Jawaharlal Nehru did a huge amount for education in India. He gave us the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) and much else. Yet, for a man whose birthday is celebrated as Children's Day, he had relatively little to do with primary schooling. The first Five Year Plan allocated just about Rs 12 crore for investment in primary education, out...
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Falling Through The Cracks by Ananthapriya Subramanian
Two stories on two days, both from Delhi and both shocking in their revelations. Both involved child abuse. The first story was about a university professor on the run, allegedly after it came to light that he had employed a 10-year-old boy in his house, and worse, regularly beat him. The second story was even more mind-numbing in its details. Sanjana (name changed to protect identity), a 14-year-old girl, is...
More »Skepticism about HDRs by Bibek Debroy
This seems to be season for Human Development Reports (HDRs). UNDP's global HDR for 2011 has been published. In that, the headline grabbing number was that India is ranked 134th out of 186 countries. This ranking is based on HDI (human development index), a composite indicator with three sub-heads of health (life expectancy), education (literacy, gross enrollment ratio) and PPP per capita income. HDI ranges between 0 and 1 and...
More »For rich or for poor? by Ashok Kotwal, Milind Murugkar and Bharat Ramaswami
'Food subsidy is a massive burden…if so much is spent on subsidies, what is left for development?' agriculture minister Sharad Pawar recently asked. It is a legitimate question that is on the minds of many but seldom gets asked for fear of appearing callous. Are we prematurely trying to be a welfare State? In the developed world, safety nets like food stamps are regarded as humanitarian obligations toward the poor....
More »Putting Growth In Its Place by Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen
It has to be but a means to development, not an end in itself Is India doing marvellously well, or is it failing terribly? Depending on whom you speak to, you could pick up either of those answers with some frequency. One story, very popular among a minority but a large enough group—of Indians who are doing very well (and among the media that cater largely to them)—runs something like...
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