Gap between haves, have-nots has widened: Manmohan

Amaninder Pal

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 9 

Former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, the architect of India’s economic reforms initiated 25 years ago, today said the progress the country witnessed during the past 25 years was not “equitably distributed”. 

Certain sections of society such as SCs/STs, OBCs and minorities and those living in the rural areas had lagged behind and their gain or share in the progress of the country was much less than that of the well-off sections of the country, said Dr Singh, who had opened up the country’s economy with his Budget speech in 1991.

Though Dr Singh emphasised that the country had made considerable progress, particularly during the past 25 years, but he also underscored the point that “inequality has increased substantially in the country.”

Delivering the inaugural address at the 17th annual conference of the Indian Association of Social Sciences Institutions (IASSI), organised by the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRIID), Chandigarh, here today, the former Primer Minister spoke on “Education and Development: Issues, Challenges and Opportunities.”

“The size of our economy today is two trillion plus ($ 2.076) compared to the $ 0.327 trillion economy in 1990-91.  The literacy rate has increased from 52.21 per cent in 1991 to 74.04 per cent in 2011-12.

The population living below the poverty line has declined from 45.3 to 21.9 per cent from 1993-94 to 2011-12, but the benefits of this progress are not fairly distributed”, said Dr Singh.

“The disparity in the country has increased considerably. As per socio-economic surveys for rural India, there were 74.5 per cent households with a monthly income below Rs 5,000 in 2011,” he further added. 

Dwelling on the quality of education being offered by government schools, he said it was far from satisfactory due to various factors such as lack on infrastructure, inadequate teaching faculty and equipment, etc.

“Now, there are schools for the haves and have-nots leading to social segregation of children belonging to various sections of society”, he said.

Critically commenting on the private education system, Dr Singh said though private schools were better monitored, they charge a high fee and were beyond the reach of the poor, who could not bear the financial burden such schools entail. 

He said there was a dire need to address issues like inadequacy of classrooms, shortage of teaching material, equipment and above all shortage of teachers in the schools.

Social divisions

The current tendency to generate and promote social divisions among people on the basis of religions, castes and regional lines can be overcome by educating people to acquire those values which characterised the struggle for Independence and the idea of India. 

Education must promote what Jawaharlal Nehru described as “scientific temper” and humanistic values. The technically educated individuals can be transformed into culturally advanced citizens, who have the capacity to enjoy their own liberty and respect the liberty of others in a multi-cultural and multi-religious society of India, which is correctly described as ‘unity in diversity’.  The educated and conscious citizens become participants in the deepening and the widening of democracy, in observing the rule of law and saving the polity from deviations from democratic principles, keeping it on the path to follow the cherished ideals of our Constitution, the ‘Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic’.   

Education as business

The new educational institutions coming up in the private sector are mostly for “profit” and are not like the old non-profit charitable private educational institutions. Though at the same time, it must be admitted that some of the private education providers have maintained high quality but there number is not much. He also stressed on empowerment of women through education.