Educating India

Governments across the country have abdicated their responsibility in the field of education. In fact they seem to have given up on improving education in public schools. Enrolment continues to drop in public schools with no improvement in Infrastructure and in teacher quality. The poorest in the society choose to send their kids to a private run school ( though they too provide questionable quality).

It is just one more of failures of governance in the country. Sarvashiksha Abhiyan program was supposed to be the initiative to provide ““Right of Children to free and Compulsory Education” while improving Infrastructure etc. Just last year this program was allocated INR 21,000 cr which is big by any measure. The bane of such progressive policies has been ineffective implementation, monitoring and measurement. I have seen as part of the Sarvashiksha Abhiyan many schools in the rural areas have been given Television sets and PC’s, both are not so useful in the rural areas since power in intermittent and teachers are not trained enough and of course there is not enough content to deliver. Example of lopsided execution of policies, wouldn’t blackboards, chocks, books and toilets help kids better. It is easier to dispatch a TV and PC and so a tick mark for the bureaucrat.

A recent study by Pratham throws depressing statistics-
“Government of India statistics show that 89 out of 100 children enter schools in India but 40% of those who join school dropout before completing primary education (grade IV or V). Another 30% of the remaining, dropout before completing grade VII or VIII. Thus nearly 80% of children in India do not complete elementary education in a country that has recorded 64% literacy. This is an indicator of the status of literacy in India in the third millennium.”
 Estimates suggest that the percentage of children who can read nothing and those who can read only alphabets is about 52%
 Across the country, 11% do not enter school and 40% children drop out before completing primary school. “

A huge problem at hand for the country, there needs to be no less than a mass movement to make India literate. Pratham has launched an initiative called Project Read India – it is about getting every child read in a short-predictable time frame” (www. Pratham.org).

I am doing my bit to make India read, please associate with any initiative that helps achieve the objective of 100% literacy. The deity of education “Saraswati” has left our shores, we need to bring her back.

Job Creation - Hardly anyone cares in India

One of the things that strikes me when i meet American clients on business is their concern for the community they operate in their emphasis on job creation, upskilling of their people etc. They are deeply aware about the need for their organizations to be efficient, innovative to survive the competition,at the same time they are ready to take hard decisions, all this keeping in mind job creation and what is good for the community. That is why American corporations are on the cutting edge.

According to statistics unemployment in the US is about 8.9 and last reported in India it is 9.4%. I think 9.4% unemployment in India is a joke anyway, department of labor must be churning out these meaningless numbers. If one were to look at the entire specturm of American politics all of them talk about job creation as the most important issue (some of it is obviuosly rhetoric) but still one cannot discount the political noise and its intent.

I wanted to contrast this with our political leaders, we can hardly find any of them talking about employment, job creation, industry growth,skill building, community etc. Our political space is so self serving and corrupt they do not have time for the most important aspect that drives country's productivity and economic growth. We can add the bureacracy to this list of self serving egoistic group that cares a damn for the citizen.

We should give a new syllabi to our political masters to talk about,for long they are stuck in their old rhetoric, we should force them to talk about the new agenda for India - education, health care, job creation should be the new topics they should accuse each other of failing to do much. Some thing will come out of such a battle.

Insincere attempt

As I write this blog history is being created in Independent India with the passing of the Lokpal bill (though it has to be passed in Rajya Sabha). It took 60+ years to get here. Meanwhile country has suffered irreparable damage with corruption destroying public institutions and has set India back by a couple of decades in terms of development.

The bill in its present form does not provide for a truly independent Lokpal but is some step anyway. No wonder it took so long since the class that needs to fear the most from the bill crafted it very carefully and ensured that they have a hold on the institution. It was evident that none of them wanted an independent investigating body like CBI.

As usual high sounding statements like parliament is supreme were made. SP and BSP with dubious credentials in fighting corruption walked out saying the bill was not strong enough. Lalu Yadav was ferocious in opposing the bill, he has to for obvious reasons. At the end of it our parliamentarians do not want to be subjected to higher scrutiny on their integrity. Together they proved that in India politics is not about service but about self importance to the elected individual and of course looting the public exchequer at will.

If one were to make a list of ongoing scams in the country – telecom, mining, food procurement, road contracts, liquor bids it is powerful ministers and elected members who are behind them. They are running scared about Lokpal, RTI itself is causing them sleepless nights. There are noises RTI should be amended.

Anna’s movement has scarred them enough to pass a diluted Lokpal, I am sure Anna will continue to exert pressure on the parliament to amend the bill to make it more powerful. Political analysts and TV pundits have changed their tone and have started to question Anna’s methods, they too are talking about parliamentary supremacy etc…. it is shameful. The fight for ending corruption is directly related to the country’s development and aiding the socially and economically backward progress. We will be crushing their dreams if a stronger Lokpal is not brought out. For example the Food security bill is aimed at providing subsidized grains to 70% of the population, it is a fantastic ground for our leaders to make big money and I am sure they will make a killing.

There is nothing to show for the largest democracy in the world in terms of achievement in the areas of human development, Infrastructure, literacy, world class institutions etc, we are just happy to claim we are the largest democracy in the world. Corruption is the root cause for India’s underdevelopment and this opportunity should not be lost.

Children with HIV and its costs

There are 1.1 lakh HIV (estimates vary from 70,000 upwards) infected children in India, I had an opportunity to meet 56 of them today. They are being provided shelter and care by Desire Society, Hyderabad. The society is run by Mr. Ravi Babu and Ms Mohanty with support from philanthropists and government.

According to a recent finding by the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) these children suffer from the ailment due to parent-to-child-transmission (PTCT). Talking to these children who are between 5-10 years of age and trying to imagine their future is at once depressing and scary. For no fault of theirs children are suffering from this horrendous, incurable and debilitating disease. Many of the children are disowned by parents once they come to know about the child’s infection, NGO’s like Desire are the only hope for them to lead a dignified life.

The whole thing comes back to the need for more focus on public health and government’s role in prevention of HIV/AIDS. Most of these children come from BPL category (almost all them belonging to the unorganized sector and daily wage earner families). I could gather from the visit that all 56 children are from BPL families.

The cost of health care for providing regular medicine and sustaining HIV infected children is very high and is a burden on a poor country like India. State Governments need to focus on Education on PTCT, improving communication approaches for prevention amongst BPL families and improve monitoring and reporting systems. Government action is not visible except for the customary noise on International Aids day.

Visit - http://desiresociety.org/

Killer Hospitals

Fire at Calcutta AMRI hospital has consumed 90 lives, there is lot of grief and anger in the country, there is wide spread condemnation, there are calls for justice and some blame game. We had the same grief during the Uphaar cinema fire and during multiple building collapses in Delhi, Mumbai, Surat and Hyderabad. But as a nation our grief is fleeting we forget and move on till the next disaster happens. Our governments are blind and deaf.

It boils down fundamentally to the rotten system we have created, fully corrupt municipal administrations who certify buildings for fire safety closing their eyes. Corrupt town/urban planning officials who let buildings violate all rules (and regularize them after couple of years). All across the country business houses and greedy officials collude, take advantage of the lacunae in building permits and laws and violate all rules with impunity. These departments stink of corruption.

Surely AMRI authorities will face the law but I am afraid they may get out of the case with lighter sentences like in the Upahaar case. The struggle to ensure safety in public spaces and create accountability for innocent lives lost remains a distant dream in India.

There is space for the Mall and the Kirana

Cricketer Mohinder Amaranth once called selectors a “bunch of jokers”. One cannot but have the same feeling looking at the way our parliamentarians behave, stall debate and progress in the country. One has to give it to the ineptness of the ruling party’s political think tank for messing up issue after issue and creating political confrontation with the opposition and allies on almost all critical policies. The opposition is equally obscurantist but the onus of opening a healthy debate and consensus is with the party in power. Middle ground is a forgotten term for our elected representatives.

FDI in retail, there is no doubt it will benefit in development of infrastructure (cold storages, ware houses), improve supply chains and finally benefit the farmers (middle men are hurting the country’s farmers), ultimately it will bring done costs to the consumer because of efficiencies across the chain (there is no way we can compare the cost efficiencies of our malls to that of Walmart or Carrefour etc) malls in India are for the upper and middle class and they are taken for a ride by the mall owners). There is enough proof of the success of FDI in retail contributing to growth in china (100% FDI limit), Brazil, and Singapore etc. In china itself 600 + hyper marts have been built over the past decade leading to large scale employment, employment in the sector in china rose by 100% between 1992 to 2001 (from 28 mil to 54 mil). Are we anywhere near China or Brazil in the retail space – our pathetic infrastructure destroys fresh produce and more than 30% of the fresh produce is thrown as waste. On products other than fresh produce we are inefficient in costs.

Folks who are fighting for the neighborhood kirana shop are raising a bogey, kirana will survive or transform itself if the big retailers are ever going to have an impact on them, I think there will be no impact, shopping habits are hard to change and we will still walk across to the kirana shop to buy the toothpaste and dal. The same bogey was raised when KFC and Pizza hut entered the Indian market, they have in fact contributed positively to the economy by generating employment. At the same time Saravan bhavan’s, Kamat’s and Nirula’s are still doing their business briskly. We are big country and there is space for the kirana and the mall. Ultimately our objective should be to generate quality employment for our millions and at the same time invest in improving our infrastructure, technology, supply chains etc.

The ongoing ruckus is going to have an impact on FDI in aviation, this sector is struggling and badly needs cash infusion and strategic partners. Delay in formulating and rolling out a forward looking aviation policy will hurt the private players which is unfair. Why keep pouring public money in Air India while we penalize the private players with whole host of regulations?

A Slap on the face of Public

There is unanimous condemnation by one and all on the slap gate incident involving Sharad Pawar. All of us agree, civilized societies are not supposed to encourage such behavior. The shoe throwing incident in Iraq on George W has ignited the imagination of people globally, since then all sorts of material has been pelted against public leaders (read politicians). It is now a common practice worldwide rather a best practice. Coming back to the incident, I am sure a significant portion of the population would not really have the sympathies for our political leaders being humiliated in public. As Anna said tongue- in- cheek” Just one slap” would have been the refrain from most countrymen.

This is not about Sharad Pawar, he happened to be at the wrong place, this feeling is against politicians in general. Why is there a sense of victory when such incidents happen, there is a sense of achievement, quiet glee. It is an incorrect way of protesting but there we go. There is a general frustration in the society on the overall governance and against politicians in particular for they place themselves above law and are not accountable for delivering on promises once elected. They slap the general public on a daily basis, a slap on their stomachs with the uncontrollable inflation, a slap on their purse with rising prices. Pranab da post the incident said “I don’t know where the country is going” I agree it is time government wakes up and acts on issues like inflation, rising fuel and food prices and corruption that are making life difficult for the common man. Public anger needs an outlet and someone like Harvinder will keep doing such acts. A divided polity who place themselves above the country deserve collective condemnation and ....