IITs: More bricks and Mortar

Education is the keystone that defines a society. A country with excellent education will find all the statistics such as crime rate, employment rate, poverty, HDI and GDP in its favor. US, for instance, has excellent HDI of 0.937, thanks to the outstanding institutes that have cultivated outstanding talents. India is however struggling with the literacy rate and hence development is still elusive. We still lack primary education terribly, despite all the efforts, again thanks to poor teacher turn out in classes. Just to emphasize this, India currently has the largest illiterate population in the world.

After I see all these facts I am immediately drawn to addressing the problem of lack of proper education for all. India does not have enough educational institutions to accommodate all the aspirants. 25% of its population is still illiterate; only 15% of Indian students reach high school, and just 7% graduate. With such grave issues at hand, I find it exasperating when people clamour about the upcoming new IITs. It is boisterous or perhaps they are elitist in their own ways. The argument I have usually been given, is that this spoils the 'brand'. Oh the brand!! Lets examine the brand factor. IITs were setup through an act called "Institutes of Technology Act" and were referred to as the institutes of national importance. This was 1961, when India had just embraced freedom and started building up. The purpose of these institutions were to provide excellent higher education and thus build the country. The country isn't built but the IITs are. The country still lacks room for aspirants of higher education but the IITs have a new goal, the goal to enter the elite club of international institutions. Perhaps they should have been called Institutes of International importance. 

IITs are centers for learning and not a luxury. Creating a brand out of them, is a good idea but at a bad time. We are yet to achieve the goals of establishing such institutions. Increasing the number of IITs to 16 is a good step and should be welcome. We should realise that despite this increase, the number of seats for around 500,000 aspirants is just 10,000, which is 2%. The acceptance rate is too low and increasing the number of institutions further would be the right way to go. What is a brand after all? If a country provides excellent education to only 10,000 of its more than a million eligible students, its a limitation, not a matter of pride. India is in need of education, not branded institutes. Lets focus on the primary concern before attempting to build a brand. What is unwelcome, however, is the deteriorating quality of education. This is because of scarcity of professors, again because the profession lacks the lustre of a corporate tag and also because of very few qualified Ph.Ds in the country. But that should not be a deterrent to creating new IITs. Lack of supply shouldn't stop one from creating demand. Perhaps we need more investment and deregulating the fee structure, like they did in the IIMs, would help. Also the Anil Kakodkar Committee of 2010 in its strategic recommendations for IITs set a target of 10,000 doctoral fellows being produced annually by the 2020-25 period, up from the current 1,000. The hope is that some of these Ph.Ds will stay to teach at the IITs. 

All said, its important to view these institutes as temples of learning and not an elite club where few can enter.

Deceptive Unity In Deceptive diversity

inhUmaNITY in DIVERSITY

Since long we have been conceiting the globe by associating our country with the popular phrase ‘Unity in Diversity’. This makes sense in the case of tourism department, as the phrase has been the USP for the tourism sector of India. But what about the rest of the population, that is obsessed with this phrase? The roots of education lie at our homes where parents inculcate in their child the basics of life. He is taught to understand and react to a stimuli and not the other way round which itself sounds weird. But if we ponder deeply, we won’t be far from believing that, we have disrespected the teachings. Although we did not perform the task in the opposite way to what was taught,’ we reacted with no understanding’.

A walk in Connaught Place in Delhi itself clears the air over the issue. It speaks volumes about ‘Disparity in diversity’ rather than the one we boast. One would find the most amazing site, although they might be saddening. People of diverse purchasing power (negative purchasing as well), ignite a thought process in the passerby’s mind, although to an elitist a UCB, Nike or CCD could create more furores. From Mercedes to without footgear, burgers to dustbin left-outs, Armanis to rags things are indeed diverse. UNITY IN DIVERSITY!.

Diversity, critics would say, technically, means religious, social and biological. But here, the argument is human. Since time immemorial human civilization has been based on food and shelter. Religion, society and all the subdivisions like caste system are the artful works of human beings who has, in the development of so called modern civilized society, forgotten the very necessity of existence. When we are talking of a country as a whole we cannot miss out the majority mass living below the World Bank’s demarcation of poverty line. Therefore, prior to addressing social and religious issues we need to focus, and focus immediately, on food and health urgencies. It is quite ironic that the top 10% of income groups are earning 33% of the country’s net income and about 40% of the population lives below poverty line. This terrible income disparity has to understood and addressed. So, anyways we have to agree that a part of our celebrated phrase is justified and true ie, ‘diversity’. We are indeed diverse.

Uh!!!!But that’s just a part. Does that mean we are 50% right? We live socially in cities. We follow the rules of the government and in case not, the law has provisions to punish. We follow all that is documented. We are ‘united’. We have the same rules for all. Everyone has equal say in the country..........................Critics may cite zillions of supporting statements but what the heck. Is this unity!! If a human being is unable to afford a meal it’s a shame on all those who can, because it was the responsibility of the able ones to make sure that no one is denied of such a basic human necessity. And that’s humanity.

Poverty shall eat us outright!! Are we game to tackle??

Poverty in India is widespread with the nation estimated to have one of the largest concentration of poor people in the world and housing a third of the world's poor. World Bank estimate, 42% of India falls below the international poverty line of $1.25 a day. The World Bank estimates that 456 million Indians (42% of the total Indian population) now live under the global poverty line of $1.25 per day. This means that a third of the global poor now reside in India.
On the other hand, the Planning Commission of India uses its own criteria and claims that 24% of the population is living below the poverty line. India has a higher rate of malnutrition among children under the age of three (46% in year 2007) than any other country in the world.
The educational system further deepens the plight of the country, with about half of the country's workforce being unemployable due to low quality of education.
In spite of these facts our government is blindly coming up with figures to digress its citizens from the core of the problem. The government boasts 9% GDP growth since past 3 years and a respectable 6.7% in 2008-09. We find the figures healthy and are content. But the fact remains-Poor is getting poorer and the rich, richer. In the latest budget, government doesn't seem to have any goals to address the poverty of our country.
Its time to change and focus on 1/4th of our countrymen not even having the freedom to have one time meal a day.

Give it a THOUGHT...Are we FREE

The Mahatma believed poverty to be a country or community's biggest act of violence against it's people, but 62 years post independence, more than half of our people remain dirt-poor. This is because India's political leadership continues to violate every code that was demonstrated to be essential for good governance. Corruption exists, is taken for granted, even celebrated. India is not truly free because like slaves we passively accept injustice. Stealing is violence. Lust is violence. Passive acceptance of injustice is violence. Disrespect is violence. Laziness is violence. By that token, we unquestioningly accept violence at home, on our streets, in our public places and from those in public office. The rot has spread through to the nation's marrow..........
and we are sleeping........