Page 40 - Education World November 2022

Cover Story

16.3 percent of India’s popu- overwhelming majority of In-
lation is under-nourished dia’s 1.2 million government
with children worst hit. The schools are grim, uninviting
authors of GHI are forthright institutions defined by dilapi-
and unequivocal: “India ranks dated, often dangerous build-
107th out of the 121 countries ings, lack of useable toilets,
with sufficient data to calcu- chronic teacher absenteeism,
late 2022 GHI scores. With a multi-grade classrooms and
score of 29.1, India has a level rock-bottom learning out-
of hunger that is serious,” they comes.
write. Therefore, upgradation
Moreover it’s pertinent to and improved administra-
note that the ‘trend values’ tion of government schools
of GHI 2022, i.e, metrics to should be the top priority of
measure hunger are heavily state and local governments
focused on children. The re- Malnutritioned children: "serious level of hunger" in particular, because children
port estimates the proportion from poor households who at-
of under-nourished population (India: is not the outcome of failure of the tend them are assured of a nutritious
16.3 percent); child stunting (share of country’s farmers, but of infrastruc- mid-day meal. Yet unless government
children under age five who have low ture deficiency, logistics misman- schools are well-equipped, inviting
height for their age, reflecting chronic agement and sustained blocking of a institutions providing meaningful
under-nutrition): 35.5 percent; child downstream food processing industry learning outcomes, they won’t retain
wasting (share of children who have of sufficient scale for an economy in children.
low weight for their height): 19.3 per- which 60 percent of the population is One of the most egregious failures
cent and child mortality (share of chil- engaged in agriculture/horticulture. of all Central and state governments
dren who die before their fifth birth- The silver lining of the dark child of post-independence India — and the
day, partly reflecting the fatal mix of hunger, stunting and wastage clouds intelligentsia — has been continuous
inadequate nutrition and unhealthy looming over the economy is India’s failure to increase annual expendi-
environments): 3.3 percent. insufficiently heralded achievement ture for public education to 6 percent
T HIS GLOBAL SURVEY, mid-day meal programme in 1.20 This glaring government and societal
of GDP, a goal set way back in 1967.
of implementation of a free-of-charge
which ranks glorious shin-
million government primary schools
failure is the root cause of the endemic
ing India— recently pro-
sand unnatural shocks that India’s
success. Therefore, ensuring that the
claimed the world’s fifth countrywide with a fair measure of poverty, illiteracy, disease and thou-
largest economy measured by GDP majority of India’s 164 million chil- citizens, and children in particular,
— below Pakistan (#99), Sri Lanka dren under age 5, and 111 million be- suffer daily.
(64), Nepal (81) and Bangladesh (84), low age 14 from bottom-of-pyramid With the Central and state gov-
is — or should be — shocking and households enrolled in government ernments unable to reduce runaway
disturbing and should prompt deep elementary (classes I-VIII) schools establishment expenditure, prune
introspection within right-thinking attend daily classes, is of critical im- non-merit subsidies, slash defence
members of Indian society. portance to eliminate child hunger spending, running up huge fiscal and
Quite obviously, the problem is and malnutrition. However it's nec- budgetary deficits year after year,
not food production per se because essary to acknowledge that millions they have conspicuously failed to suf-
the warehouses of the public sector of children are dropping out of pub- ficiently nurture and adequately edu-
Food Corporation of India are over- lic/government schools because the cate India’s children and youth whose
flowing with rice and wheat staples number aggregates almost 500 mil-
being consumed by rodents. More- One of the most egregious lion.
over, it’s well-established that 40 Therefore, this responsibility
percent of the country’s horticulture failures of government has has devolved upon wealthy citizens,
produce (fruit and vegetables) rots in been its continuous failure to NGOs and right-thinking members
farmyards across the country before it of society. Oxfam’s CRII 2022 report
gets to market inflicting an annual loss increase annual expenditure details that there’s a large and growing
of Rs.50,000 crore on the Republic’s for public education to 6 class of billionaires, millionaires and
struggling rural majority. Therefore, percent of GDP wealthy citizens who despite the worst
India’s pathetic GHI 2022 ranking efforts of the neta-babu brotherhood

40 EDUCATIONWORLD NOVEMBER 2022