ECONOMY, SOCIETY AND EDUCATION IN INDIA – 1991 ONWARDS

Role Name Affiliation

National Coordinator
Subject Coordinator Prof. Sujata Patel Department of Sociology,
University of Hyderabad
Paper Coordinator Prof. R. Indira Formerly Professor of Sociology,
University of Mysore
Content Writer Dr. K G Gayathri Devi Former Faculty in Sociology,
ISEC, Bangalore
Language Reviewer Prof. R. Indira Formerly Professor of Sociology,
University of Mysore
Technical Conversion

Module Structure
ECONOMY, Introduction, School as a microcosm of the larger society, Education for
SOCIETY employment, Outcomes of the developments of the earlier period (pre 1991)
AND and efforts to improve the educational scenario in the post 1990s, Education
EDUCATION as a measure of Human and Gender Development Indexes (HDI & GDI),
IN INDIA – Status overview (1991 onwards), Review and Discussion, Conclusion and
1991 References
ONWARDS

Description of the Module

Item Description of the Module

Subject Name Sociology
Paper Name Education and Society
Module Name/Title Economy, Society and Education in India – 1991 Onwards
Module ID 5.c
Pre-requisites Introduction and impact of Globalisation, Privatisation and
Development; Education as Human Resource Development,
Rising migration, Urban poverty and challenges to education;
Integrating the community, economy and polity in education
planning and implementation
Objectives This module presents the developments in the field of education
in the post 1991 era in India. The impact of globalisation and its
accompanying processes and efforts to popularise educational
programmes under a community driven, decentralised and
participatory climate is discussed. Some of the challenges to
education are also critically reviewed.
Key words Globalisation, Privatisation, Liberalisation, Information
Technology, Knowledge Economy, Decentralized Education
System, Community Participation in School Management, Total
Literacy Campaigns, Education and Human Resource
Development

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 1. Introduction
The post 1980 years in India and elsewhere in the world were witness to major transformations
in the understanding of human development which were reflected in the shifts taking place in the
thrust from material wellbeing to social wellbeing. It came to be emphasised that the chief goals
of human development were to enable people to live a life free of poverty with adequate living
standards, ensuring that poverty alleviation takes place along with economic growth. This focus
of the post 1980s received special policy significance in the United Nation’s Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) with the stress being on eradicating extreme poverty and hunger.
Education is crucial for development and also for ensuring that all children achieve their
fullest potential. Universal education became one of the significant aspects of the MDGs aiming
to end poverty by 2015. Its objective is to ensure that all individuals shall have access to all
available opportunities leading to a better standard of life, by inculcating in them knowledge
through education. It was defined as enabling people, irrespective of male, female or rich and
poor, low or upper caste, to be empowered enough to make positive choices to live a life of good
quality.
Infact this was hailed as the goal of education even as early as in the mid sixties, by the
Education Commission led by D.S. Kothari who considered education as the instrument that was
shaping the destiny of the country through its classrooms and aiming to provide an individual
‘the widest opportunities to develop one’s ‘potentialities to the full’ (p 4). Beginning from 1966,
the issue has travelled progressively in the last few decades, the proof of which is visible in the
emphasis placed upon enhancement of ‘human capital’ through knowledge, skills, interests and
values of people to achieve both ‘development’ with ‘quality of human resource’. The XI plan
also made a strong reference to development with an inclusive approach i.e. ‘building the
capacities of people through education (Planning Commission, GoI, 2006).
The concept of ‘development’, that evolved over a period of time, thus referring to
economic growth, moved to include ‘social determinants’. This originated from the changed
notion or belief that economic growth alone cannot bring about all desired social change. Or that
prosperity would not simply ‘trickle down’. Education came to be viewed as an important
determinant, or indicator, of enabling, or supporting, the right of human beings to live with
dignity and self-respect without inequality of any kind, gender imbalance, social and economic
vulnerability and so on.
Another noteworthy development in this new thinking about Human Development was
perceiving poverty as not only characterised by income deficiency, but also as depriving people
from getting literate, i.e., educational deprivation. Poverty came to be recognised as being caused
not only by lack of income but also by the absence of a literate population. Amartya Sen and
John Dreze stressed upon the following five important attributes of education in the modern, post
global age:

· The intrinsic importance of quenching people’s thirst for knowledge and enabling
them to secure better and higher positions in life;
· The instrumental role of education in improving the employment opportunities of
people by preparing or equipping them to use the available opportunities in the
best possible way;
· The ability it gives to individuals to think and discuss social issues;
· Its role in creating awareness about evil practices such as child labour; and

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 · Its empowering and distributive role of providing inspiration to the marginalized
sections to fight against inequality, exploitation and discrimination (Sen and
Dreze 2013; 2011).

A direct result or impact of the above thinking has been viewing the school as a
microcosm of the larger society. While the pre 1991 era (after independence to the nation)
embarked upon welfare programmes to enable the poor and vulnerable sections to access
schooling by making primary education free and compulsory, the post 1991 years spelt out
reforms from an integrated and holistic approach. This was due to the change in the very
philosophy of planning and change which became participatory and bottom – up in its
perspective, than the earlier bureaucratic top-down model.
2. School as a microcosm of the larger society
A major aspect of the changed perspective and ideological base upon which education came
to be rested in the post 1980 and 1990 years, was to look at the school as a microcosm of the
larger society and the classroom as the workshop that ‘made’ the lives of students. While the
earlier periods emphasised upon the aspects of providing infrastructure (school in every village)
and physical access to students (to children especially from the SC, ST, minority and other
vulnerable communities and to girls) to enroll and remain in schools without any form of
discrimination, deprivation, exclusion and threats, the emphasis now (in the 1990s) was upon
improving the ‘quality’ of education, bringing or achieving higher standards of teaching and
learning (particularly English, Science and Mathematics), augmenting and orienting the existing
curriculum, pedagogy and evaluation methods.
3. Education for Employment
The 61st round of data from the Survey of the National Sample Survey Organisation revealed
that even in developing states (with IT and BT) like Karnataka only a small percentage of the
rural (3%) and less than 20% of the urban population possessing a degree, diploma or a
certification. This meant that a large percentage of the country’s population had not yet pursued
higher education. Even the share of youngsters in acquiring formal skills for jobs in the highly
competitive urban job market was very low. Hence, from the 8th Plan onwards, intense efforts
were made to enhance skill development opportunities for young men and women from all
sections of society. Setting up of Skill Commissions was one such step initiated in this direction.
These were expected to empower individuals by imbibing in them the right skill, knowledge and
providing courses that offer internationally recognised qualifications to enhance their access to
productive employment opportunities. The estimated increases in the workforce by 2020 has led
the government to work towards creation of substantial employment opportunities, that too in the
more productive sectors of industry and services owing to the recent failure or the collapse of
agricultural sector and throwing out of the rural population that depended upon it for its
livelihood.
4. Outcomes of the developments of the earlier period (pre 1991) and Efforts to
Improve Educational Scenario in the post 1990s
A good outcome of the efforts of the government in the centre and the states between 1947
and 1991 is the setting up of a good educational base at the primary level in most of the states.
The targets for primary and universal education were almost met on the eve of the beginning of
the nineties. Efforts were already on the way to popularise and universalise secondary education,

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besides introducing life skills that were integrated into the secondary school curriculum. Schools
had also been supported with the needed financial and man-power resources to enable them to
impart good quality teaching and skill training.
This form of upgradation of educational system included design, establishment and
expansion of new technological institutions, polytechnics, IITs, vocational education institutions,
medicine and management institutes, universities, distance education and so on. Private agencies
and institutions were also given a lot of encouragement to partner with the government and the
community to take this work further in a coordinated manner.
5. Education as a Measure of Human and Gender Development Indexes (HDI & GDI)
The outstanding achievement of intellectual thinking during the eighties was the attention
that policy makers, planners, academicians, social scientists and civil society bestowed on
measuring human development with a new set of indices. The Human Development Index
evolved during this period set out to measure the average achievements of an economy in three
basic dimensions of development, viz., Health, Education and Decent Standard of Living. These
were an improvement over the earlier measures set by the UNDP. The new HDI began to take
geometric mean of the indicators, taking into account differences in the achievement across three
dimensions of Health, Education and Standard of Living. Low achievement in any one
dimension was no longer linearly compensated by high achievements in another dimension. The
geometric mean came to establish any reduction in the level of substitutability between
dimensions. It ensured that a 1 per cent decline in any one index (health, for example) will have
the same impact on the HDI as a 1 per cent decline in another (education, for example). For
example, instead of a single variable (literacy), literacy rate and Gross Enrollment Rate (GER) at
elementary school level came to be used to measure progress in the sector of education
(UNESCO 2004).
Education also came to appear in estimating non-educational developments, such as Gender
Development, Poverty Alleviation, Child Development and the like.
For example, while arriving at the Gender Inequality Index (GII), empowerment is used as an
indicator (along with reproductive health of women and their labour-force participation).
Women’s Empowerment further meant, besides economic (ownership of economic assets) and
political (access to leadership roles), but even educational, marked by the share of female
children in the total literate population (that reflected upon representation of women in the labour
market or in their Work Participation Rates (WPR) (UNESCO 2003).
Likewise, while measuring Child Development, the emphasis was not only upon their
survival rates (Child Survival Rates-CSRs), but also upon their literacy level. Education came to
be included as one of the indicators in Child Development Index (CDI)1 along with health and
nutrition. Under education as an indicator, the percentage of primary school-age children - both
not yet enrolled and those who have dropped out after enrollment - are taken.
6. Status Overview (1991 onwards)
The scenario of efforts to improve the educational levels of people in the country across
castes, classes, religions, regions, age groups, physical fitness and gender as what we discuss
under the caption ‘1991 onwards’, had already begun in the years prior to it. For example even

1
Developed in the UK in 2008, through the efforts of Terry McKinley, Director of the Centre for
Development Policy and Research at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in the University of
London for the campaign in UK, “Save the Children”.

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as early as in the year 1986 the state had already envisaged a National System of Education in
its draft National Policy on Education 1986-1992. Its idea was to bring about a nation-wide
common educational form, with 10+2+3 as the structure. The break-up was the first 5 years as
primary education, the next 2 years as upper primary education and three years of high school
education.
The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) had been already set
up by the Ministry of Education, Government of India, in the year 1961, by merging seven
earlier institutions with the expectation that it would assist and advise the central and state
ministries on matters of school education. Among its chief goals were: universalising elementary
education, encouraging girls’ education, introducing vocational education and national
curriculum, among others. It also publishes text books for classes I to XII.
6.1 Gaps in Implementation and Results/Outcomes
Although the government had encouraged universal elementary education and placed a ban
on child labour, its imposition was not effective due to the challenges of increasing poverty and
displacement that the post-globalisation years thrust upon the poor and vulnerable sections of the
population (GoI 2011). Political instability, migration of families, collapse of agricultural and
allied occupations and their inability to sufficiently support people’s livelihoods, natural
calamities, inflation, shortage of school infrastructure, teacher, unsatisfactory teacher-student
ratio – all these were identified to be the causes of such backwardness.
6.2. Efforts at Improving the Situation
Several measures were planned and implemented in the post 1991 years to check the
drawbacks and bring about complete success in achieving the reforms in education. Some of the
noteworthy efforts and actions of the government, civil society and others in improving
education in India in the post 1991 years are summarised below:
6.2.1 District Education Revitalisation Programme (DERP)
As early as in 1994, the District Education Revitalisation Programme (DERP) was
introduced by the central government. It was a partnership between the centre (with 80% share of
funding) and the states (with 20% share) to revitalise universal education at the primary level.
With the support of UNICEF, a number of new schools were opened across the country.
6.2.2Amendment to the National Policy on Education (NPE)
The National Policy on Education (1986) came to be amended in the year 1992 to assist those
sections of Indian society considered vulnerable because of their continued inability to access
education (besides other vulnerabilities). Religious minorities (particularly Indian Muslims) are
one among them. The Area Intensive Programme for Educationally Backward Minorities was
initiated along with a scheme for financial support to Madrasas in 1994. Affiliations started to be
granted to minority institutions by 2004.
6.2.3 Kendriya Vidyalayas, Bal Bhavans and Women’s Groups
Besides the reservation of 15 % of seats already provided for the SCs and 7.5% for STs in
Kendriya Vidyalayas, special provisions were made for STs hailing from the remote regions such
as the North-East (consisting of 7 tribal dominant states) under the Non Lapsable Central Pool of
Resources in 1999.
The Mahila Samakhya (an organisation of the central government) initiated a special
programme in 1989 for women from poor households to obtain awareness about the benefits of
education for their children and adult education for themselves. Huge sums of money were
allocated for this purpose covering villages and districts in the country in phases.

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 Setting up of Bal Bhavans for educational and cultural activities by children to encourage
their talent, national level book fairs, exhibitions, competitive examinations in arts and crafts like
drawing and painting, sports and games, swimming, Yoga, health awareness camps, environment
protection programmes and many others like these were part of the efforts to establish education
as a comprehensive programme for personality development.
6.3 Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), meaning ‘Education For All’ is hailed as one of the
largest education initiatives in the world as far as elementary education is concerned in India. It
is, in fact, a movement towards achieving literacy or universalisation of elementary education, in
a time bound or targeted manner (http://wcd.nic.in/icds.htm). The programme attains its added
significance due to the fact that it resulted from the 86th Amendment of the Constitution of India
in 2001 thereby declaring that elementary education for all children in the age group of 6 years to
14 years is compulsory and a fundamental right (GoI 2011).
In introducing this programme the government took the lead from the already existing
District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) of 1993, operated in phases and as a
collaborative programme of the centre and the states supported by external funding agencies like
the World Bank, DFID (of UK) and UNICEF. The DPEP was a massive programme with a lot of
success in enrolling the vulnerable sections of society like the SCs, the STs and girls to
elementary schools.
In a module on Economy, Society and Education in India, one has to highlight some of
the special and unique features of SSA to make it clear how it has integrated the interlinkages
between the three concepts. While all the earlier programmes on education highlighted the need
of bringing children into schools, the role of the community as a stakeholder in this process had
not yet been realised. Besides the already spelt out (by earlier schemes and programmes)
objectives and goals (such as improving enrollment of children specially girl children, quality of
education, training of teachers, etc), the SSA also spoke of public-private partnership in the form
of community participation (CP) in school activities. Here, the term CP was defined as including
not only the parents of the wards, but also the women and men in local organisations like the
panchayats, the Anganawadi Centre, the Self Help Groups (SHGs), youth organisations, and
other grassroots committees set up by the government from time to time. But, more than the role
of these local organisations, the SSA initiated setting up of what it called the “School
Development Management Committees (SDMCs)” for every school (government school) in the
village/s.
Besides the SDMCs, the democratic nature of the functioning of the education system in
the post 1990s was reflected in the involvement of various other satellite organisations, viz.,
village and urban slum level education committees, Parent-Teacher Associations, Tribal
Councils etc (Govinda and Verghese 1997; McGinn and Blatchford 1997).
6.4 Right to Education Act 2009
The Parliament of India passed the historic Right of Children to Free and Compulsory
Education Act, on August 4, 2009, under Art.21A of the Constitution. Education became a
Fundamental Right of every child of 6-14 years of age. It also made it mandatory that up to 25
% of seats in private educational institutions must be compulsorily reserved for children from
vulnerable or disadvantaged sections of society such as SCs, STs, and Religious Minorities (GoI
2009). It was for the first time that a Bill was passed based on the speech by a Prime Minister
(Dr. Manmohan Singh).

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 The Act has come in for a lot of criticism and is not fully operational due to non-co-operation
of private institutions, official apathy etc. Many private schools held it as an intrusion into their
privacy and infringement of rules. Several of them petitioned against the Act in the Supreme
Court of India. The RTE Act was held as being hastily imposed and as a duplication of the
already existing DPEP.
6.5 Other Levels of Education
The Secondary, Higher Secondary, Pre-University and College education are the other levels
of education that have grown complex and focused as the economy of the country came under
the influence of global policies, particularly with reference to employment. A number of
revisions of curricula were made under directions from the UGC, NCERT and CBSE.
Engineering, Medical and Business Administration came under the limelight due to increased job
opportunities and rising status within the job market.
6.6 Child Dropout Rate and Child Labour
Mainstreaming children who have dropped out of school was given utmost importance by
tracing such children. Like them, children who leave education to take up employment as child
labourers also received greater attention (Devi 1997). National and state level enactments were
passed curbing child labour particularly by children below 12 or 14 years of age and forced to
work in dangerous places in hazardous occupations and with highly negative health impacts and
risks to life. The International Labour Organisations’ (ILO) Declarations also had their strong
impact on these enactments. The National Child Labour Project and State Child Labour Projects
are examples here. The departments of HRD and Labour joined hands to trace such working
children through the labour officers supported by Non-Governmental Ogranisations (NGOs).
The latter have been given permission to start Bridge Schools to accommodate these children
who are later mainstreamed into regular schools with hostel facilities. The SAARC Year of the
Girl Child (1994) further supported the cause of girl child labourers and worked strongly for
promoting their education and protection.
6.7 Education for the Disabled or Differentially Abled
The earlier programme of 1974 (Integrated Education for Disabled Children) for the disabled
children was revised for better inclusion and facilitating creative learning.

7 Review and Discussion

Development is understood, in traditional terms, as a mere yardstick of income. But the post
1980s saw an upsurge of interest and review in understanding what development is. One of the
significant results of this realisation was to align development with education as resulting from a
direct relationship between educational advancement and economic development (Tilak 1989;
Behrman 1990; Birdsall 1993). For example, not all nations with high literacy are highly
developed and not all rich nations have equally corresponding wealth as their educational level.
The UNDP declared in 2013 that the Gulf countries are oil rich but poor in educational
standards. In India itself, in the state of Karnataka the district of Bellary occupies the 4th place in
terms of its GDP (2004-05) and 9th place in income index. But when we take its educational
level, it ranks in the 18th place in HDI and 23rd place in its educational level. Thus, advancement
in economic terms alone is not enough for development (GoK 2014).
It is, therefore, fitting that the government has attached a lot of significance to improving
people’s educational level through conspicuous interventions and policies. This is supposed to
lead to a well integrated economy with society and ‘all round development’.

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 The Census 2011 boasts of approximately one third of its total number of children in the 7 to
10 years age group as being literate with improved attendance rate (GoI 2011). The Report of the
Status of Education (Annual Status of Education Report-ASER), 2012 announced that 96.5% of
all rural children in the age group of 6 to 14 years have been enrolled in schools. The report also
highlighted that between 2002 and 2013, there was an increase of 2.3 million students from class
one to ten, in the rural, tribal and urban areas in the country. This also mirrored 19 % increase in
the enrollment of girls.
Despite all the above efforts, it is alarming to know that nearly 20 per cent of the population
in rural areas, in the 6+ years age category, is still illiterate. In urban areas also, the rate of
illiteracy is around 15-17 per cent. Illiteracy is much higher in the case of girls and women (GoI
2011; RBI 2012). However, the increase in literacy over the decades is caused by serious efforts
by the government, local organisations and the schools. The time bound SSA has brought about
significant changes; this is particularly evident in the reduction in drop-out rate and bringing
back the out of school children into the mainstream of education (Devi 2002). Attention given to
enrollment and retention, provision of school infrastructure, improvements in quality of teaching,
involving parents and the community – all these interventions have contributed positively to
improvement in educational attainments with quality. Higher GER (Gross Enrollment Rates) is
attributed to the efforts of the government and rising awareness level of the parents/people.
Backward regions in the districts are supported in building better infrastructure by the BRGF
(Backward Region Grants Fund).
The objective of achieving universal education is not only to increase enrollment, but also to
retain the enrolled children in schools. Attendance and learning completion are two important
indicators in this context. Here, one has to acknowledge the support by the District Education
Programmes, the SSA incentive programmes such as free distribution of uniforms, text books,
bicycles, offering of scholarships and importantly, the Noon or Mid-Day Meals Programme
(MDM).
However, in many cases, the schools are not genuine in reporting true attendance in classes
for fear of punishment, as it is one of their duties to monitor regular attendance in classes.
Likewise, the impact of MDM on attendance in classes and retention rate is evidently good.
Besides this, it also has helped in improving the nutritional level of the students, awareness about
sanitation and increased equity between various castes and classes and gender.
Drop out cases are not always reported to be out of poverty compulsions; but research has
shown that several students have opted to drop out of the school due to inability to grasp and
inefficiency of learning on the part of the concerned students. Drop out is also heavily caused by
social compulsions such as casteist feelings causing guilt, abandonment, humiliation, sexual
violence on girls in the school by either the teacher or fellow students, poverty of parents, home
based traditional occupation (for girls), male child labour, lack of conviction of parents in
education, superstitions, early marriage (for girls again) and women headed households (due to
widowhood or desertion by husband). Thus, the societal reasons are still operative in arresting
the attendance of poor students and girls in schools and colleges.
The transition rate is also reported to be low for students from rural areas and hailing from
SC, ST and other backward classes and girls (Deshpande 2006; Ghosh 2013). For the latter,
attaining maturity is a major cause of dropping out and not transiting to the next class,
particularly if the same village or town has no such school (higher secondary or even secondary
school).

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 Although in most schools and colleges, the teacher pupil ratio is reasonably good, the number
of working teachers as against sanctioned posts of teachers is low in many cases.
Infrastructure in the schools and higher educational institutions is also a major impediment to
learning. This is true of tribal areas and backward rural pockets of the country. Although under
the SSA a lot of attention is given to provisioning school infrastructure, such as building class
rooms, girls’ toilets, general toilets, provision for drinking water, compound wall, kitchen for
MDM, play ground, library and reading room, computers (in some higher secondary schools and
colleges), health centres and so on, in reality, due to bureaucratic and grama panchayat created
hassles, not much improvement is seen. Construction contracts have become important matters
for discussion in the SDMC meetings due to their lucrative nature and scope for corruption.
Accessibility of more than one kilometer is posing as an obstacle in some villages. Although
under the SSA greater attention is given to provision of at least the 9 basic facilities listed in the
Abhiyan, much needs to be done in many rural and tribal parts as well as in small towns.
Teaching materials have been provided in plenty but teachers’ ability to transfer is not visible
in students’ learning capabilities. This is evident in the pass percentage of students in the
examinations. After schooling, the course to which a student gets admitted to also matters in
providing an assured employment later in life.
Coordination and timely assistance (in the form of release of funds, material or completing
administrative work) by the various related Line Departments is considered critical in ensuring
success in education. These include the Departments of Women & Child Development, the SC
& ST Development Corporation, Minority Development Corporation, Social Welfare
Department, the three tiers of Panchayats, etc. The hostels, particularly for girl students need to
be safe to live in. Bridge schools or Transit Homes must be carefully monitored for their failure
in providing quality stay and food to the inmates. Medical care, counseling, sports and games
and physical exercises are the other incentives to keep the inmates disciplined, active and
healthy.
With greater or added emphasis on primary or elementary education, the higher education
sector is increasingly becoming privatised and under capitalistic systems where the welfare
programmes of the government for the vulnerable groups fail to be respected and implemented.
Skill development programmes such as tailoring, embroidery, painting, woolen knitting,
carpentry, handicrafts etc are significant as self employment avenues.
The participation by the community or society is critical in making any government
programme a successful one (Tharakan 2000; Srivasthava 2005; Ramachandran 2003). Adult
literacy programmes are striving to make the adult population in rural, tribal and other backward
regions actively involved in development activities. The women in the self help groups are one
of the groups for adult literacy in many places. But the women in grassroots leadership roles (in
the grama panchayat) are not involved in these activities. There are no integrated activities by all
the actors – like the members of the SDMC, of the grama panchayat, women in the SHGs and
other local organisations (Kantha and Narayan 2003).
Parents’ occupation has emerged as a chief indicator of children’s educational aspirations and
achievements as it is the backbone of the household’s economy. Thus, poor households, where
the father is underemployed or earns very less, have very poor standard of living and people have
no assets (Chaudhuri and Gupta 2009). Landless labourers are often at the mercy of employment
availability and tend to migrate out to the village in search of livelihood. This sort of economic
and spatial displacement is disastrous to education of their children. Migration of parents has
continued unabated due to failure of rains, consequent crop loss, large families to support, caste
9
conflicts in the place of origin etc. Girls and women are the worst sufferers in all these uprooting.
As compared to boys, girls are more prone to drop out of school due to these domestic and
marriage related reasons.
Despite several decades of legislative and political enforcements, social inequality based on
caste is ubiquitous to Indian society and continues to haunt any democratic move to bring about
change in traditional practices (Srinivas 1962). Caste based restrictions continue to force students
to drop out of school due to poverty, low caste status and marginalised status (Nambissan 2013).
8 Conclusion
India is home to a number of reputed educational institutions of higher learning and some of
its states, like Karnataka, have earned the title ‘Knowledge Societies’ due to the niche that they
have created for themselves as spreading knowledge in electronics, biotechnology, computer
software, space technology etc. Its economy has obtained a boost due to these new vistas of
knowledge and its application suitably to build on the outcomes to foster growth and
development. However, such knowledge and skill must be used amicably to enhance its
competitiveness and also to sustain it for future use. It also needs to expand its consumer base to
emerge as a forerunner in the fast changing globalised vibrant society.
To be able to accomplish the same, education requires support and cooperation from other
sectors such as health, social security, agriculture, rural development, small scale industries etc.
Only when there is a concerted effort to bring together all these different sectors in the society
that the goal of education to achieve an overall quality of its people’s lives can be attained.
We have already stated that education is the microcosm of the larger society. The stage is
more than set to accept education with all positive externalities as a public good. But, it is for this
very same reason that the state has to continue to take a proactive role in supplying it as the
markets cannot provide it to the socially vulnerable groups. The Right to Education is now a
fundamental Human Right and the various programmes of the state and central governments
have undertaken efforts to universalise elementary education. It is also recognised that education
enables expansion of choices in life, keeping in view the well being, security and comfort of all
citizens.
The focus now is on improving the quality of education by bringing about improvements in
the standards of teaching and learning at all levels and to ensure efficient delivery. One has to
remember that India is a fast growing economy, which is based on its expanding knowledge
base. Thus, economy and society – both – are wedded to education to bring about the required
development. It is for this reason that the state and the private sector have embarked on
significant reforms in the education sector, by investing hugely in the public sector and
encouraging private investments to result in unrestricted access to all children and youth, with
equity and efficiency topped by community involvement.
The 11th Plan had set a target of 85% of literacy by 2012. Although this was not difficult,
strangely urban areas have begun to show higher illiteracy rates. Otherwise, almost all states
have shown a decline in the number of illiterate persons. Illiterate and unskilled migrant
labourers to cities (due to the boom in real estate business) are adding to the illiterate population
there, who need to be focused in the coming plan periods. It is tragic to see them at a time when
the country’s economy is on a developmental path. The social benefits of literacy in the booming
economy must be realised by planners and intellectuals who prepare the ideology for plans, as
literacy is ‘a proxy for development awareness and involvement’ (Economic Survey 2013-14,
GoK, pp 473). It is needless to emphasise Needless to emphasise that those who fall out are the

10
deprived sections such as women, dalits, adivasis, minority groups and the third gender.
Illiteracy among these categories of the vulnerable and poor is proof of their continued
marginalisation, social exclusion, deprivation and even exploitation.
Employment in the fast growing, but equally complex and high profile, economy is the next
step of all today, after completing education. Women’s entry into the work force (formal and
skilled) is now an old story that never raises eyebrows from the traditional quarters of our
society. Second, higher education has long since been successful in raising expectations of the
educated and their parents to seek jobs in urban areas as they also offer a wide range of choices
and opportunities. Failing agriculture, increased alienation from land for farmers due to the
policies of the government such as formation of Special Economic Zones (SEZs), transportation
links and networks (that also take away village’s lands), increased caste based oppression
triggered by reservation of seats to the vulnerable sections and assertion of their rights by the,
dalits, adivasis etc., social mobility aspirations and others have led to a large exodus from rural
areas looking for opportunities in urban areas. Therefore, the responsibility of the government
and the private sector is in providing quality education in the universities and training centres,
which have to be transformed into centres of excellence. They should also be able to arrive at a
synergy of learning with research outcomes to plan and achieve a sustainable economic growth
with social equality for all.

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