Social spends have been cut, rural India is in crisis, have we got the growth story wrong?
When journalist P. Sainath met him, Jain saab, 45, was the ‘head of departments’ cum sports officer and principal of the Government P.G College, Alirajpur, Madhya Pradesh. The meeting was recorded in Sainath’s magnum opus, Everybody Loves a Good Drought, in 1995. As Sainath wrote then: “The schooling system, despite many stupid experiments, is not designed to retain tribal children…it’s not the funds. It’s the lack of commitment.” He however ends optimistically with, “Many teachers agree that if primary schooling were universal, comfortable and affordable for tribals, things could improve dramatically.”
Twenty years later, Outlook visited Alirajpur. The tribal-dominated district has the lowest literacy rate (37 per cent) in the entire country. Since 2010, the Right to Education Act has made education free and compulsory for all. However, the number of students enrolled in primary schools in the district has decreased in 2,100 schools. “This is because most schools are functioning in the most pathetic manner,” says a senior IAS officer. “While rte has ensured that schools are built every few kilometres, we have miserably failed in ensuring that there is sufficient human resource to benefit students.” There are 2,400 schools in the district—there are as many vacancies (2,352) in teacher positions.
S.C. Jain doesn’t remember the conversation he had with Sainath 20 years ago. What he does is that for at least 15 years he was head of five departments cum sports officer until his retirement in 2009. “That was a time when this region didn’t have buses to move around, or even milk to drink. While certain changes have come about, the quality of education has remained abysmal, maybe it’s even worsened,” says Jain. “The status quo over 15 years actually helps with the recollection,” he laughs.
Please click here to read more.