Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 150
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 151
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
LATEST NEWS UPDATES | What Is Affecting the Performance of the Public Sector? -Kiran Bhatty and Dipa Sinha

What Is Affecting the Performance of the Public Sector? -Kiran Bhatty and Dipa Sinha

Share this article Share this article
published Published on Oct 22, 2018   modified Modified on Oct 22, 2018
-TheWire.in

Most of the ‘reforms’ that are being introduced to address poor delivery of social services are silent on the issue of inadequate human resources, among other shortfalls in capacity.

The poor performance of the public sector especially in education, health and other social services has been the subject of a lot of debates in the last few decades. The dominant narrative has attributed implementation failures to corruption, lack of accountability, poor incentive mechanisms and over-sized government – aspects of inefficiency and rent-seeking assumed to be inherent in state systems. Solutions put forth therefore focus on circumventing the system, through technological interventions, or non-state participation that is aimed at either replacing the government system completely or partially through public-private partnerships. While it cannot be denied that the system is far from perfect, the suggested solutions do not address the core institutional shortcomings that exist. Hence, they might show some positive results in the short-term, but are neither sustainable nor scalable.

One of the glaring problems affecting the performance of the public sector is the acute shortfall in human resources throughout the implementation structure. This is reflected not just in the absence of numbers, but also in the inadequacies of training and qualification of the personnel involved. In fact, far from having an over-sized government, that has prompted calls for “minimum government”, India has one of the smallest governments in the world in relation to its population.  The US, for instance, not considered a proponent of large government, has 668 government employees per lakh population, compared to 139 in India.

The shortages in the crucial areas of education and health fall below internationally accepted norms as well. Hence, WHO data show nursing and midwifery personnel in India at 2.094 per 1000 population, compared with 5.229 in South Africa, 4.124 in Malaysia and 7.444 in Brazil. In fact, the shortfalls exist even when measured against the government’s own benchmark of staffing requirements. Rural health statistics for 2018, for instance, show vacancies to the tune of 37% for male health workers at sub-centres and 24% for doctors at primary health centres. In education, the situation is no better. The annual work plan and budget documents (2016-17) of the education ministry, show more than ten lakh [10,31,122] teachers’ posts vacant in government schools across the country. In Jharkhand, this amounted to 38.4% vacancies; in Bihar 34.4%; in UP 23.4%; and in Delhi 25%. And this is not accounting for the teacher requirement for the millions of children currently out of school [estimates range from six to 40 million]. What is worse is that 25% of teachers that are appointed do not possess the requisite qualifications [U-DISE 2017-18], reflecting another dimension of poor capacity, besides being a violation of the RTE Act.

Please click here to read more.

TheWire.in, 15 October, 2018, https://thewire.in/government/public-sector-health-education-vacancies


Related Articles

 

Write Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Video Archives

Archives

share on Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Feedback
Read Later

Contact Form

Please enter security code
      Close