Page 10 - EW July 2021 final

Editorial

AVOID SINO-INDIA WAR AT ALL COSTS growth per year for over two decades.
This transformed the country into a
manufacturing and industrial power-
ven as 12 rounds of talks are First, because the PLA (People’s Lib- house and the world’s second largest
stalled between top Chinese eration Army) backed by China’s $15 superpower after the United States,
Eand Indian troop command- trillion technologically superior econ- surpassing Russia in the process.
ers in eastern Ladakh, where patrols omy (cf. India’s $3 trillion), is certain Meanwhile even after the belated
from both countries clashed on the to repeat its famous victory of the liberalisation and deregulation of the
banks of lake Tsang Po in May 2020 Sino-India border war of 1962. Indian economy in 1991, it’s been two
resulting in the death of 20 jawans of In the circumstances the BJP/NDA steps forward and one back with In-
the Indian Army and an unspecified government at the Centre has no op- dia averaging a 5 percent annual GDP
number of Chinese soldiers, media tion but to parley with CPC (Com- growth rate since 1978, a pathetic lag-
reports indicate that on orders of the munist Party of China) leaders and gard in the international development
BJP/NDA government, the Indian negotiate a permanent settlement of race.
Army is engaged in a massive infra- the 3,488 km Sino-India border in Against this backdrop even as the
structure development drive on our the north and north-east which has Covid-19 pandemic has further en-
side of the LAC (line of actual control). been pending settlement for over half feebled the economy, display of false
The objective is to enable swifter mo- a century. The price of relative neglect bravado by way of risking a military
bility of 50,000-60,000 Indian troops of our national development effort for conflict with China which has recov-
and weapon systems in forward areas. the past four decades has to be paid. ered from the pandemic in record
With several divisions of communist It’s chastening to note that in 1978 time, would be national suicide. The
China’s People’s Liberation Army the national and per capita GDP of public interest demands a bona fide
(PLA) also reportedly dug in on the India and China was on a par. But in return to the negotiating table, and
other side of the LAC, this area could that watershed year, under the vision- obtaining the best possible terms
become the flashpoint of a new Sino- ary leadership of CPC secretary Deng for permanent resolution of the pro-
India border war at any time. Xiaoping our neighbour nation took a tracted Sino-India border dispute. We
At this point in our history when historic U-turn to firmly place China must if necessary concede this battle
the economy is struggling to recover on the capitalist road. Given full rein to win the war with the 100 million-
after the worst recession in post-inde- and official support, China’s entre- strong CPC which is not only bullying
pendent India, even a limited border preneurs grew the economy at break- all Asian countries, but oppressing the
war with China will be a catastrophe. neck speed averaging 10 percent GDP billion people of China.

GIRL CHILDREN DROPPING OUT DANGER ments in Indian education in the new
millennium is general acceptance that
girl children are entitled to primary-
t doesn’t make headline news. but A January 2021 report by the secondary education. Even partly
evidence is emerging that the Delhi-based RTE Forum estimates educated women marry in adult age,
Ishutdown of all pre-primary and that since March 2020, when all 1.6 bear fewer and healthier children, and
K-12 schools countrywide for over million schools countrywide were are likely to participate in the formal
15 months for fear of children being ordered to shut down, 10 million girl labour market and boost household
infected by the novel Coronavirus, is children have dropped out of second- incomes.
likely to blight the future of tens of ary education. It warns that India’s NHFS-5 data indicates that a ris-
millions of India’s children, especially stringent closure of schools has “dis- ing number of rural girl children were
the girl child. proportionately impacted girls by dropping out of school even before the
According to the National Family putting them at risk of early marriage, Covid-19 pandemic struck India. This
Health Survey (NFHS)-5 2019-20, early pregnancy, poverty, trafficking situation is likely to go from bad to
enrolment of girl children in rural and violence”. worse following the extended closure
secondaries has dropped sharply in The sharp increase in the number of education institutions countrywide.
18 states across the country. As a re- of girl children in rural India, which Indeed there’s a clear and present
sult attainment of the United Nations ungraciously hosts 65.5 percent of danger that a substantial proportion
Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) the country’s 1.35 billion population, of gains of post-independence India’s
of ‘gender equality to empower all dropping out — or being forced to drop women’s emancipation movement
women and girls’ by 2030 is in high out — of school is likely to adversely will be lost.
jeopardy. Ironically, in Gujarat where impact the country’s female labour According to an ancient Chinese
Narendra Modi was chief minister force participation (FLFP), a marker proverb, women hold up half the sky.
from 2001-14, prior to being elevated of economic development. According The trend lines of NHFS and declin-
to the office of prime minister, the to World Bank data in marked con- ing FLFP require the urgent attention
proportion of girl children in rural trast to OECD countries where FLFP of government, policy planners and
higher secondary education (classes averages 54 percent, India’s FLFP was educators countrywide, if the national
XI-XII) has plunged to 29.2 percent 20.3 percent in 2020, lower than of aspiration to transform India into a $5
from 97 percent enroled in primary Pakistan and Afghanistan. trillion economy by 2024 is not to be-
school (2019-20). One of the few positive develop- come a pipedream.

10 EDUCATIONWORLD JULY 2021