Page 18 - EW August 2023

Editorial

CARRY LIBERALISATION TO NATURAL CONCLUSION ing the past decade, even in the pre-
However, it’s notable that dur-
pandemic years, India’s GDP growth
n a season of climate change in- Although some 50 million citizens rates have not matched those of neigh-
duced by excessive rains and floods are estimated to have slipped down bouring People’s Republic of China
Iwhose death and destruction fury the income scale into extreme pov- (PRC), which averaged 10 percent per
has been exacerbated by man-made erty during the Covid-19 pandemic year for 20 years after party secretary
disasters, news from the UNDP and (2020-21), this unprecedented great Deng Xiaoping firmly placed PRC
Oxford Poverty and Human Devel- leap forward of Chinese scale and on the capitalist road. On the other
opment Initiative study saying that proportions, merits some explana- hand, even under the professedly free
415 million citizens of this benighted tion. Firstly, it is quite patently the markets ideology of the BJP which
republic have escaped multi-dimen- outcome of the landmark liberalisa- has been in power at the Centre for
sional poverty in the years between tion and deregulation of the Indian almost a decade, liberalisation of the
2006-2019, has not received sufficient economy in 1991 when the rigid indus- economy has not been carried to its
attention from economists and me- trial licensing system and monopolies logical conclusion.
dia pundits. Its multi-volume report legislation which had cabined, cribbed This is perhaps because despite the
presents a multi-dimensional poverty and confined private industry for four success of the tiger economies of China
index (MDPI) covering 110 countries. decades, was substantially abolished. and South-east Asia, a consensus has
According to the India MDPI re- The huge number of citizens lifted not evolved in favour of free market
port (prepared with the assistance of out of multi-dimensional poverty reforms in the academy and political
government think tank NITI Aayog), during the past three decades is the class. Academics and media pundits
a substantial proportion of the popu- direct consequence of freeing the still discern merit in licence-permit-
lation of every state and Union ter- shackled spirit of entrepreneurship quota raj, which devastated the Indian
ritory is deprived of nutrition, child and introduction of free market re- economy for over four decades.
and adolescent and maternal health forms of 1991. Since then, annual Quite clearly a national consensus
services, six years of schooling, school rates of GDP grew to 8-9 percent in in favour of liberalisation and deregu-
attendance, cooking fuel, sanitation, the early years of the new millennium lation being carried to its natural con-
drinking water, electricity, housing, and have continued to average 5-6 clusion is necessary if the country’s re-
modern assets (fridge, television) and percent despite the disruption of the maining half billion citizens are to be
bank accounts. pandemic years. lifted out of poverty and misery.

TWO FACTORS ACCELERATING CLIMATE CHANGE ductivity becoming pervasive in the
official bureaucracy, and especially in
local government.
Moreover because of poor educa-
t’s undeniable that the rain, floods lighted by EducationWorld since it tion, they are highly susceptible to the
and landslides that swept North In- was launched in 1999. Yet due to the blandishments and bribes of urban
Idia — Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, indifference of a myopic middle class, real estate shysters and millionaires
Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and public, i.e, government school, educa- promoting high-end luxury apartment
inundated Delhi, the national admin tion remains in the doldrums. blocks over storm-water drains, cul-
capital — last month are the outcome The result is that the great majority verts and reclaimed marshlands, all of
of global warming and climate change of citizens, especially in rural India are which prompt flooding in seasons of
that are Nature’s revenge against un- ignorant about elementary environ- excessive downpour.
checked exploitation and carboniza- ment preservation practices — water Almost a century ago, when the
tion of Planet Earth. However floods conservation, optimal NPK fertilizer first government of India was formed,
fury that routinely sweeps away the usage, stubble burning, power-tools Dr. Ambedkar warned against the
modest standing crops and thatch skilling etc. The outcome is poor per- government sector being established
dwellings of millions in rural India acre yields and mass migration of ill- as a high wage island, and advised
and painfully accumulated material educated and unskilled youth to urban that government salaries should have
goods of the urban poor in the coun- India, and desperation for govern- some linkage with per capita national
try’s ramshackle, poorly planned cities ment employment in particular. income. This advice was ignored and
and towns, is also the consequence of Simultaneously pressure on the currently the remuneration of ‘D’
two deep rooted systemic flaws: rock- political class to provide employment class government employees is 10x of
bottom public primary education and to kith, kin and constituents has gen- national per capita income. Thus the
pernicious official corruption. erated massive nepotism and corrup- mad scramble for government jobs,
The pathetic condition of the tion — it’s hardly a national secret that and corruption and inefficiency per-
country’s public early childhood and relatively well-paid government jobs meating public administration top-to-
primary education system defined are auctioned. This flood of under- bottom countrywide. These two fac-
by abysmal infrastructure, chronic qualified kith and kin entering govern- tors — poor schooling and widespread
teacher absenteeism, multi-grade ment and public sector employment corruption — are man-made disasters
classrooms and rock-bottom learning has had the unintended consequence behind the ‘natural disasters’ that are
outcomes have been routinely high- of poor education and low rural pro- dragging back the economy.

18 EDUCATIONWORLD AUGUST 2023