
6: Facilitating learning
32: PA systems in the class rooms (listening), music systems (listening) in the class rooms,
33: Computers,
34: Maps, Posters, boards, Models, (seeing / observing) in the every class (as per minimum norms)
35: Spacious sitting arrangements in every class,
36: OHP, Slide projectors, TV (seeing / observing)
37: Supply of study material in the class
38: Noise levels around the school
39: Staff Qualification
7: Facilitating remedial education
40: Student Teacher ratios,
41: Special educators,
42: Consular,
43: Individual attention to students,
44: Special coaching for weaker students,
45: Unit test,
8: Facilitating stake-holders participation (Ownership)
46: Parents - teachers meeting,
47: Periodic Parents meeting,
48: Parents' council,
49: Student council, Student's participation in running school,
9: Facilitating issues in respective contexts:
50: Canteen,
51: Separate Toilets,
52: Ladies rooms,
53: Common rooms for teachers discussions,
54: Residential facility (Hostel),
55: Transporting facilities (School Bus),
56: Children's security,
Output Indicator:
57: Consistent high academic achievements by students,
For any given school it will be useful to judge themselves against the relevant indicators chosen from above facilities. We have tried to group them broadly in what we feel the facilities would facilitates. Every school can take these as indicative list and should choose all those parameters that are applicable to them in their opinion.
This selection of relevant parameters and self assessing will help the school to decide where d they stand and on which parameters they are not finding themselves satisfactory. Once the strengths and weaknesses are self realized by the stake holders, it will be easier to decide what could be improved from within and where all and what type of support is required from outside. This way the facilities required would be made accessible to our children in the school.
Having ensured the inputs, the process, the facilities and expected outcome are in place, still there is no guarantee of imparting quality education unless we go a step further to look at what is it.
Lets say, quality education is a process and is the education imparting methods which helps the "average" children to enhance their capacities with "certain" values. This is a process. This is not a stage you reach and remain there. Only Quality will improve quality.
Since, there could be more than one ways in achieve this enhancement of students' capacities, which will lead an expected path of development.
The quality education should be one that helps to enhance different capacities (in a relatively simpler way). Some methods of imparting such education could be more effective than other methods used, to achieve the same results. The process of improving quality will necessarily follow the path of finding out more effective methods or ways of capacity building of every student, along with inculcating value education and requirements of good citizenship, as well as, proving more effective for Physical fitness of every student.
No one can deny that no part of the above is happening in the main stream schools, at the same time no one can say it is happening 100 % in the best of the schools one know of. It’s a matter of degree. We are optimistic and feel this matter of degree can be improved in the much-criticized schools normally where poor children go.
To quote J.P. Naik on the achievements on the front of quality
“…A comparison of our syllabi in ….. with those in …… at the elementary stage, at the secondary stage and in the different subjects at the university stage will clearly bring out two points; we now impart information in much larger variety of subjects than at any time in the past; and that, in each subject and at each level, we are continually trying to reach higher standards. (emphasis added) A good deal has also been done to provide for co-curricular activities and to raise their level. Side by side, improvements have been made in the text books and other teaching and learning material. Considerable resources, partly by the state and partly raised by the community, have been invested in improving physical plants of Educational Institutions. …. “
Thus on the front of Quality Education there are hopes and the glass is half full !!
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RTE –An opportunity - Not to be missed !
Pravin Mahajan, ED, Janarth, Aurangabad (M.S.)1
As a prelude, the importance of education may be set out.
The fundamental purpose of education is the same at all times and all places. It is to transfigure the human personality into pattern of perfection through a synthetic process of the development of the body, the enrichment of mind, the sublimations of emotions and the illumination of spirits. Education a preparation for living and for life , here and hereafter.
An old Sanskrit adage states: “That is education which leads to liberation”- liberation from ignorance which shrouds the mind liberation from superstition which paralyses efforts, liberation from prejudices which blind the vision of the truth.
Warnings by Dr. Ambedkar
“On 25th November 1949, the day before the assembly wound up its proceedings, Ambedkar made a moving speech ….. Ambedkar ended his speech with three warnings about the future. …. Ambedkar’s final warning was to urge Indians not to be content with what he called ‘mere political democracy’. India had got rid of alien rule, but it was still riven with inequality and hierarchy. Thus, once the country formally became a republic on 26th January 1950, it was going to enter a life of contradictions. In politics we will have equality and in social and economic life we will have inequality. ….. In our social and economic life, we shall, by reason of our social and economic structure, continue to deny the principle of one man one value. How long shall [1]we continue to live this life of contradiction? …. If we continue to deny it for long, we will do so only by putting our political democracy in peril.”
(ref: India after Gandhi, Ramchandra Guha, 2007, pp. 121-122)
In the context of democratic form of Government which depends for its sustenance upon the enlightenment of the populace, education is at once a social and political necessity. It is over a century our leaders, starting with a great visionary Dadabhai Navrosjee, who first raised it in 1881, then by Mahatama Phule in 1886, by Gopal Krishna Gokhale in 1910, harped upon universal primary education as a desideratum for national progress.
The 1st of April 2010 was a historic day for India as the Right to Education (RTE) became effective from this day not only as an ordinary right but a Fundamental Right of all children between 6 to 14 years of age in India (except the State of Jammu & Kashmir).
I cannot imagine any better gift in a democratic country than the bestowing of a fundamental right. Especially, by bestowing the Fundamental Right to Education in India, the largest democracy in the world, every sixth child in the world has got this fundamental right.
As the saying goes “If the advocates have been vocal, so have been the critics!” In this case, the critics seem to be more vocal than the advocates. I am aware that there are many wrongs with this Right, but ultimately a Right is a Right. And this right is particularly necessary from the point of view for the benefit of those who are deprived of even primary education.
There is no conceptual departure that we have to look to see the merits of the new fundamental right. I do not believe that even the bitterest critics of this Act would oppose, in principle, the granting of the Right to Education as a fundamental right. There could be a wide spectrum of conflicting opinions regarding what other and/ or different things one expect to be included in the Act. This is understandable. However, I am sure, readers will rise above relatively smaller and specific objections and look at the RTE at the National level as something that can change the life of every sixth child in the world!! I am sure there is to be found something noble in the strongest of critics of this Act which will compel him or her to give overall support to it! I also trust the critics will see enough sense not to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Identifying problems is the first step towards establishing solutions
Recently, I read a Marathi Novel called “Hindu” by a well known Marathi writer Prof. Bhalchandra Nemade. He has captured the rural systems most aptly, when he describes dozens and dozens of communities performing different duties fulfilling the needs of so called stable agriculture habitation. He vividly describes how and where these communities were allowed to settle for a few days, (of course) only at the outskirt of the village, with the permission of the village head. The rural scenario has not changed much from what he has described, though no formal licenses are required any more to live temporarily at the outskirt of the village(s). These are the communities whose children have still remained outside the formal education net at (even) primary level. We need to ensure that the RTE caters to these children.
I vote on the side of the Act, because I see it as a beginning of a meaningful engagement with the crucial and important issue of primary education of children who have been hitherto excluded from the existing education net. This is not to deny that we too have several expectations that the present Act does not cover. We hope to make the necessary changes in the rules to compensate for the lacunae we see in the provisions of the Act in its present form. Drafting a perfect Act is like running an obstacle race; we keep moving on, from one obstacle i.e. from one imperfection to yet another, but, all the time, towards the ultimate goal, which, here, is the perfect Act.
In fact if one reads the Unnikrishnan J.P & others Vs State of AP and others, there is a reference to a famous case of Kesjhavanad Bharati V/s State of Kerala the supreme court Justice has stated therein “that the fundamental rights themselves have no fixed content, most of them are empty vessels in to which each generation must pour its content in the light of its experience.” I don’t think RTE would be an exception to this!
According to the Constitution of India, under normal circumstances, any Supreme Court judgment is a law. Several years ago, in 1993 in the case of Unnikrishnan V/s the State of Andhra Pradesh, the 5 judge bench had (by majority) accepted the prayer for making primary education, then a part of Article 45 (Directive Principles) of the Constitution, a Fundamental Right.
It took some nine years for the ruling party (which, at that time, was the NDA) to amend the Constitution suitably - which it did in the year 2002, modifying Article 21 (by inserting Article 21A), Article 45, and Article 51A in which an additional fundamental duty was added to the list as 51A(k). The subsequent UPA government, at its own slow pace, took another about seven years to convert the 86th amendment into a new fundamental right, viz. The Fundamental Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Primary Education Act, 2009!
This right is placed under the Fundamental Right of “Right to Freedom” (one among the six fundamental rights). Specifically, it amended the right regarding ‘Protection of life and personal liberty’. It is interesting to know why the Right to Education (RTE) has been included here.
First, let us take a look at the history of the rights of children, then of fundamental rights and, lastly, of the Right of Children to Education as a fundamental right.
To trace the history of the rights of children in Sandra Mason’s words:
“Traditionally, children have not been perceived as subjects of rights but rather as the objects of legal protection. Adoption of the Convention of the Rights of the Child by the United Nations General Assembly has effectively and appropriately moved the child, and the concept of his/her rights, from the periphery of national and international thinking to centre stage, resulting in an attitude and perceptions of who a child really is .” (Sandra Prunella Mason- Chairperson UN committee on the rights of the child- Children’s Rights in Education Springer e-book collections)
The mention of the rights of the child in the Geneva declaration of 1924 marks the first time that (the idea / concept of) children’s rights was/were recognized internationally.
The UNHCR, in its preamble to “Declaration of the Rights of the Child- 1959, states :
.... “Whereas the child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth,
Whereas the need for such special safeguards has been stated in the Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child of 1924, and recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the statutes of specialized agencies and international organizations concerned with the welfare of children,” .... list the universal rights of children.
Article 7 clearly states the right to education. It reads as follows:
“Article 7
The child is entitled to receive education, which shall be free and compulsory, at least in the elementary stages. He shall be given an education which will promote his general culture and enable him, on a basis of equal opportunity, to develop his abilities, his individual judgment, and his sense of moral and social responsibility, and to become a useful member of society. The best interests of the child shall be the guiding principle of those responsible for his education and guidance; that responsibility lies in the first place with his parents.
The child shall have full opportunity for play and recreation, which should be directed to the same purposes as education; society and the public authorities shall endeavour to promote the enjoyment of this right.” ....
Having glanced at the source from where the rights of children flow, let us now try to look at the implication of the term “fundamental right”, and why primary education has been bestowed, here, today, as a fundamental right.
England’s Bill of Rights (1689), the United States Bill of Rights (1787-1791) and France’s Declaration of the Rights of Man (1789) were inspiring examples for the development of fundamental human rights, constitutionally guaranteed in India.
Fundamental rights were included in the Constitution because they were considered essential for the development of the personality of every individual and to preserve human dignity. The authors of the Constitution regarded democracy to be of no avail if civil liberties like freedom of speech and religion were not recognized and protected by the State. According to them, "democracy" is, in essence, a government by public opinion and therefore, the means of formulating public opinion should be secured to the people of a democratic nation. For this purpose, the Constitution guaranteed to all the citizens of India freedom of speech and expression and various other freedoms including the right to life and personal liberty (the right to education is a part of this) in the form of the fundamental rights.
The Indian Constitution guarantees all citizens, individually and collectively, some basic freedoms. These are included in the Constitution in the form of six broad categories of Fundamental Rights, which are justiciable. Articles 12 to 35 contained in Part III of the Constitution deal with Fundamental Rights.
Fundamental rights for Indians have also been aimed at overturning the inequalities of social practices. Specifically, they have been used to abolish Untouchability and hence prohibit discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth. They forbid trafficking of human beings and forced labour (beggars). They also protect cultural and educational rights of ethnic and religious minorities by allowing them to preserve their languages and to establish and administer their own educational institutions.
Education system is a weapon for social transformation!
As seen above, the Right to Education as a fundamental right becomes fundamental to overturning the inequalities and discrimination on the educational front. This particular amendment demanded the change in Article 21, that is, the Article related to Right to Life and Personal Liberty. It was argued that life without education is not worth the name. Education and life were seen as integral parts of one entity. Hence, the right to life got supplemented with the right to education in the same Article, that is, Article 21 of the Constitution.
After close to 60 years of Independence we in India still have about 70 million people who are destitute and approximately 140 million who are very poor. The challenge before us in terms of public policy is compellingly clear: it lies in increasing the range of social, economic and political opportunities, so that the less fortunate of our people too can be co-opted into the mainstream. To me it is clear that the RTE is a step towards providing such opportunities to the less fortunate.
In India, material poverty is not the only issue; we are overburdened with a complex caste system, which results in a rigid social pyramid. Within the complex caste system in our country, a sizable section of our society was and still continues to be socially excluded. This has been the condition for centuries now. The capabilities of the socially excluded are robbed away or are not allowed to develop. Against the backdrop of this complex historical process, we need to look forward and into the future.
What is the future of communities whose history is replete with so much humiliation, who were given, and who, sometimes and in some places still get downright inhuman treatment? How long must they continue to suffer the way their forefathers did?
It is interesting to note what the Late Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar had written about the Untouchables ... “Untouchability shuts all doors of opportunities for betterment in life for Untouchables. It does not offer an Untouchable any opportunity to move freely in society; it compels him to live in dungeons and seclusion; it prevents him from educating himself and following a profession of his choice.” The Untouchability that Dr. Ambedkar wrote of is prohibited today but there are still a large number of children especially from such erstwhile untouchable castes, who remain untouched by the educational system!
The RTE looks forward or must look forward to include the untouched and the unreached.
Since the last couple of decades the world has been changing dramatically and taking a different shape. For some the glass is half empty and for others it is half full. Be that as it may, one thing is certain; the new world will have more spaces for those who were excluded so far. Human values are evolving and moving towards an inclusive society. There is a substantial section in society that is raising their voice against systematic social exclusion.
Things are changing and can change greatly for the betterment of the hitherto excluded.
The hitherto excluded referred to as “disadvantaged” children in the RTE are facing individual deprivation due to social causes, to put it in the words of Adam Smith, the Father of Economics, due to ‘deprivations in the form of inability to do things that one has reason to want to do’.
The Act envisages reaching out to those children who are described as “disadvantaged” and/or “from weaker sections”.
In our country ‘weaker sections’ are defined based on birth identity and / or income poverty. The word ‘disadvantaged’ however is not clearly defined.
I shall use the explanation given earlier of ‘disadvantaged’ as those children who are individually deprived due to a social cause and/ or whose deprivation is in the form of inability to do things that one has reason to want to do.
At the first cut, I see four major categories of disadvantaged children (not mutually exclusive) who, we find, are still outside the education net as it exists today. They are migrant children, especially seasonal migrants, children who are mentally or physically challenged, children who are forced to work, in other words child labour (paid or unpaid) and children from minority communities- may they be religious or linguistic minorities.
There could be other categories of children, like children in judicial custody, bedridden children etc. who’s right to education also needs to be upheld but for whom adequate provisions must be made.
However, let us look at the four major categories that are even today forced to remain outside the education net. They are likely to remain outside the net if the net does not change itself suitably to accommodate their different needs. Let us try to identify who they are.
The migrant child (especially of seasonal migrants) is invariably a child labourer too, and ‘child labourers’ are the ones who are forced to address the urgent issues of hunger and semi-starvation and thus forced to give up Education. They have no choice!
Now let’s take the case of challenged children. Being a challenged child is no fault of the child. Challenged children are individually deprived due to a social cause, the stigma associated with the disability. It is not reason enough for tolerating their deprivation from the benefits of education.
In a pluralistic country like India with its 20 or more recognized languages and nearly half a dozen major religions, the issue of children from minority communities is a very complex one. Our States are organized on linguistic lines with almost every State having its own official language, which also, therefore, becomes the predominant language of instruction in schools. This makes the movement of school children from one State to another complicated. Due to language barriers, such movement has the potential to dilute the recently bestowed fundamental right to education. Or, looking at it from another perspective, it is the fundamental right to free movement that becomes partially defunct.
Religious minority is yet another complex issue. Under Article 30 of the Constitution the minority communities have the right to run their own educational institutes, and to run them as they see fit. Schools of minorities teaching only religious matters to children are a reality in India. It is not yet clear how the government plans to handle this complex issue within the ambit of the RTE.
It will not be out of place to point out here how complicated the issues regarding minorities are. The Supreme Court of India in the case of T.A. Pai Foundation V/s State of Karnataka had an 11 Judge bench to decide matters including the complex issues of minority. There was a majority judgment (6 out of 11). Consequently, several States interpreted the judgment in their own different ways and enacted different rules in their States. Finally, the Supreme Court of India appointed a 5 judge bench to interpret the judgment given by the 11 judge bench in the case of Islamic Academy v/s state of Karnataka, and we are still laughing at the story of the five blind men and the elephant!!
We shall now take up the issue of the education of seasonally migrating children in some detail.
Migration is a well-known but poorly documented phenomenon. Though there are sporadic attempts to throw more light on the various dimensions of migration, focus has been more on the description of the migrant workers in a particular trade rather than on statistical data about the migrant population as a whole. The Census 2001 figures show that in our country rural-to-rural migration stands at over 53 million persons and the same figure with respect to rural-to-urban migration stands at about 20 million only. However, these figures do not indicate the percentage of ‘seasonal migrants’ within the total number of migrants. Lack of any official statistics on seasonal migration makes them invisible.
The term ‘Migration’ alone does not give us an adequate idea about the dynamics involved in the process (of migration). This needs further detailing to include information about source and destination locations, periods of migration, etc. There is a fundamental difference in handling migration from rural to urban areas and that from rural to rural areas. The intricacies of the process are also quite different. Migration from rural to urban areas is seen to be permanent migration whereas rural to rural migration is usually seasonal and, year after year.
Intra-city migration (e.g. migratory labour in the construction industry in metros or mega cities) is yet another dimension of migration. In this case, people may have migrated from rural to urban areas and this could be a permanent move, but these labourers have a high frequency of moving from one site to another within the city.
Why do people migrate?
Seasonal Migration is predominantly migration for survival!!
Seasonal migration from rural to rural areas is undertaken to address urgent survival needs of the family at the cost of health and education. Seasonal migration also indicates the inability of the local economy (from where these people migrate year after year) to support the entire (village) population during lean periods. Thus, the seasonal migrants become marginalized and the local economy excludes them, leaving them with no option but to migrate from the area.
Migration in search of survival whether permanent or seasonal migration is well within the migrant’s fundamental right to freely move to any part of the country.
The availability of (only) ‘seasonal’ employment opportunities forces seasonal migration which further complicates the analysis. Seasonal or cyclical migration, as it is also referred to, is a common phenomenon in all parts of our country. In India, Maharashtra State has the highest number of in-migrants both in rural as well as in urban areas. Maharashtra is followed by the State of Gujarat which the second highest number of in-migrants.
Needs of Different Industries:
Seasonal migrants are needed in industries involved in seasonal production. The seasonal nature of production is due to a variety of factors such as non-conducive climatic conditions, cropping patterns or non-availability of labour.
Organized industries like sugar, salt, cotton ginning and fruit processing are some examples of industries that are, to a great extent, dependant on seasonal labour. These industries are predominantly situated in rural areas as such locations have the advantage of being close to the sources of the required raw materials. These industries typically attract migrants from rural areas.
As mentioned earlier migration as a social or economic phenomenon is poorly documented and seasonal and rural to rural area migration even more poorly attended to. There is no government data available to help understand the different dimensions and extent of this migration or to determine the need and the nature of interventions required for such migrants. There is little, if any, material available on seasonal migration and its impact on migrant families. And, what little is available is too sketchy to be of any practical use. However, even in the absence of such data we can tell that children are the worst victims of such migration. They are neither responsible for the state of affairs, nor are they involved in the decision of migrating. Unfortunately, even the host State or employer does not protect their rights at the place of migration. Thus children bear the brunt of the losses caused by the seasonal migration of their families.
Who are migrants?
As mentioned earlier migrants are the marginalized communities predominantly from the rural economy, where the design of the local economy excludes these communities for a period of three to eight months. Needless to mention, they also belong to the bottom of the pyramid of society, no matter which socio-economic indicators we may use to construct the pyramid. Their identities right from birth are categorized as backward!! (Janarth’s survey of migrant workers in the sugarcane industry collected over a period of a decade shows that nearly 80% of the labourers belong to one or the other of the socially backward categories). They are the ones who are forced to address the urgent issues of hunger or semi-starvation at the cost of their children’s education.
Areas of Migration
Seasonal migration – Intra-State and Inter-State Nature: There are several permutations and combinations in such groups of migrants: Maharashtra State is a unique and typical / classic example of an area that receives as well as sends migrants. It is the highest recipient of inter-State migrants, while at the same time it sends out a sizable number of migrants to the adjoining States for various activities including sugarcane harvesting, agricultural operations, fruit processing, etc. A study of the seasonal labour in four industries carried out by Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune (GIPE) and Janarth, Aurangabad indicates that, in industries like stone quarrying, brick making, construction and cotton ginning, nearly 40% of the total migrant labour are inter-State seasonal migrants
The State also witnesses a large number of intra-State (inter- or intra-district too) seasonal migrants. In Maharashtra, the sugar industry alone accounts for over 7 lakh seasonal migrant labourers who are needed to harvest sugarcane to feed the sugar industry. In many cases, the intra-State seasonal migrants may have travelled distances longer than those travelled by inter-State migrants, but are not covered under any law that will guarantee adequate protection of their rights and adequate provisioning for their entitlements even within their own State.
The construction industry alone is a large industrial sector that includes housing, road construction and infrastructure development and employs migrant labour in large numbers. It is also claimed that the construction industry is the second largest employment generating industry, next only to agriculture.
The nature of migration to construction sites is difficult to classify as the majority of the workers involved in these sub-sectors are seen constantly moving from one site to another. In case of housing / building construction in and around the urban areas, these migrants tend to settle in urban slums though they continue to face many problems that are faced by the seasonal migrants. This makes their children’s life all the more miserable, as no adequate protection is given or provision made for their rights and entitlements.
Duration of Migration:
This is actually a direct function of availability of gainful employment at the place of migration. Though different industries have different requirements, the period is normally around 4- 6 months and broadly corresponds with the post-Diwali period.
Predictability of Migration:
Migration is accused of being unpredictable. However, if we take a closer look at the establishments that regularly require temporary labour year after year, we realize that this need of labour in industries is easily predictable and can be mapped. Once we map this need we can then similarly / automatically map the movement of children with their migrating families and consequently the impact of these industries on the education of the children. Just as the environmental impact of the activities, whether of brick kilns or steel plants, is checked, so also their impact on the education of the children of migrating labourers can and should be investigated. Over 70% of seasonal migration is predictable in terms of period and locality; besides, similar people can be expected to be involved in these migratory movements every season even though they may not be same people.
Estimation of Numbers
We can map both the sending areas (source villages) as well as receiving areas (destination areas) and by studying labour productivity and relating it to the total produce, reasonable estimations of the minimum number of migrant labourers can be made. For example, to arrive at an approximate number for migrant labourers in sugar factories, Janarth studied the average sugarcane cutting capacity of labourers. (We found that the average sugarcane cut per person per day does not exceed 0.7 MT, and the average sugar factory crushes 2500MT per day on a continuous basis. Thus the minimum requirement of sugarcane harvesters was conservatively estimated to be 3571). Similar estimations can also be worked out for other industries attracting temporary labourers in order to make practical plans for looking after the migrant labourers. With some help the estimations are possible.
Different Problems Faced by Migrants:
In our experience the unique problem faced by children of inter-State migrants is one of language or, more particularly, the medium of instruction at the destination. To the best of our knowledge there are no schools (for seasonal migrants) that provide education in a language other than the local language of the State.
Non-protection of their rights and non-provisioning for their entitlements are common problems faced by them; this becomes especially acute at the destination than at the source areas.
Other problems faced by the migrant children are similar to those faced by any other child in distress whether migrant or not.
What, then, is needed to protect their fundamental right granted by the RTE Act?
From the preceding discussion of the phenomenon of migration it is clear that collecting the data necessary for planning the nature and scale of interventions necessary for extending the education net to children of migrant labourers is not a very daunting task. It is however, necessary to obtain such data to facilitate a rational planning exercise.
Once this is done, we do not need anything greatly different to protect the right to education of migrant children. What we need is just a strong will to protect the rights of our future generation bestowed on them under the RTE coupled with some flexibility in the administration and management of schools. This little change in our mind-set and some small adjustments in our systems would be by and large sufficient to tackle the problem.
From our limited experience of working with seasonal migrant children in the sugar industry (Janarth Sakhar Shalas in 3 states) and in brick kilns (Vidhayak Sansad’s Bhonga Shalas in Thane district) we can say that all one needs is to think only a little out of the box and make some simple though different arrangements to protect their fundamental right of RTE. Eg. At the majority of destination places there are schools in the vicinity (even if they are not within a 1km distance as per the prescribed norms) which could either themselves accommodate the migrant children or open an extension school (like an extension counter) under the control of the nearest government school for the sake of these children.
To our mind, the medium of instruction is likely to be the tricky issue. But, again, thinking just a little out of the box, we believe that even this could be solved by making appropriate arrangements with the sending States. We could build a Reserve Force of Teachers by recruiting teachers predominantly from the areas from where people migrate. These teachers could tackle the problems arising out of the difference in the medium of instruction. In fact, such recruitments will also largely help to overcome the problem of a cultural gap between teachers and pupils.
In conclusion
In the foreseeable future, there is a likelihood of a spurt in the rate of growth of the GDP of our country, whose driving force will be the industrial boom. It is almost certain that the need for seasonal (migrant) labour for a variety of industries will be on the rise. These temporary employment opportunities would be most attractive to those sections of our society which are the most marginalized and excluded from local economies. They would inevitably become “seasonal migrants”. It must be recognized that they are an integral part of our society but despite their significant contribution to the growth and development of our society they continue to belong to the most deprived section of our society. Above all, we must also acknowledge that the children of seasonal migrants are children of this country like all other children, and that they are an integral part of our future generation and the future of our country.
We need to stress here that the fundamental right to free and compulsory Education (RTE) cannot negate another fundamental right i.e. the right to free movement in the country. Migration, seasonal or otherwise, cannot be seen as a limiting factor in providing for the fundamental right of children to free and compulsory education. Thus, migrant children, equally with all other children, have the fundamental right to education and this right must be upheld by providing access to a school even during periods of migration.
Now let me turn to the popular but negative criticism of this act.
Common Schools: Missed Opportunity! The critics of this act are at the height of their disappointment and bitterness when they have realized that this act has not made the “Common school” as the only choice, majority critics swear by Kothari commission report (KCR) and some highly respected personalities have even labelled this act as “Missed opportunity” because Common schools are not made compulsory in the act.
Public Private Partnership (PPP)- the world Bank Nonsense: Since the world bank circulated a note on the PPP sounding as if it’s a new found concept. If we read the debates, that are over a 125 years old, between Lokmanya Tilak , Agarkar and others as founders of Deccan Education Society, this concept of PPP was not only envisaged but was in practice too. In Education field this is one of the most common practice especially in cities and for upper primary onwards education. It is not uncommon especially in Cities to have private managements of even Primary schools. We shall take both these topics together as common schools for public education and Public private partnership for public education are in reality closely related.
Before we get in to the details of KCR and common schools let us try to understand the reality as it exists today in Urban and Rural areas. Vast majority of students, even today, have no option but to attend the government school, the school that fulfils all criteria of common school. We all know all is not well with those schools.
Since all the critics swear by Kothari commission report (KCR) it will be worthwhile to look at the original source to have clearer understanding on the issue.
If we read the KCR, which is titled as ‘Report of The Education Commission’ on page 10 section 1.36 The common school appears.”In a situation of the type we have in India, it is responsibility of educational system to bring the different social classes and groups together and thus promote the emergence of an egalitarian and integrated society. But at present (this was said some 43 years back, and nearly 18 years after what Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar had warned in his speech in Nov. 1949) instead of doing so, education itself is tending to increase social segregation and to perpetuate and widen class distinction. At the primary stage, the free schools to which masses send their children are maintained by government or local authorities and are generally of poor quality. Some of the private schools are, on the whole, definitely better; but since many of them also charge high fees, they are availed only by the middle and the higher classes.”
The report in section 1.38 lists the parameters while arguing for moving towards the common school system of public education
- Which will be open to all children irrespective of caste, creed, community, religion, economic condition or social status;
- Where access to good education will depend, not on wealth or class, but on talent;
- Which will maintain adequate standards in all schools and provide at least a reasonable proportion of quality institutions;
- In which no tuition fee will be charged; and
- Which would meet the needs of the average parents so that he would not ordinarily feel the need to send his children to expensive schools outside the system.
( the report further reads “such an educational system has for instance been built up in the USSR and is one of the major factors which has contributed to its progress- it is interesting to note what has happened in that country where citizens have come out this system!! It is interesting to note that similar systems of common school are implemented with some differences in the USA, France etc.)
Many times the proponents of ‘common schools’ sound as if nothing else shall exist but common schools; as if it was one of the recommendations of KCR itself. If we take a closer look at the report, the report no doubt argues for having common schools but is not arguing for having ‘only common schools’.
In the report, in the chapter School Education: Administration and Supervision; in section 10.09, the report talks about the Private schools: It reads “ but the recognized and aided institutions despite of their ‘private’ management, have to be treated as an integral part of the system of public education.” This will answer the reports attitude towards Public Private Partnership for public education.
In section 10.10 the report has pointed out the shortcomings of such institutions. It reads “From the point of view of quality and efficiency, these institutions fall in to two broad groups; a small group of very efficient institutions and a large group of weak and even undesirable ones.” In section 10.11 the report reads “In spite of all these limitations and deficiencies, however, these institutions will have to be treated as an integral part of the common school system of public education.
In section 10.12 unlike the popular belief that the report opposes private schools, this section while arguing for need for a discriminating rather than a uniform policy (of state support), It reads “the good private schools which maintain high standards and which have been able to attract the services of dedicated and competent teachers will have to be identified will have to be given more freedom and adequate financial assistance. These institutions even today are the quality schools in the system and set pace for the others. They can quickly and effectively be developed as ‘seed farm’ in the common school system of public education.”
In section 10.13 the report makes it clear “Ultimately therefore, there will be only two types of private schools: (1) those which do not charge fees and remain within the common school system of public education and are mostly supported by the State; and are those which charge fees and remain outside the system and receive no aid from state funds.”
The report talks of Neighbourhood school in 10.20 stating “We are of the view that neighbourhood school concept should be adopted as a long term goal, to be reached in well planned programme spread over next 20 years. The strategy for its adoption should be as follows
(1) During the next ten years, two programmes should be pursued side by side. The first is to improve all primary schools to a minimum level prescribed and to raise about ten per cent of them to higher standard of quality.
(2) Simultaneously, the neighbourhood school system should be introduced at the lower primary stage, as a pilot project, in a few areas where public opinion is favourable to the acceptance of the proposal.
In section 10.77 the report talks about Independent schools and unrecognized schools. The section reads “10.77 Educational Institutions Outside the Common School System of Public Education: Private schools have a right to exist under the present constitution, irrespective of the fact whether they are or are not recognized or aided by the state. For instance article 30 lays down that ‘all minorities, whether based in religion or language, shall have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice’ and these shall not be discriminated against.”
From the above citations it is amply clear that though KCR has emphasised on the common schools the report does not deny the existence of private schools for public education. The report even asks for discriminating policy rather than uniform one to encourage the schools that can act as “Seed Farms”!
After all, are common schools such a panacea for all ills? especially the social and economic inequalities as ills in the society. In the name of common schools and demanding for only common schools are we looking forward to regimentation of schooling? In a way its good that the act does not make it compulsory, as that would be infringing on the fundamental rights guaranteed under the constitution of India. This would also go against the fundamental rights of the minorities in our country, both religious and linguistic.
The 6 % demand and KCR: There are several groups and organizations who are making demand for 6% state expenditure on Education. We will quickly visit the logic used by the KCR to arrive at this (now sacrosanct) figure. The report covers all the details in Chapter XIX titled Educational Finance.
In section 19.01 the report raises pertinent questions like “What should be the total level of financial support for education at all levels ....” . The report further reads “ Although quality and quantity are inseparable, what proportion of the total resources should be broadly devoted to improvement of quality and consolidation and the expansion of education. While answering it the report highlights the difficulties as it involves “human dynamics involving complex sociological considerations”, the report calls it (to give precise values to quantities) as “essentially vague”.
The report refers to some variables and makes certain assumptions on growth of variables.
The report refers to growth of national income (assumes at middle position at 6% per year), growth of population (assumed at 2.1 %, at a middle position). In section 19.24 the report suggests that in early stages of educational development the rate of growth of educational expenditure ought to be approximately twice the rate of growth of national income. The report in its calculations have postulated a relatively modest annual rate of growth of 10% for educational expenditure relative to the assumed rate of growth of 6% in national income. The report had made calculations and had thought that in 1986 our per capita income would be Rs. 900/-, the current per capita income is fast touching US $ 1000! To us its high time to recalculate on the same or similar logic and make appropriate demand for funds.
Friends lets move forward to ensure that RTE as a fundamental right helps those who are hitherto excluded, deprived by design from the education net. Its time to ‘liberate schools’ from the clutches of the Education Managers (state departments) and Educationists who are fearing loss of quality just because the act dictates no barring of children from schools at least till the age of 14 Years!!
[1] This paper has liberally quoted from the paper Right to Education and Migrant Children- Challenges and Possible Solutions submitted by the same author at the Centre for study of inclusion of excluded people- Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune
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Seasonal
Migration and Issues in Primary education
Pravin Mahajan, Executive Director Janarth, Aurangabad (M.S.)
A classic case of non protection of (fundamental) rights and entitlements
The Census 2001 figures throws up interesting statistics about migration. The Census gives separate figures for four different types of migration; the highest figure is 53.5 million persons accounting for Rural to Rural (R to R) migration, a similar figure for Rural to Urban stands at 20.4 million. This really shocks the lay man’s perception of migration. As a layman for some reason or the other the moment we talk of migration it is perceived as hoards of people joining the urban areas ( and the usual talk of they ( the migrants) putting excessive pressure on the civic amenities etc). The census figures forces us to recheck our perception. In reality, the masses are moving from rural to rural areas are roughly 250% more than those who move from rural to urban areas.
Accusing the victims for injustice:
This is an age old game played to cover up the real issues involved. It’s like accusing the rape victim of inviting the injustice, thus one who takes undue and illegal advantage of the situation goes scot free and the debates starts how the Victim’s actions should have been, and what the victims should be avoiding etc. The seasonal migrants’ situation especially those who migrate from rural areas to rural areas (within or outside their state) are even worse. Their ‘migration’ is perceived as the ‘evil culprit’, and it is systematically spread that all problems are because of migration! Is it not accusing the victims for injustice?
Having said that, the biggest irreversible loss migrants have to bear is of their children’s education. Children’s ouster from the Education net is the single largest irreversible long term negative impact, both on the child and the society in which the child lives. After all we all need to remember if Education costs, ignorance costs even more!!
Now we shall quickly look at what are the so called pushes and pull factors for migration and who are the migrants (from socio-economic angle). There are a few studies, mainly carried out by the voluntary sector players, which argue that the seasonal migrants undertake migration as ‘survival strategy’ rather than accumulating (earning) strategy. They are forced out of the local economy, their refusal (to migrate) would be met with serious consequences, to the individual family, in terms of their survival, they may have to face semi starvation if not starvation per se. Surviving and avoiding hunger becomes most urgent and hence like rational managers they also pay (or they are forced to pay) attention to the urgent problem. Of course this compulsion of attending to urgent problem, they are left with no option but to loose on important matters like children’s education with most unfavourable terms of trade.
As mentioned earlier Children’s education especially when they are at pre-primary or primary stage becomes a casualty, that in the long run puts the individual and the society (too) in disadvantaged position.
Can’t wish away seasonal migration
Given the complex and complicated nature of economic growth in our country where many important industries in the economy have flourished and continue to flourish at the cost of denial of rights and entitlements of the seasonal migrants. Just to site few examples, let’s take a look at Sugar Industry, (with a whopping size of over 15,000 Crores in the State of Maharashtra alone), Cotton Ginning, Brick making, stone quarries etc. Brick making and stone quarries are inevitable for the Construction industry, may it be housing or road construction, without bricks or stones construction can’t go on! The one commonality in all these industries and industries like Salt pans, fruit processing, by and large agro products processing, is all of them have seasonal (business) nature. Hence they (the industries) employ only seasonal workers, and invariably the demand for labour is so high that they (the industry) have no option but to attract migrants from outside area, this could be within the state or even interstate. In short we are trying to impress that from both the migrants as well as the industry’s point of view; seasonal migration is benefitting to migrants in the short run and for industries in short as well as long run. It will be wishful to imagine that migration, especially seasonal migration shall stop; we at best can say that schemes like NREGA would give an additional choice of deciding the labour price. Any way this is a different subject and we shall not get in to it here.
Having seen the complicated nature of migration, let’s now concentrate on the single largest irreversible negative impact on the children that occurs to the migrants due to non protection and provisioning of rights and entitlements. It is not migration that causes problems, it is the failures of the concerned authorities to protect their rights and make adequate provisions, at the place of migration.
A migrant child will not be out of school, if there is school where the child has migrated! It is the absence of school at the place of migration that forces children out of school and not the act of migration per se. Let me elaborate further, majority of the urbanites are or were migrants at some point of time, or let’s take example of our forces; where from Jawans to Generals are systematically subjected to migrate anywhere in the country. We never hear any complaints from the forces personnel of any negative impact on their children’s education because of their migration- the reason- adequate provisions are made at the place of their migration that protects their children from any negative impacts. This actually also proves that the authorities are very much aware of how to make adequate provisions to nullify the negative impacts during migration. The issue is that the State is not prepared to make similar arrangements and provisions for the seasonal migrants, for the reasons best known to them.
The authorities’ actions in other types of migration prove that migration per se is not responsible for causing problems for children’s education. The need is to make suitable and adequate arrangements for the children’s education at the place of migration.
Schools at the migration sites and the quality debate:
When it comes to education of the poor and or disadvantaged children the issue of the so called “Quality Education” is debated heatedly. We always find this amusing and yet frustrating as this (issues pertaining to quality) is a classic case of a Journey misunderstood as destination. ( More details about the quality debate are available in “Quality education_the inclusive way” by the same author)
To our mind we need to unpack our own ideas about what do we mean when we use the word “school”? After all; what are the essential parameters, to justify something as a school. Is it the smart multi-storied building we are imagining, we need to go beyond the (school) building to define school. The school is a place that offers systematic exposure to learning opportunities! There will be difference between schools, as different schools would offer different learning opportunities. In such case we need to decide on the minimum and non-negotiable parameters that is a must for any primary school. The fixing of such parameters would help to bring those schools that are not up to required and minimum expected standards.( The RTE has given a schedule, as a part of the act, that describes the essential minimum for any Primary school)
Spatial responsibility of education department:
One of the practical ways would be to make the local primary school responsible to cover all children in that area. After all; all Government departments are given such spatial responsibilities, we fail to understand why Education department is exempted from such spatial responsibility. Unless we think out of box about the role of Primary school and School teachers, a sizable chunk of poor children shall be forced out of present education net.
While marching towards the universalization of primary education, with inclusive development on the agenda and supported by the Fundamental right to primary education, one needs to think out of box to cover the (so far) excluded by the present system.
Who are the excluded?
Presently, the excluded children could be broadly classified in three predominant categories
1: Those children who have to attend to the urgent problems, like hunger and semi starvation in life even at the cost of important issues like education.
2: Those children who are excluded because of their special needs to overcome the challenges they face and
3: Those children who are excluded (de facto though not de jure) because of their social challenges resulting out of their birth and gender identity.
Needless to say, among the migrants and particularly among the rural to rural seasonal migrants, either children have to address the urgent issues of hunger and or they are facing social challenges due to their birth identity.
Since seasonal migrants are found to be belonging to the lowest strata of economic as well as social pyramid, we have to ensure that they get a chance to live with dignity, and for that their children must have at least primary education. This may provide them a chance and choice to opt out of the vicious poverty circle they are stuck in.
This is doable:
Though there are not very many cases to site to satisfy that migrant children can be retained in the education net by opening schools at the site of migration. Janarth’s experiment in 3 states viz. Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra, now nearly for a decade, shows that large number of children ( Janarth had covered over 14000 children in one year) could be covered at the site schools and the schools could be provided with 3Ls i.e. Library, Laboratory and Laptops ( mobile) in every site school. There are other experiments in different parts of the country where children have been successfully retained in the education net.
Achieving the quality at site schools
The so called Quality of such schools shall not be limiting factors to open more such schools. At best the quality parameters shall be taken up as a tool to improve the site schools to the minimum expectations, this should not be a whipping stick to exclude or close down schools but to be used as measuring stick to improve the schools that needs to be included.
We need to ensure that just because the smart buildings are absent, that does not automatically mean that the learning opportunities are absent. A good building, no doubt, shall facilitate learning more than in absence of it, but it will not be a qualifying parameter. It has been proved that many other essential facilities could be provided at site schools that not only help retain children in the education net but also make ample opportunities that facilitates learning. There is no ban on creating learning opportunities in such schools.
Teachers’ qualifications and their remuneration of the job are also popular issues to exclude schools. To our mind even the best of the schools or even the richy-rich schools have good and bad or not so good teachers, so what if site schools also have such good and not so good teachers. With our experience of nearly couple of decades tells us that ‘teaching’ is an art and is not dependant on academic qualifications as such. Finally we touch upon the remuneration issue. We sincerely feel that all teachers who are facilitating learning in such schools where the children predominantly come from excluded communities shall be highly rewarded. Unfortunately, this does not happen and those who do the real tough job are paid the lowest. To use this low payment as proxy to the effectiveness of their teaching or facilitating learning is an insult to the teaching profession itself. By using remuneration as a proxy for quality of work, we are afraid this may mean that our Prime Minister and President are doing bad quality job as compared to a senior manager in an MNC, selling tooth paste or cold drinks. We are sure Senior managers do earn much more than our Prime Minister and his cabinet colleagues, this just means that the senior manager is having a well paid job and not necessarily s/he is doing better job than the PM and his colleagues.
Let’s get out of the traditional criticism, that is loaded with cynicism, let’s think afresh and think out of box, after all the challenge is to change the situation and not only analyze it.