2005 catalyst magazine

8/9/2019 2005 Catalyst Magazine

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A P L A T F O R M F O R P E O P L E , P R O J E C T S & P R O G R E S S

"Leading toTransforming India into

a Developed Nationby 2020

Dr. A. P. J. Abdul KalamThe president of India

Republic Day (January 26th) - 2005

Norway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85

India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .127

Bangladesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . .139

Kenya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .154

Niger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .177

HDI Rank 2005

EXPERIME

NTS

INDEVE

LOPM

ENT


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The Global Organization of

People of Indian Origin

(GOPIO)A platform for over 22 million people of Indian origin living outside India

Chairman Secretary GeneralDr. Thomas Abraham (USA) Ashook Ramsaran (USA)203-329-8010 718-939-8194GOPIO@op tonline.net [email protected]

President Inte rna tiona l Coordina tor Exec. Vice President

Inder Singh (USA) Sunil Prasad (Belgium) Yesu Persaud (Guyana)818-708-3885 +32 2 469-2677 [email protected] omGOPIO-INTL@sbc globa l.net sunil.prasad @cod itel.net

Websit e: www.gop io .ne t Em a il: gop io@op tonline.net

Ma jor accomplishments of GOPIO:

1989 * GOPIO organization was formed at the first conven-

tion of PIOs. Passes 23 resolut ions inc luding PIO Card

and Dua l Citizenship for NRIs/ PIOs from Go vt. of Ind ia

and Concerns of rights violations in different c ountries.

1990 * Filed human rights violat ions petition in the U.N. on

beha lf of PIOs in Fiji

in 1990.

1992 * Filed huma n rights violations pe tition in the U.N. on

beha lf of PIOs in Sri

Lanka.

1993 * Sec ond Globa l Convention in New Delhi. GOPIO

ad op ted its constitution

and co nducted the first election a cc ording to the new

constitution.

1994 * GOPIO proposed PIO c ard to Govt. of India.

1995 * Held spe c ial meetings with various hea ds of states

with large Indian

population.

* Released the book "Indian Diaspora, Yesterday,

Tod ay and Tom orrow " in

New York.

1996 * Trinida d Investme nt Me eting w ith P.M. Basdeo

Pande y, New York.

1997 * Freedom -50 Conferenc es to c eleb rate India's 50th

Yea r of

Inde pendence a t New York - June, July and August.

* Held a Conference on "Changing Role of Indian

Women Worldw ide" at Mumba i in Novemb er.

1998 * Held c onference on Senior Citizens of Ind ian Origin,

New York, in Sep tem be r that resulted in the formation

of Na tional Indian Am erican Assoc iation for Senior

Citizens, Inc.

1999 * Conduc ted GOPIO's 10th Anniversary Celebrations

& GOPIO Conve ntion '99 at New York in Sep tem be r.

2000 * Inauguration of GOPIO Business Co unc il a t New York

in April.

* Held a conference on Soc ial Services for the Indian

American community at New York in May that result-

ed in the forma tion of South Asian Co unc il for Soc ial

Services.

* GOPIO Convention held in 2000 at Zurich,

Switzerland . Also carried a camp aign fo r Fiji Crisis since

Ma y 2000 and me t the U.N. Human Rights Co mm ission

on the Fiji Issue in July.

2001 * GOPIO g ot a cc redited b y the U.N. as an NGO to

pa rtic ipa te in the World Conference Aga inst Rac ism.GOPIO sent a delegation of ten people to the U.N.

Conference

* GOPIO's Solidarity Rally held against terrorism. Funds

raised to b ene fit Am erican Red Cross.

2002 * GOPIO's pays tribute to Dilip Singh Saund , first U.S.

cong ressma n of Indian origin in Janua ry.

* Third European Reg ional Conferenc e he ld a t Leiden,

The Netherland s in June.

* Hosted Third Glob a l Ind ian Entrep reneurs

Conference and Indian and NRI/PIO Economic sum-

mit on Sep tem be r 12-14.

2003 * GO PIO C onfe renc e, "Perspe c tives and Issues of PIO

Comm unities " held a t New Delhi on January 8.* Gaddar Movement Celebrations held on May at

Santa Clara, CA, USA.

* GOPIO - Belgium Conference - "Ind ia - Op po rtunities

Unlimite d" he ld a t Brussels Dec . 4.

2004 * Held GOPIO Convent ion 2004 a t New Delhi on

January 7-8.

* GOPIO Conference on Human Rights Experienc e a t

New York on Ma rch 20th.

* GOPIO Belgium Conference on India-EU

Trad e/ Investme nt a nd Role of PIOs, Europ e-India

Chamber of Commerce (EICC) formed at Brussels on

Oc t. 4th.

2005 * GOPIO Co nvention 2005 at Mumb ai on January 5-6,* GO PIO/ EICC Conferenc e on Ind ia EU Strateg ic Plan :

Enhanc ing Trade and Investment at the European

Parliam ent on Novemb er 9.


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January, 2006(Relea sed during the fourth Pravasi

Bharathiya Divas, Jan 7-9)


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Catalyst for Human Development An insight into the complex problems

of developing India and an attempt

to provide solutions.

Published by Dr. Vasundhara D. KalasapudiBharati Seva Sadan

Srinivasanagar Colony

Saluru- 535 591Vizianagaram District, A.P.

India

January 2006

For Copies, Contact:

2

Catalyst For Human Development

4

Team

Printed at: Kalajyothi Process (P) Ltd

RTC X Roads,Hyderabad - 500 020 (A.P.)

India

EDITORIAL TEAM

Dr. Bhamy V. ShenoyChief Ed itor

c hiefed [email protected]

Ms. Bharati KalasapudiMr. Nasy Sankagiri

Ms.Aarti IyerMr. Lakshman Kalasapudi

Ms. Padmaja Ayyagari

Mr. Rajesh SatyavoluDr. Srinivasa [email protected]

Advisory BoardDr. Thoma s Abraham

Dr. Nirupam BajpaiDr. Suri Sehgal

Mr. M. Chittaranjan

Ed itorial Boa rdDr. Abraham George

am ge orge@op tonline.net

Mr. Ratnam Chitturi

[email protected]

Mr. Anil [email protected]

Mr. Ram [email protected]

Mr. Balbir [email protected]

Mr. Yogi [email protected]

Dr. Raj [email protected]

Dr. Viral Acharyavac harya@lond on.edu

Ms. [email protected]

Dr. Rao V.B.J. ChelikaniBalaji Residency, 12-13-705/10/AB

Gokulnagar, Tarnaka

Hyderabad - 500 017, A.P.India

91-40-2717418991-40-55214993

Dr. Srinivasa Rao,

Association for HumanDevelopment

208, Parkway Drive Roslyn HeightsNew York,1157E-mail : [email protected]

Phone:

For all Communication please contact: [email protected]


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Contents

Profiles of Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 -7

Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8-10

Preface Dr. Bhamy V. Shenoy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

PRATHAM - Our Experiences Dr. Rukmini Banerjee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-15

Ekalvidyalaya Movement - Closing the

Digital Divide Through Education Dr. Basant K. Tariyal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-17

Scaling up Primary Education

Services in rural India Dr. Nirupam Bajpai, Dr. Ravindra H. Dholakia and Dr. Jeffrey D. Sachs . . . . . . . .18-21

Indias Energy SecurityDr. Bhamy V. Shenoy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-23

Addressing Rural Poverty in India Dr. Abraham M.George . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-26

Health care in India Dr. B. S. Ajai Kumar and Sanchita Chakraborthy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27-29

Scaling up Primary Health

Services in Rural India Dr. Nirupam Bajpai, Dr. Ravindra H. Dholakia and Dr. Jeffrey D. Sachs . . . . . . .30-33

Cross-fertilization needed between

universities and scientific labs: Pitroda Dr. Raj Rajaram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34-35

Water Management In

21st Century - Policy And Planning Dr. Raj Rajaram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36-37

Rainwater harvesting (RWH) -Need of the Hour in India Ram Krishnan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38-39

Making a Difference - The Seghal Foundation Jay Sehgal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40-41

Food and Nutrition Security

Through Value Addition To Agri Resources Dr. V. Prakash and Dr. P. Ramesh Kumar . . . . . . . .42-44

Growth of Indian Economy Aarti Iyer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

NRI Pioneers

Catalytic Agents For Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46-49

Mobile Phone

A Catalyst for Development Lakshman Kalasapudi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Balasakhi - A Village Voice Sai Padma Murthy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Governance and Growth Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52-54

Ashas Vision for India D.P. Prakash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Cartoons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56

Need for Catalyst Dr. Srinivasa Rao . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58


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Profiles

P R O F I L E S ofA U T H O R S

DR. BHAMY V. SHENOY

Dr. Bha my Shenoy, an IITMad ras grad uate with a Ph.D inbusiness administration fromUniversity of Houston, workedfor Conoc o in a ll pha ses ofInterna tiona l Petroleum Industryfor 21 years from 1966 till 1987.He too k ea rly retirem ent in 1987to return to India to g etinvolved in India's develop -ment. He ha s be en p articipa t-ing in various NGO a c tivitiesinvolving co nsumer p rotection,educ ation and environment.He contested election twice asan ind ep end ent. From 1997 till2003 he wa s involved in energysec tor reform in forme r Sov ietunion countries. He is currentlyan honorary ad visor to thenational oil co mp any inGeo rgia. b ham ysuma [email protected]

MR. R. JAY SEHGAL

Mr. R. Jay Sehgal is anExecutive Director of theSehg al Foundat ion, holds adegree in ManagementInforma tion System s from the

University o f Iowa , USA. Heworked in a leadingInformation technology privatesec tor com pa ny prior to join-ing Proag ro Seed Com pa nyLtd ., Ind ia, as the Direc tor ofInforma tion Tec hno logy. Heha s sixtee n yea rs of e xperi-enc e in IT. For the p ast fouryea rs he ha s be en involved inthe soc ial sec tor and ha satte nde d va rious wo rkshop sand semina rs within India andab road pertaining to theeffective functioning of Non-Profit Organizations. Email:

[email protected]

DR. ABRAHAM M. GEORGE

Abraha m Ge orge ho lds a Ph.D.in Business Ad ministra tion , ha swritten three books inInternational Finance, and wasa suc cessful entrep reneur in

the United Sta tes for more tha n25 yea rs. He is the found erand mana ging trustee o f theGeorge Founda tion, a cha rita-ble trust wo rking tow ardspoverty alleviation (www.tgf-world.org).His c ha rita ble w ork through TheGeo rge Found ation in India fo rover ten ye ars has focused onpoverty alleviation, empower-ment of wom en, health ca reand educ ation for the ruralpo or. Dr. Geo rge is the a uthorof a highly acc laimed rece ntbo ok: India Untouc hed : The

Forgotten Face of RuralPoverty. He c an b e c ontac tedat geo rge@op tonline.net.

RAM KRISHNAN

Ram Krishna n, aft er his gradua -tion from IIT, Ma dras, wo rked inthe US in the field o f Distributionan d Log istics. Afte r working inthis field fo r 15 yea rs, he fo und -ed a consulting and softwareco mpa ny to p rovide logisticsservice s for a not her 14 yea rs.Ram is now wo rking in ruraldevelopment in India. He hasmade 8 trips in the last 4 yearsand is working in a village clus-te r in Tutic orin District of Tamil

Nad u. He ha s playe d a keyrole in estab lishing India 's firstRain Water Harvesting center [email protected]

6

DR. JAYAPRAKASH NARAYAN

Dr. Jaya prakash Naraya n is aphysician b y training, a pub licservant b y choice and ademocrat by conviction.Jayaprakash Narayan thephysician we nt into the IndianAd ministrative Service in theaftermath of the Emergencyand failure o f the JanataExperiment. He w as a to pp er inthe IAS exam . During the 16yea rs of d istinguished publicservice in various capacities,

he ac quired a formidab le rep-utation in the State of And hraPrad esh. In spite of a n imp res-sive pe rsona l ac hieveme nt, Dr

Narayan's experience in gov-ernment c onvinced him thatfaulty governance process wasthe b igge st hurdle to India a ndIndians ac hieving grea ter suc-cess. In o rder to transla te hisvision into practical reality, heresigned from Servic e (IAS) in1996, and worked with like-minded colleagues for the for-

ma tion of Lok Satta and is cur-rently its National Coordinator.Afte r 7 1/2 yea rs of t irelesseffo rt, Lok Sa tta is now India'sleading civil society initiative inthe field of g overnancereforms. It has a wide reach,name rec ognition a nd c redibil-ity and enjoys the supp ort ofab out 30 - 40% of the p op ula-tion of And hra Prade sh.

DR. RAJ RAJARAM

Dr. Raja ram has worked inthe Mining andEnvironmental Fields in the USsinc e 1974. He set up Tet raTec h Ind ia Limited in 1996,

and that c omp any is provid-ing c onsulting service s inwa ter and solid/ hazardouswaste manag ement to gov-ernment and industry, froman o ffice in New De lhi .Since 2003, Ra jaram ha sbeen working on networkingindividua ls and transferring UStec hnolog ies to India. In2004, he and several othersstarted India DevelopmentCoa lition of Am erica to mo bi-lize NRIs for a ccelera ting rura lIndia's development.

GOPI BURUGU

34 years old , Gopi Burugulives in Connecticut, workingin SPN Sports Network as aSenior Systems Analyst. He isa freelance cartoonist, and ispub lished Ca rtoons wide lyinclud ing Rea der's Digest.Presently he is working ondeveloping a comic strip"Mixed Vege tab le Curry"dealing with immigrantIndia ns living in the US.


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Profiles

DR. NIRUPAM BAJPAI

Nirupam Bajp ai is a SeniorDevelopment Advisor at theCenter on Globalization andSustainab le Developm ent o fthe Earth Institute at ColumbiaUniversity and Direc tor of theSouth Asia Program. Dr. Ba jpa iworked at the Ce nter forInternational Development,Kenned y School o fGovernment at HarvardUniversity from 2000 to 2002,and prior to that at the HarvardInstitute for InternationalDevelopment from 1995 to2000. Currently, he is also anAssociate Editor of the journalAsian Eco nom ic Papers, pub -lished by MITPress. Dr. Bajpa i isthe author or co-author of

numerous articles on a varietyof issues relating to economicreforms in developing coun-tries. nba [email protected] ia.edu

RAVINDRA H. DHOLAKIA

Rav indra H. Dholakia isProfessor of Econo mics at theIndian Institute of Mana ge mentat Ahmedabad .

DR. JEFFREY D. SACHS

Jeffrey D. Sachs is the Direc tor ofThe Earth Institute, Que teletProfessor of SustainableDevelop ment and Professor ofHea lth Policy and Ma nagement

at Columbia University. He is alsoDirector of the UN MillenniumProjec t and Spe c ial Advisor toUnited Nat ions Sec reta ry-General Kofi Annan o n theMillennium Development Goals.Sachs is internationa lly renownedfor advising g overnments in LatinAmerica, Eastern Europe, the for-mer Soviet Union, Asia and Africaon eco nomic reforms and for hiswork with international a genc iesto promote poverty reduction,disease control and debt reduc -tion of po or countries, he wa srecently named among the 100most influential leaders in theworld b y Time Ma ga zine.

DR. BASANT K. TARIYAL

Dr. Basant K. Tariyal, an IITKharagpur graduate, is a tech-nologist in the field of FiberOp tics Tec hnology a nd ha sbe en a n ad visor to severalco mpa nies throughout thewo rld. He retired from Luce ntTec hno logies, as Op erat ionsVice President a nd ChiefTec hnology Officer in-cha rgeof the O ptical Prod uctsBusiness Unit in 1999. After serv-ing as the Nationa lCoordinator of theEkalvidya laya p rojec t in theUSA, he ha s now taken overthe responsibility as CEOEkalvidya laya G loba l.

[email protected]

DR. V. PRAKASH

Dr. V. Prakash, a Ph. D holderfrom Mysore University hasdone post-doctoral fellowshipsat Texas Med ical Ce nter andBrandeis University. He is

presently the Director ofCentral Food Tec hnolog icalResea rch Institute at Mysore.He is a fe llow of India nAca dem y of Science s andNational Academy ofAg ric ultural Sc ienc es. He hasmore tha n 160 pub lica tions tohis c redit. He is recip ient o fPad ma Shree, Shanti Swa rupBhatnag ar and the KarnatakaRajyo thsava aw ard s. He is cur-rently wo rking in the a rea ofProteins, Enzymes andPeptides. [email protected]

DR. P. RAMESH KUMAR

Dr. P. Ramesh Kuma r is a Ph.D. holde r from MysoreUniversity in biochemistry. Heis a sc ient ist in theDepa rtment of ProteinChem istry and Tec hnolog yat CFTRI, Mysore . Severa lresea rch were pub lished

Papers in National andInte rnationa l Journals. Hisma in resea rch inte rests are inthe field of struc ture- func-tion relationship of Proteins &Enzymes, Nutrition, FunctionalFoods and FoodBiotechnology with a focuson Food and NutritionSecurity.

7

AARTI IYER

Aa rti Iyer is a fifteen-yea r-oldstudying e leventh at the JohnCo op er Schoo l, in TheWoo d lands, Texa s. Her firstpublication was a letter to theed itor in the New York Times,whe n she w as twe lve yearsold . Since then, she has writ-ten numerous articles thathave bee n widely pub lished.She is also t he stud ent c olum-nist of the loc al new spa pe r,

the Villager.

SAI PADMA MURTHY

Thirty-two yea r old Sa iPad maMurthy is a g radua te in Law ,po st graduate in Comm erceand C omp uters. She haswo rked with several o rganiza-tions like Andhra MahilaSabha , ILO C ivil Soc iety . Sheis c urrent ly involved inVijayp ratha m-PRATHAM'sed uc ationa l initiative inViziana ga ram Distric t inAnd hra Prad esh. She ha spublished articles in various

journals.

SAM PITRODAMr. Sat yen Pitrod a is an elec -tronics engineer who he lpedrevolutionize the te leco mmu-nica tion ind ustry in India sinc e1985. He wo rked w ith thenPrime Minister Rajiv Gandhi tomake telecommunicationservices to all Indian citizens.Since 2004, he ha s be enwo rking w ith current PrimeMinister Ma nmo han Singh toimprove the Know ledg e insti-tutions in India, and isChairman of the Knowledg e

Commission set up by thePrime Minister.


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Message

FROMProf. Nirupam Bajpai & Prof. Jeffrey D. Sachs

THE Earth Institute a t Columbia University will convene the fourth biennial State of the

Planet Conference to discuss the feasibility of sustainable development for billions

worldwide.

Internationally renowned scholars and opinion leaders will lead discussions, present idea s

and outline research throughout this twi-da y forum, which seeks to explore the fundamen-

tal requirements of science, economy, governance and human behaviour in order toachieve sustainable development.

http://www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu

BEST WISHESBEST WISHES


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Message

NEGLECT OF WOMENS HEALTHWHAT A COSTLY MISTAKE!

Dr. Abraham George

WITH all the a ttention foc used on de ad ly infec tious disea ses, a far bigg er c halleng ein d evelop ing na tions is po sed by a lac k of ba sic hea lth c are.The World Hea lth Orga niza tion (WHO) lists the top 10 preventa b le hea lth risks as c hild -

hood and maternal underweight; unsafe sex; high blood pressure; tobacco; alcohol;unsafe water; sanitation and hygiene; high cholesterol; indoor smoke from solid fuels;iron d eficiency a nd o be sity.

These risks ac c ount for a bo ut 40 perce nt of the 56 million p reventa ble d ea ths that oc c urworldwide annually, according to WHO. In most developing countries, the number ofnew cases related to many of these health risks has increased over time, partly due torising populations.

Beyo nd infec tious d isea ses, the ma in c ause of ill-hea lth is ma lnutrition. Poverty, hung erand malnutrition are interrelated silent realities for a majority of people in developingcountries.

In India a lone, mo re tha n ha lf the c hildren und er the a ge of four suffer from ma l-

nutrition, 30 perce nt of the ne wb orns are signific antly unde rwe ight, a nd 60 percent ofwomen anemic. A recent World Bank report shows that malnutrition costs India at least$10 b illion (Rs.45,000 Crore) a nnua lly in terms of lost prod uc tivity, illness and dea th a nd isseriously retarding improvements in human development.

(From the 2005-06 Indian b udg et a t a glanc e, one c an see that the tota l expe nditure o fgove rnme nt o f India is Rs. 5,14,344 c rore. The fisc a l de fic it is Rs.1,51,144 Crore. If Ind iatakes c are of its wo men's hea lth, the produc tivity ga ined from that a lone c an a dd sig-nificantly to the budget)

http://www.tgfworld.org/

BEST WISHES TOCatalyst for Human DevelopmentTeam


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Mission

M I S S I O NM I S S I O N

To present people, ideas, news and

views periodically to readers to

promote networking among NGOs.

To publish peer reviewed professional

articles on NGO movement that can

promote sustainable development

and best practices are promoted.

To disseminate information on NGO

movement to improve communication

which in turn can catalyze human

development.

To provide a pla tform for all

concerned with sustainable develop-

ment to catalyze the process of

human development.


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Preface

ITis with high e xpec ta tions and a lot of op timism tha t we a re c om ing o ut with Cata lystFor Human Development with the sole objective of strengthening legitimate volun-tary service activity in India. Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) or Non- ProfitOrganization (NPO) movement has grown rapidly in the country during the last two

decades. According to one estimate, there are over one million NGOs in India and

mo re than a thousand NRI-op erated NGOs in the US, all trying to c ontribute the ir mite

- talents as we ll as fund s - for Ind ia's deve lopme nt.

We have plenty of information on every conceivable kind of NGOs through Internet

and the p ress. Som e a re either da rlings or de mo ns, of the m ed ia. But mo st are not

known even in towns they are located. However, in today's India the entire NGO

mo vem ent is under attac k even as it is ga ining m ore and mo re a dmira tion in the devel-

oped world. Working with NGOs while young is to increase one's chances of securing

admission into go od c olleg es in the we st a nd even to ge t b ette r job s lat er. But in Ind ia

peop le wo rking w ith NGOs ma y be looked dow n on with som e indifference or are like-ly to b e c onside red as wily ma noeuvrers who know how to c onvince the b enevolent

Indians or foreigners to donate funds in the name of the needy. Of course there are

a lso shining exce p tions to this genera l imp ression. But India ha s still no t developed a sys-

tem to we ed out the corrupt and honor the good amo ng the NGOs.

No scientific analysis has been done to study the NGO movement in India. Why a

nation with one b illion p eop le, grinding p overty, lea ding m ana ge ment and engineer-

ing institutions, seve ral c enturies of e xemp lary volunteerism and self-sac rific e ha s fa iled

so far to de velop NGOs like Oxfam , Greenpea c e or Amne sty Internationa l is a ridd le.

Most of the well known a nd e ffec tive NGOs in Ind ia a re lead er-c ente red and a re like-

ly to va nish onc e the y exit the sc ene .

Still there a re NGOs which have c ontributed signific antly to fighting the funda me ntal

problems of poverty, reducing the incidence of HIV/AID, protecting environment,

checking population growth, promoting education, combating child labour, gender

b ias and untouc hability and so o n. For every de serving c ause the re a re som e o ut-

stand ing NGOs. One should b e a ble to lea rn b oth from the suc c essful and the fa iled

NGOs. This pub lic a tion is intend ed to b e a n op po rtunity to share the experienc es of

NGO mo vem ent w ithin and o utside Ind ia a ssoc iate d w ith the c ountry's de velopment.

It is our ambition to fully support and publish articles about any solid voluntary work of

NGOs irrespective of whether they merit commendations or criticism. We want the

donor agencies to get a totally unbiased view of the NGOs. Our goal is to develop a

bo dy knowled ge d in mod ern mana ge ment, soc iology, psychology, anthrop ology etc

throug h a system atic study of the mo vement.

In bringing out this publication we are influenced by two great thoughts of two pre-

em inent Ind ian lea ders of yore. It wa s Swa mi Vivekana nda w ho tried to g et the atte n-

tion of the ed uca ted b y pointing out that he co nside red "every Indian who go t edu-

cated at the expense of the poor but does not heed to their poverty" a traitor.

Ma hatma Ga ndhi exhorted our countrymen to look into the eyes of the po orest of the

poo r and ask themselves how they c ould help them.

Dr. Bhamy V. Shenoy


12/60

Balwadi network

P

RE-SCHOOL coverage for univer-

salization of primary education

dominated Pratham's efforts in the

mid 1990s. Pratham's low cost and

repl icable model of community-

based pre-school provision led to a

rap id expansion o f the b alwad i (pre-

sc hoo l) net wo rk ac ross the slum area s

of the c ity of Mum ba i. In 1995, there

we re 200 Pratha m b alwa dis c ate ring

to 4000 pre-school age

children. By 1998, the

pre-sc hoo l network had

expanded extensively

across the city; throughapproximately 3000

balwadis, close to

55,000 children had

access to affordable

early childhood educa-

tion.

The m od el wa s simple:

first the need for a pre-

school centre in a

neighbourhood had to

be esta b lished . This wa s

usually do ne b y a loc al

Pratham activist withthe help of recruits from

that neighbourhood. If

there were at least 20

children in that slum

community in the age

group of 3 to 5, a pre-

school centre could be

sta rted . A loca l, ent husi-

ast ic and energet ic

young woman from the

n e i g h b o u r h o o d ,

becam e t he ba lwad i

instruct or. She rec eived

training, materials and

ongoing support from

Pratha m. Thoug h Pratha m provided

a nom inal stipend on a mo nthly basis,

she was also free to charge fees from

the children on condition that no

child would be turned away if the

family c ould not p ay. Children g ath-

ered together for two-and-a- half

hours at a mutually convenient time

in a free space that was close to

where they lived. Any a vailab le p ub-

lic place - empty rooms or accom-

modation in school buildings, tem-

ples, verandahs of public buildings,

op en spa c e in a p ark, even offic es of

political parties - was put to use for

balwadis.

Sustained actionFrom the beginning, Pratham's oper-

ating style ha s bee n ba sed on a co n-

viction that action is the best path

forward to understand and plan the

direction and nature of future activi-

ties. To b uild c red ibility a nd show

commitment to solving problems in

communities, demonstration of sus-

tained action and persistence is the

key.

Between October-November 1998,

a m assive exerc ise w as c a rried o ut toassess the extent of access to pre-

sc hool in Mumbai slums. The Pra tha m

network now stretched to almost

every low income community in the

city. In a dd ition there we re a numbe r

of pre-schools run by different agen-

cies. Apart from Pratham's balwadis

in slum neighbourhoods, there were

ab out 800 anga nwa dis as pa rt of the

central government's Integrated

Child Deve lopme nt Sc heme in the

city.

The assessme nt e ffort fa c ed seve ral

problems in matching child popula-

tion da ta in slum co mm unity with pre-

12


Education

PRATHAM - Our ExperiencesDR. RUKMINIBANERJEE

From its ince ption in 1994 as a public charitable trust, ensuring that"every child is in school and learning well" remains Pratham's mainobjec tive. A founding principle wa s also that a ny model or strategythat was developed should be replicable and cost-effective. Animportant e lement in Pratham's strategy for universalization of primaryeducation is pre-school educa tion. This article narrates our experi-ences with pre-school education, especially with regard to coverageand access as well as content and learning.


13/60

sc hoo l co verag e figures. Still the d at a

that was collected provided a rough

sense of pre-school coverage in

Mum ba i in 1998. It sugg ested tha t c ov-

erage was about one hundred per-

c ent in ma ny of the selecte d w ards.

In a public rally in Kamgaar Maidanon Child ren's Day (14 Nove mb er 1998)

the Mayor of Mumbai announced

that in 10 wards of the city access to

pre-sc hool w as close to one hundred

percent. Many community-based

orga nizat ions a ttend ed the rally. This

was perhaps the first time in any of

India's meg a c ities that a c omm unity-

oriented effort had been made to

assess if universa l pre-sc hool c overage

had been reached and in support of

universalization of pre-school educa-

tion.

Community-ba sed assessmentThe c om munity-ba sed assessme nt o f

pre-school coverage was followed by

a school-based exercise in the follow-

ing yea r. In p rac tic ally eve ry municipa l

school in the city every child enrolled

in Std I in 1999-2000 was asked if he or

she had attended pre-school prior to

enrolling in primary school.

Approximately 95,000 Std I children

were tracked to see i f they hadattended any kind of pre-school. (Of

these, 12,347 children had been to

Pratham p re-sc hools or ba lwa d is.) The

main finding was that almost 49% of

c hildren in Std I c am e to reg ular

sc hool w ithout e xposure to any kind of

early c hildhoo d educ ation.

These find ings we re in co ntrast to the

100% coverage view that the earlier

assessment had generated. A quick

comprehensive study was done of

1500 Std I children in 1999-2000 in F-

North w ard. These c hildren ha d c ometo Std I without a ny kind o f pre-sc hoo l

expo sure. The survey indica ted tha t:

33% had migrated from the village

shortly before or had no fixed

plac e to stay.

29% felt that they did not ha ve e asy

access to a balwadi (or to an

afforda ble balwad i or to a ba lwa di

in their mother tong ue).

29% we re no t enrolled in a b alwa di

by pa rents for no pa rtic ular rea son;

and

9% had miscellaneous reasons such

as illness.

The c omb ined effec t of these two

assessme nt e xerc ises led Pratham to

refine pre-sc hool a nd ea rly c hildho od

ed uc at ion strateg ies. To e nsure tha t

every child in Mumbai who entered

Std I in June 2000 would have som e

pre-school background, two proac-

tive step s we re taken.

Sharply targeted coverage(a) Based on the gaps identified (in

terms of langua ge, location and co m-

munity) in the school- based tracking

study, a more sharply targeted (locali-

ty-language) balwadi coverage was

planned in 2000-2001 in areas where

there was still need for pre-schools.

(b) In June 2000, in co llab oration w ith

municipal authorities, Pratham placed

a balsakhi (teacher's helper/child's

friend) in eve ry Std I c lass in the m unic -

ipal school system that requested this

ad ditiona l help. Tog ether with the reg -

ular Std I tea c her, the b alsakhi imple-mented an eight-week school readi-

ness programme aimed at children

with no prior exposure to pre-school

education. During this period, the

focus was on games, stories and

songs, reading-writing readiness,

maths games and other activit ies,

colour-shape recognition, free play

etc. that are part of a pre-school cur-

riculum.

School-readiness for pre-schoolThese two interventions ensured tha t

by Dec em be r 2000 eve ry child in Std I

(in municipa l sc hoo ls) has had som e

13


Education


14/60

ba sic sc hoo l-read iness for pre-sc hoo l

ed uc a tion. This me t one of the p ri-

mary objectives of Pratham - univer-

salization of pre-school education by

the year 2000.

How does pre-school help children

in primary school? Would all of thechildren attending Pratham balwadis

have enrolled in formal schools any-

way? How has Pratham's balwadi

ac tivity helped to b ring e very child to

school or helped them to learn bet-

ter?

In 2000-2001, a study sampled

approxima te ly 4000 Std I ch ild ren in

municipal schools across Mumbai

and compared chi ldren who had

exposure to early childhood educa-

tion with those who ha d none . The

study sugge sts tha t in this c onte xt the

rea l 'value-ad de d' o f pre-sc hools has

to do with attendanc e and ac hieve-

ment.

Better test performanceOverall, the d ata sugg est ea rly cog ni-

t ive ad vantag e of c hildren who have

been to pre-school. Children with a

pre-sc hool b ac kground sc ored signif-

ica ntly higher in the first te st in Std I in

langua ge a nd ma ths as co mpa red

to children without exposure to pre-sc ho ol. This is espe c ially true of

Marathi medium schools. Although

there may be problems with the

mea sureme nt of c hildren's ac ad emic

progress in school and questions

ab out the a cc urac y and reliab ility of

attenda nce da ta, analyses ba sed on

the school system's own figures do

show the comp arative adva ntage of

a child who has been to pre-school

before.

Designing curriculum and ensuring

effective teaching-learning in any

largescale programme is a chal-

leng e. Rap id expa nsion o f the b alwa -di netwo rk ad de d a further dimension

to this challenge. How has Pratham

fac ed these c halleng es?

In the mid-1990s, curriculum devel-

opment and training for Pratham's

balwadis was done by a number of

other institutions and agencies in

Mumb ai. But as the b alwa di netwo rk

grew, external help became insuffi-

c ient. This training had a strong foc us

on theoretical issues and was based

on a set o f assump tions ab out spa c e,

materials and duration of children in

a balwadi. Practical realit ies of

Pratham balwadis were that bal-

wa d is ran in too little spac es or in situ-

ations where there was meagre

teaching material available.

In-house training a nd curriculumThe b eg innings of a n in-house tra ining

and c urriculum tea m w ere initiate d in

1997. An ea rly childho od expert wa s

brought into the Pratham team.

Several outstand ing Pratha m ba lwa -di teachers with good communica-

tion and leadership skills were also

ad ded to the team. The team d evel-

oped a structure of pre-service and

in-service training and developed

training teams for each zone in

Mumb ai keep ing in mind the rea lities

faced by balwadi teachers in

Mum bai slums. The c onte nt w as more

practical: for example, how to make

maximum use of cramped spaces

wa s disc ussed . Ma teria l deve lopm ent

became a common feature of thetraining sessions. A modular theme-

based curriculum was developed so

that whether a child attended for a

few months or for the whole aca-

de mic yea r there were new a c tivities

introduced in the balwadis constant-

ly. Within the low-cost budgets avail-

able to the balwadi programme,

teaching-learning materials like

beads, blocks and clay were intro-

duced.

Even with ongoing rounds of pre-

service and in-service training,

there was still substantial transmission

loss. Orga niza tiona l c hanges we re

14


Education


15/60

neede d to implement ong oing train-

ing and monitoring support.

Supervisors we re replac ed by trainer-

mo nitors. To follow through with wha t

was learned and demonstrated in

training, each zone's 'trainer-monitor'

visited balwadis to support and showhow activities were to be done, how

materials were to be used and how

time w as to b e effec tively orga nized .

Training-monitoringInte resting ly, the shift from 'sup ervision'

to 'training-monitoring' was visible in

the monitoring indicators too. In order

to keep track of the rapidly growing

network of balwadis, in 1997-1998, a

set of simple ind ica tors we re used . On

ea c h visit, the 'supe rvisor' ma rked the

ba lwa di on a number of observed cri-

teria. For example, marks were given

for display of materials, attendance,

cleanliness of the location, timeliness

of the t ea c her and so on. These m arks

were then aggregated each month

to come up with the number of bal-

wa dis who we re in the 'go od ', 'better'

and 'exc ellent' c ate go ries.

With the shift from 'supervision' to

'training-monitoring', the monitoring

indicators changed as well. Now the

c hec klists we re c losely linked to a c tiv-ities that had been stressed in tra ining.

These include d ga mes and ac tivities

for number readiness, reading and

writing read iness, physica l ga me s and

song s. So the m onitoring forma t ha d

questions like 'were m ost c hild ren c ry-

ing?' or 'did most children participate

in the games that the teacher was

conducting?'

The fo c us within the Pra tha m ne t-

work now turned to strengthening of

learning. Intensive experiments with

accelerated learning techniquesbegan in late 2001 and carried

through 2002 and forward. Within the

pre-sc hool netw ork as we ll there w as

a visible foc us on the de velopm ent of

early litera c y skills.

Book Bag projectIn 2000-2001, the M umb ai p rogram me

introd uc ed bo oks to b alwa dis. The

'book bag' brought simple picture

books into each balwadi. Each child

got a boo k for herself or himself. This

was an exciting new development in

the lives of these children many of

whom were from families in which

they or their parents were the first

ge neration lea rners.

The 'Boo k Bag' p roject w as a p recu r-

sor to the e volving 'Shishuva c han' pro-

gramm e fo r early literac y. A variety o f

different approaches are being tried

under the emerging shishuvachan

umbrella . The fo c us is on e arly lite rac y

with children (four-and-a-half years

and older) in which simple picture

bo oks with simple w ords and few sen-tenc es are used . The tea c her tells the

story and then read s aloud da ily with

her finger on the words as she reads

the sentence. Watching and listening

to the teacher daily encourages the

c hild ren to re-tell the story and to sta rt

reading. After a month or so the

ba rahkhad i chart is introd uce d.

Shishuvac han a pp roa c h

Variations of the shishuvachan

ap proac h are being experimented in

different parts of the Pratham net-

wo rk. The b asic idea is to p rovide arich literacy environment for children

in which books and reading play a

ma jor pa rt; there is an effort to reduc e

instruction and let children learn to

rea d o n their ow n.

Even in the initial years of Pratham

balwadis, instructors were encour-

aged to charge fees in consultation

with the groups of parents. While

Pratham gave the instructor a nomi-

nal stipend, she could keep the fees

that she c harged . The o nly c ond ition

was that no child should be turned

away if he or she could not pay the

fees. Over the years, many balwadis

in Mumbai have become 'self-sustain-

ing'. The instructo r no long er nee ds

the stipend from Pratham. In some

c a ses, the se b a lwa d is still use

Pratham's materials and training sup-

port.

In mo st urban and rura l loc at ions the

provision of p re-sc hool ed uc ation ha s

been in the hands of either the ICDS

or NGOs and p riva te nursery sc hoo ls.

Comprehensive or collaborativeattempts to assess pre-school cover-

age in communities and moves to

improve c overage and quality ac ross

the board have been few and far

be twe en. Struc tural links be twe en

pre-school and primary school have

not been conceptualized well in poli-

cy nor implemented effectively in

prac tic e in many pa rts of the c ountry.

The la st te n ye a rs of p re-sc hoo l

experience has taught us a lot. In

terms of coverage and access we

have learned a g reat d eal abo ut howto c reate , susta in and suppo rt a ma ss-

scale network. In terms of learning,

creating the basic building blocks is

essentia l. We continue to believe tha t

'every child in pre-school and learn-

ing' is an integral part of the drive to

universalize elementary education.

Sta rt early, bu ild ba sics and c reate

partnerships for suc c ess. I

15


Education


16/60

INDIA has made well-documentedprogress in many fields. Economicreforms a re be ing implem ente d. It

has good telecom infrastructure and

is a world leader in the field of infor-

ma tion tec hnolog y. The ranks of sen-

ior exec utives in U.S. c orp ora tions,

including many entrepreneurs in

Silicon Va lley, are filled w ith grad ua tes

from the IITs, IIMs, and other ma jor

institutions of India. Medical doctors

from India are a crucial part of the

hea lthc a re systems of the U.S. This sit-

uation is paralleled in other devel-oped nations, such as Australia,

Canada, and UK, where Indians form

a crucial component of the econo-

my.

And yet much of India remains

impoverished. India has poor trans-

p orta tion infra struct ure. There a re

severe shortage s of p ow er and wa ter,

eve n in the c ap ital city of Delhi. The

c ountry suffers from pervasive c orrup -

tion in all aspe c ts of ec onom ic ac tivi-

ty, which, like a termite, quietly eats

into the ve ry founda tions of the c oun-

try. Terrorist violenc e p lag ues Kashmir,

portions of the northeast and central

Ind ia. The n a tion ha s p lentiful

resources, both natural and human,

but it somehow has been unsuccess-

ful in ta c kling the se p roblem s.

Eventhough the country produces

the third highe st numb er of tec hnic al

graduates in the world, primary edu-

cation has been neglected. Indians

face great difficulty in getting their

children admitted into good primary

sc hools. Triba l a reas suffer the mo st,

where decades of neglect have

resulted in pitiful literacy rates. While

the na tional literac y rates are 65% for

males and 40% for females, in tribal

areas the rates are 12% and 5%,

respec tively. The tribal b elt, which runs

from Gujarat in the west to Assam in

the northeast, and throug h the m idd le

of India, has 133,913 villages of which

only about 10% have schools.Therefore, reform is nee ded in the

field of education and the area of

education, which will yield the great-

est positive results, is primary educa-

tion, espe c ially in triba l area s.

One lakh single-teacher schoolsEkalvidyalaya is a m ajor movem ent in

Ind ia, ad d ressing the need for prima ry

education in tribal villages and other

remote areas. In fact, Ekalvidyalaya

has a p resenc e in every sta te o f Ind ia.

The mission o f Eka lvidya laya is to setup 100,000 one -teac her sc hoo ls in the

remote tribal vil lages by the year

2011. This w ill c ove r nea rly a ll the v il-

lages where schools do not exist

today. These sc hools offe r the stu-

dents five years of free informal pri-

ma ry e duc ation. The sc hoo ls are

de signe d to hand le up to 40 children

of 4 to 15 years each. All the children

of a villag e a re ta ught, irrespe c tive o f

their c aste, c reed or sex. The te ac her

is a specially trained local youth

(either from the villag e o r from one of

the surround ing village s) who w as for-

tunate enoug h to have rec eived a

16


Education

Closing the Digital Divide

Through EducationDR. BASANTK. TARIYAL

E K A L V I D Y A L A Y A M O V E M E N T


17/60

17


Education

high sc hoo l educ a tion. The c urriculum

includes basic language, science

and maths skills. In addition, great

stress is laid o n c ha rac ter b uild ing, c ul-

tural values, hea lth, and hygiene . The

students are taught through lectures,

demonstrations, storytelling anddrama and play sessions.

The c ost to run an Ekalvidyalaya is

ap proxima tely a do llar a d ay o r $365

a yea r. The villag ers c on trib ute

through their labor, by erecting a

schoolroom and performing daily

c hores, suc h as cleaning a nd m ainte-

nanc e. In ad dit ion to creat ing

schools, Ekalvidyalaya also ensures

basic health care education by train-

ing o ne o f the villag e w ome n in basic

health care, who then serves as a

resource for the other villagers. In

ma ny villages, Ekalvidyalaya also pro-

vides training on economic develop-

me nt. The o vera ll ob jec tive is to

empower the villagers, by providing

them with basic education, so they

are not as susceptible to exploitation

by outsiders or gove rnment officials.

Great roleThe p rogram is ma nag ed on the

ground level by Ekalvidyalaya

Foundation of India (EVFI), and vari-ous NGOs based in different sta tes of

Ind ia. A wo rld-c lass adm inistrative

infrastructure ha s be en p ut in plac e to

log istic ally impleme nt the program all

over India. India is divided into six

zones, Northe ast, East, North, Central,

West a nd the South. The zones are

then divided into states and each

state, depending on the need, has

one or more project areas. A project

area consists of one or two districts

and ideally has about 270 schools.

Project areas are then broken downinto c lusters of t hirty sc hoo ls ea c h a nd

further b roken d ow n into sub -clusters,

c onsisting o f ten sc hools ea c h. There

are training centers for the trainers,

sub-trainers and the tea c hers at ea c h

level and a team of administrators is

assigne d to e ac h level. Eac h tea m

has four basic responsibilities: (i) over-

all project coordination, (ii) training,

(iii) orga niza tional wo rk, and (iv) basic

office functions, including record

keeping, eva luations and feedb ac k.

The re a re siste r Ekalvid ya laya

Foundations (EVFs) based in other

countries, whose basic functions are

to raise the awareness of the need to

educate every child and to raise

funds from donors in those other

c ount ries. Initially, the EVFs ta rge t

audience is people of Indian origin

residing in those c ountries. Currently,

both EVF USA and EVF Australia areactive and functioning. EVF Honk

Kong, EVF Ca na da , RVF South A fric a ,

and EVF Singa po re are in the p rocess

of formation, and EVFs in Indonesia,

Tha ila nd , Duba i, Belgium a nd

Germa ny a re unde r co nsideration. In

the U.K. funds are collected through

the Three Rs Ed uc a tiona l Trust.

Ekalvidyalaya Global, registered in

the U.S., is responsible for helping form

EVFs in different countries and pro-

vides these EVFs with assistance after

formation.

EVF USA is the largest EVF outside o f

India and currently supports more

than f ive thousand two hundred

sc hools. The m a in do nor base c onsists

of Indian Am eric ans; howeve r, corpo -

rations and civic organizations, such

as the Rotary Club, have also spon-

sored sc hools.

We Indian Americans know the

value of education. We are the rich-

est e thnic sub -group in the USA (a nd

the wo rld ) tod ay. The primary reasonbehind our prosperity has been the

good education most of us received

in India. We reg ard the ed uca tion we

received in India to be practically

free relative to what we pay for our

c hildren's ed uc a tion in the U.S. Afte r

all, a four-year c olleg e d eg ree in the

U.S. can c ost upwards of $120,000.

Howeve r, the ed uca tion w e rec eived

in Ind ia wa s not truly free - the p eo p le

of India pa id for it. And the neg lec t-

ed tribals never received their fair

share of this educational investment.We, the p rofessiona l oversea s Ind ians,

are indebted to these long forgotten

children of India. By providing the gift

of educ ation - we repay that deb t.

Since the forma tion o f EVF Ind ia

and EVF USA, we have been success-

ful in starting over 15,000 schools in

India. As we ga in expe rience ,

Ekalvidyalaya Global plans to start

schools in other parts of the world,

where primary education is being

neglected. Our grand vision is to

eradicate illiteracy from the face of

the earth, and to d o our bit to reduce

the glob al digital divide .I


18/60

WEattempt to address two key

questions in this paper : 1) In

terms of state-wide scaling up of ruralservic es (in Utta r Prad esh, a nd

Madhya Pradesh) in the area of pri-

mary education, what wil l i t cost

financially and in terms of human

resources to scale up these services in

a ll the rural a reas of these two sta tes?

And 2) what policy, institutional and

governance reforms may be neces-

sary so as to ensure proper service

delivery? As is well known, merely set-

ting up more schools, for instance, is

not go ing to b e eno ugh; highe r pub lic

investments in these areas needs to

be ac co mpa nied by systemic reforms

that will help overhaul the present

service delivery system, including

issues of control and oversight, for

example.

While there has been a continuous

upsurge in the number of schools

established at the primary level, thus

increa sing p hysica l ac c ess to sc hoo ls,

the low q uality of ed uca tion provided

in the se sc hools rema ins a c ritica l issue

in India's educational system. Low

quality education implies that even

those children who have completed

five years of primary schooling may

not be functionally l iterate and

num era te . Thus, while an inc rease in

literacy rates is of significance, we

cannot overlook the fact that the

numbers may be misleading as to

what such literacy rates actuallymeans about the presence of effec-

tive literacy and numeric skills in the

children.

The q ua lity o f 'literat es' of the rural

sc hool system is very low . The a c tua l

quantity of schooling that children

experience and the qua lity of teac h-

ing they receive are extremely insuffi-

c ient to any m astery of ba sic literac y

and num eric skills.

Surprisingly, this seems to be true in

the educat ional ly more advanced

states as well. In Maharashtra, forinstance, community-based surveys

of twentyeight cities and eight rural

districts found that only 30 percent of

boys and girls in the age group 6-14

could read basic text fluently or do

simple arithmetic. In another study of

two d istric ts of Tamil Nad u, it wa s

found that m ost stude nts lac ked func -

tional literacy and numeric skills.

Similar results were also reported in

another survey of four North Indian

sta tes. In a stud y o f two d istric ts of M P,

it wa s found tha t in most sc hoo ls, few

c hildren c ould read ba sic texts fluent-

ly. Need less to say that w e to o found

18


Education

Scaling up Primary Education

Services in Rural India

DR. NIRUPAM BAJPAI, DR. RAVINDRA H. DHOLAKIA ANDDR. JEFFREY D. SACHS

Public Investment Requirements and Policy Reform


19/60

simila r results during ou r field investiga -

tions in rural MP and UP. The em pha sis

c urrently is on rote learning and there

was little attempt in teaching activi-

ties to impart understanding or com-

prehension of the text.

Educational deprivation in Indiahas, among others, two crucial

dimensions: lack of schools and the

low q ua lity of teac hing. The latt er is

the outcome of a combination of

lack of school supplies, lack of

tea c her testing, very ineffec tive c on-

trol and oversight of their functioning

and weak links between the school

system and the soc iety. In India the re

has been a greater emphasis on the

provision of more schools ('quantity')

than on activities that actually take

plac e inside c lassroom s ('qua lity').

Insufficient classroomsAs noted earlier, most schools do not

have enough classrooms to accom-

moda te all children. Sc hoo l structures

also lack basic facilities such as run-

ning wa ter and toilets. These prob lems

are mo re a c ute in som e state s than in

others. A study of Uttar Pradesh found

that 54 percent of schools did not

have running water and as high as 80

percent of schools did not havelatrines.

The Tamil Nadu stud y of sc hools in

two districts found that of the twenty

schools the authors visited, only two

had toilets, of which only one was

functional and only two schools had

running water on their premises. Lack

of access to toilets and running water

reduce student attendance as stu-

dents have to go home to use these

fac ilities. The lac k of sep arate to ilets

for boys and girls also influences par-

ents' incentives to send daughters toschool.

Educational outcomes depend on

the number of teachers and their

qualifications, availability of teaching

and learning resources in schools suc h

as textbooks and blackboards and

their use made by teachers in actual

c lassroom ac tivities.

Educ ational outco mes also d ep end

on how m uch tea ching a ctually takes

place, which in turn depends on the

numb er of hours (and da ys) the sc hoo l

is operational, whether teachers are

present or absent, and for each stu-

dent, whether he or she attends

sc hool or not and for how long.

Low teacher ava ilability

Tea c her ava ilab ility in rura l areas co n-

tinues to b e low . Tea c hers po sted to

rural and remote areas usually apply

for transfers and in general their will-

ingness to be posted in such areas israther low. This lea ds to severe imb a l-

ances in the distribution of school

resources between rural and urban

areas and adds to the low teacher-

pupil ratios generally observed within

the sc hoo l system . Pup il-tea c her ratios

are ve ry high , espe c ially in rural area s

- around 63 students per teacher for

rura l Ind ia a s a whole. The a ll-Ind ia

average is around 46 students per

tea c her. The p upil-tea c her rat io for UP

(67 pe r teac her) is almost d oub le that

of MP (35 per teacher). Additionally,

given the large presence of single

and two-teacher schools, there is

mult i -grade teaching, a fact that

detracts from the quality of teaching

even further and not captured by

pupil-teacher ratios. Moreover,

teacher absenteeism is a pervasive

phenomenon, especially in rural

a reas. This effe c tively reduc es the

tea c her-pup il ratio even further. There

is little effective monitoring of teacher

attenda nce. A lot of teac hing time isde voted in many sc hools by tea c hers

to paperwork than in actual teach-

ing.

It is interesting to c om pa re the num -

ber of regular teachers employed in

the rural areas of some of the largest

Chinese provinces with those

em ployed in rura l UP and MP. In 2003,

for instance, in the Chinese provinces

of Henan, Shand ong and Sic huan,

the number of regular teachers

employed in their primary schools

were way above those in UP and MPrelative to their rural population of

sc hool-going c hildren.

The c entral Chinese p rovinc e o f

Henan with a rural population that

was around 77 percent of its total

po pulation of 92.5 million ha d a tota l

of 488, 490 full-time primary school

tea c hers. Of this, almost 77 perc ent or

374,936 were teaching in the rural

a reas. Simila rly, in the c oa sta l Chinese

province o f Shand ong whe re the rural

population was around 66 percent of

its total population of 90.7 million,

there were 380,066 full-time primary

school teachers, of which almost 63

perce nt o r 238,720 were serving in the

rural a reas. In the Sichua n p rovince in

southwestern China, almost 70 per-

cent of their province-wide primary

school teachers were located in the

rura l areas, tha t is, 221,109 teac hers.

As against these, in 2003, while ruralMP had 133,116 regular teachers,

rural UP had 228,779 teachers only,

lower than those in Shand ong , but

with almost double the rural popula-

tion o f Shand ong .

In ad dition to the m uc h larger num-

ber of teachers in these Chinese

provinces, it is also important to say a

few words about the functioning of

som e o f the rura l Sichua n sc hoo ls tha t

we visited in the o utskirts of C heng du

in 2004. By and large, all the state-run

p rima ry sc hoo ls tha t we visited (unan-

nounced) were functional, had fairly

well constructed buildings with

nume rous c lassroom s as most G rad es

from I through V ha d seve ral sec tions.

We rarely heard of complaints

regarding lack of teachers, teaching

ma terials, shortage s of d rinking wa ter

or bathroom fa c ilities that one c om es

across so often while visiting rural

schools in UP or MP. In fact, in some

rural schools we were pleasantly sur-

prised to see children in Grades IVand V being taught how to use co m-

puters, say wo rd p rocessing using M S

Word o r da ta entry using MS Exce l, of

c ourse in southe rn Mand a rin Ch inese.

The mo st serious prob lem tha t w e

c ame ac ross in rural Sichua n sc hoo ls

wa s the very poo r quality of tea c hing

English language. Of course, we

emphasize that the above descrip-

tion of the schools is based on our

observations in a small number of

schools that we visited and so these

characteristics cannot be general-ized for all of rural China's primary

schools.

Under the Law on Nine-Year

Compulsory Education, primary

sc hoo ls are tuition-free and reason-

ably located for the convenience of

children attending them; students

would attend primary schools in their

neighborhoods or villages. Parents

paid a small fee per term for books

and other expenses such as trans-

portation, food, and heating. Under

the education reform, students from

poor families received stipends, and

sta te enterprises, institutions, and

19


Education


20/60

other sectors of society were encour-

age d to establish their ow n sc hoo ls.

The primary-sc hoo l curriculum c on-

sisted of Chinese, m at hem atics, phys-

ical education, music, drawing, and

elem enta ry instruction in nat ure, histo-

ry, and geography, combined withpractical work experiences around

the school compound. A foreign lan-

guage, often English, was introduced

in about the third g rade. The rural

schools generally operated on a flexi-

ble sched ule g eared to the need s of

the agricultura l sea sons. To p romot e

at tendance and al low the c lass

schedule and academic year to be

completed, agricultural seasons were

taken into ac co unt.

Parental apathyThe low qua lity of the sc hool system in

UP and MP contributes to parental

ap athy tow ards ac tually send ing the ir

children to school even when most

parents recognize the importance of

education as a means to social and

economic mobility for their children

and have strong educational aspira-

tions for their children. Tea c her ap a-

thy comes out very strongly in small

surveys conducted by research

teams with the aim to adjudge theteaching-learning processes as they

are taking place in schools. For

instance, the PROBE study reported

that there w as no tea c hing g oing o n

in half the sample schools visited by

the team, a problem further com-

pounded by dismal infrastructure,

overcrowded classrooms and lack of

teaching materials and resources.

The Tam il Nad u stud y found tha t in

nea rly 70 pe rcent o f the sc hoo ls visit-

ed in two districts of Madurai and

Villupuram, no instruction was takingplac e. Such severe tea c her ap athy

and lac k of com mitment undermines

the efficiency of the education sys-

tem drastically.

Key RecommendationsAs per our estimates of the financial

requirements of scaling up primary

education services in rural Uttar

Pradesh (UP) and Madhya Pradesh

(MP), additional public spending of

Rs.161 per capita is needed for UP

and Rs.65 per capita for MP. In 2004-

05, on a pe r ca pita b asis, the alloc a-

tion to the p rima ry ed uca tion sec tor is

almost the same in MP (Rs. 386) and

UP (Rs. 376). Thus, sc a ling up of p ri-

ma ry educ a tion in rural MP and UP on

a per capita basis amounts to

inc reasing the b udg et alloc ation by 8

percent in MP and 21 percent in UP.

Althoug h financ ially this is ac hievablein one yea r, a t least in MP, how eve r, it

may be spread over the next 3 to 4

years in both the states considering

implementation problems and delays

in co nstruction o f sc hoo l build ings.

MP need s to foc us more on two key

aspects: one, to get all the children

from the poor families and special

focus groups, such as girls and chil-

d ren from the SC a nd ST c om munities

that a re out o f sc hool and into sc hool

and two, to strive ha rde r to a ttain and

sustain higher levels of quality in their

p rima ry sc hoo ls. While the former m ay

require measures, such as higher lev-

els of financ ial inc entives for po or pa r-

ents to send their children to school,

improved quality and quantity of the

mid-day meals being provided and

wide-ranging awareness programs,

the latter may require drastic

c hang es in the learning m ethod s and

techniques, making classroom activi-

ties more experimental and enjoy-

able for the children, improvedteacher training, and of course

upgrading the school infrastructure.

By contrast, UP needs to focus more

on construction of more schools

(25,426 additional schools are need-

ed per our calculations) and hiring

more teachers, (314,839 additional

teac hers are need ed per our calcula-

tions) a reas where M P seems to ha ve

achieved a fair bit. Of course, UP too

need s to atta in higher enrollment lev-

els and improve the quality of teach-

ing.We rec omme nd the following areas

for much greater attention: school

infrastructure, func tioning, c urriculum

and instructional resources, stricter

control over and improved oversight

of teachers' improved and rigorous

teachers' training, and improved

qual i ty and quant i ty of mid-day

meals.

With regard to the Panchayati Raj

Institutions, (PRIs) and their ability to

deliver, the following questions need

to b e looked into: Has the p ow er and

authority that has been devolved to

the PRIs on paper actually reached

the pe op le? Do they und erstand their

duties/responsibilities on the one

hand and their authori ty on the

other? Do the PRIs have the c ap ac ity

to m ana ge sc hools? Are there reg ular

(on an on-going basis) and compre-

hensive capacity building programsin place? And are any measures

being undertaken to ensure that the

caste and patriarchy do not preju-

dice effective management at the

loc al level?

The syllab us and c onte nts of t he

textbooks used in Mathematics,

English and Environment studies in UP

need serious modifications and

improvements in style, relevance and

simp lifica tion. In MP, the te xtbo oks on

Environmental studies need to intro-

duc e G eneral Sc ience mo re intensely

than w ha t is done p resently. Like MP,

Eng lish should be forma lly introd uc ed

from Sta nd ard I in UP also.

Sc hools with fe wer room s should run

in two shifts making better use of

resource s. This is eq ua lly a pp lic ab le in

both MP and UP. There is likely to be

resistance from regular teachers, but

it has to be overcome, if needed, by

the use of para-teachers from the vil-

lage itself. If the timings of the classes

are decided in consultat ion withVillage Education Committees (VEC)

and the Ward Educ ation Committees

(WEC), the problem of early dropout

of children on economic considera-

tions ca n a lso be resolved . This will

improve the quality of education by

removing the congestion and over-

crowding due to simultaneous run-

ning o f c lasses in the same room .

There is an u rgent ne ed to c onsider

revision of the basic norm of a school

with only two classrooms and an

offic e room with a verandah to a m in-imum of three c lassroo ms. This will a lso

have implications on the revision of

financ ial norms. The c urrent financ ial

norms are based wrongly on econo-

mizing resources to compromise on

the qua lity of c onstruc tion. They result

in greater need for minor and major

repairs much before they should nor-

mally be d ue.

The ma intenance bud get ava ilab le

to schools annually needs substantial

increase. We have recommended

almost four-fold increase to improve

the c ond itions. Disc retion in the ha nds

of a p rinc ipa l of the sc hoo l for using

20


Education


21/60

the maintenance budget and such

other day-to-day matters should be

increased. For every single and small

de c ision, he/ she should not b e m ad e

to seek app roval and c oncurrence by

the president of VEC o r the WEC.

There is a ne ed to a pp oint a c ook-cum-cleaner-helper in all primary

sc hools. Current ly, this is a respo nsibil-

ity of the villag e Pancha yat, but ha rd-

ly any Panchayats fulfill their obliga-

tions. As a result, it is the t ea c her who

cooks the midday meal, serves and

c leans up u tensils. If he finds any time

thereafter he may also teac h! If an

additional local help is regularly avail-

ab le a ga in on a n ad hoc ba sis, it c an

substantially improve the quality of

instruction in the class and also help

maintain cleanliness in the premises of

the sc hoo l. Every sc hoo l must ma in-

ta in a sma ll ga rden a s we ll. The helpe r

c an a lso look after the g arden.

The ince ntive sc heme s need be tter

target ing and mana gem ent. The

sc ho larship amount o f Rs.250 to Rs.300

is handed over to the students in the

be ginning o f the yea r itself. As a result,

the attendance in the class drops

sharply thereafter, having very

adverse impact on the performance

of the students. Instead, the scholar-ship amount should be divided into

mo nthly insta llme nts of Rs.30 and pa id

to t he studen ts ove r 10 mon ths with a

condition of satisfactory attendance

record during the previous month.

Suc h an imp lemen ta tion will have less

cha nces of abuse.

All sc ho larships or ca sh sub sidies

given to students of different cate-

go ries should b e o f the sam e a mount

for Classes I through III and should be

of progressively higher amounts for

Classes IV a nd V. Like a ll the c ash sub -sidies and school uniforms, the text-

books and stationary should also be

given only to the c hildren from the ta r-

get group, i.e. to the families below

the po verty line a nd SC/ ST c a teg ories.

There is an urgen t nee d to relax

approvals to the private schools, par-

ticularly in UP. The o fficia l p roc ed ures

and formalities to get an approval

and rec ognition for private aided and

non-aided schools should be simpli-

f ied a nd expedited.

State go vernment c an think of c ol-

lecting small fees from the non-target

group population to provide better

facilities like library, play ground with

toys and sports eq uipme nts, sma ll lab -

oratory equipments for conducting

experiments prescribed in their envi-

ronme nt textboo ks, etc .

In terms of furniture, the schools

need to b e b etter equipp ed. Theyshould have o ne steel cupb oard p er

classroom, a table and a chair per

classroom, and a table and three

c ha irs for the office room . Currently

none of these are available.

Moreove r, students in rural a reas may

not sit on be nc hes in the g overnment

schools, but can certainly sit on car-

pets. Similarly, sep a rate toilets for

boys and girls should be constructed

on a n urgent b asis in very sc hoo l.

Pa ra-tea c hers should b e g iven rigo r-

ous tra ining for 30 days in a yea r and

should be paid the same allowance

(Rs.70 / day) as the regular teachers.

Moreover, they should also be given

the teac hing c ontingenc y on pa r with

regular teac hers (Rs.500 p.a.) on c om -

pletion of one ac ad emic year.

Labor laws need to be reformed.

The to tal numb er of leaves in a yea r

that a reg ular tea c her is entitled to is

far in exce ss of wha t c an b e tolerated

in an e ssentia l servic e like prima ry

educ ation. Moreover, the prac tice o fhaving half-a-day casual leave also

doubles the number of casual leaves

effec tively. This c ontributes to tea c h-

ers' absenteeism, insincerity and irreg-

ularity ultimately discouraging stu-

dents and harming the ca use o f edu-

c ation. Suc h laws need imme diate

revision.

We suggest an education sector

strategy for India that is based on the

ob jec tives of t he Sa rva Siksha Ab hiyan

(SSA) no t only at the na tiona l leve l,

but a lso m ore importantly at the state

and d istric t leve ls. Sta tes and d istric ts

should strive hard to attain the goals

laid o ut in the SSA, espec ially for the

laggard states and districts, with par-ticular focus on the 150 most back-

wa rd d istric ts of the c ount ry. Based on

SSA's na tiona l go a ls, sta te go ve rn-

ments should announce targets for

educ ation to be met at the state a nd

district levels by the year 2010.

We also suggest that the central

government should plan to convene

a meeting of Chief Ministers and

Educ ation M iniste rs of a ll Ind ian Sta tes

in 2006 to discuss how the states will

mee t the ed uc ation ta rge ts of SSA.

This me eting will allow sta tes to p res-

ent t he ir most suc c essful initia tives, so

that all states can adopt "best prac-

tic es" in p ublic ed uca tion.

On November 14, 2005, Dr. Nirupam

Bajpai submitted this paper to his

Excellency Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam,

President of India and Honourable Dr.

Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of

India and discussed the matter with

Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy

Chairman, Planning Commission,

India. I

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Education


22/60

Terrorism Disrupts oil supplies

WITH the ever rising unrest in theworld as a result of global terror-ism, one c annot rule o ut the po ssibility

of crude oil production in the Middle

East d rop ping a nnually by a s muc h a s

10 MBD. International crude oil trade

was about 50 MBD in 2004. So, w hen

the Midd le East suffe rs a loss of 20 p er-

c ent in its prod uction, India m ay p ro-

portiona tely lose muc h more. Unlike

during the second

oil shoc k whe n Iran

attacked Iraq in

1980, today, with

del icately bal-

anced crude oi ls u p p l y / d e m a n d ,

any reduc tion in oil

production cannot

be c ompensated

by OPEC.

No one had

expected the

attack of Iran on

Iraq and also the

consequential dis-

ruption in oil pro-

duction. In the

developed coun-tries planners regu-

larly work on con-

tingency plans to

meet such scenar-

ios. One such may

be the overthrow

of the Saud i gov-

ernment. In the

event the world

ma y lose a c c ess to

10 MBD of oil for a

prolonged time. In

another scenario,

the terrorists may

blow up oil wells in

several Middle East countries to hit

production.

Memb ers of the Internat ional Energy

Agency have agreed to maintain

their imports for 90 days at any given

po int of time. Some have go ne far

be yond the requireme nt of 90 da ys. In

the case of India we are still at the

planning stage to build up some

meaningful strategic petroleum

reserves (SPR). Even C hina ha s sta rted

an ambitious SPR program. It is only

recently that India started to encour-

age its oil c om pan ies to explore for oil

in different parts of the world to

reduc e d epe ndenc y on impo rts.

Sudden jump in world oil pricesWhen crude oil prices suddenly shot

up four-fold from $3.00 per barrel to

$12.00 during the first o il shoc k of

1973/74 and three-fold to $36 to $40

per barrel in 1978/79, Ind ia's ec ono my

suffered. However, because of the

administered pricing mechanism, the

impact on consumers was not that

adverse. In 2005 eve n whe n there wa s

no major oil disruption, the crude oil

p ric es soa red to $71 pe r ba rrel. Som e

forecasts predict crude prices to riseto as high a s $105 pe r ba rrel. Suc h

increases will have a debil itating

impact on India's trade balance

upsetting energy security. One effec-

tive way India can face such situa-

tions is through demand manage-

ment.

Localized oil disruptionIn addition to the above scenarios of

India losing access to crude imports,

we may also have localized energy

shortages even when there is no dis-

rupt ion in oil imp orts. From time to time

lab our unions, petroleum and LPG

22


Energy

India's Energy SecurityDR. BHAMYV. SHENOY

With India importing 81 million tons of oil in 2004, its oil dependency

was over two-thirds of its requirement. By 2020 India's oil dependencyis expected to be much more. Should we be perpetually reliant on oilimports on such a scale? Why not the nation have at least acontingency plan to face crises?


23/60

dealer associations, port workers,

among others, threaten to unsettle

energy supplies. Fortunately this has

not resulted in any prolonged supply

dislocation so far. But in the future

they may have a d evastating effect if

they disturb the flows over a longduration. With ever increasing share

of commercial energy sources meet-

ing the domestic fuel needs and LPG

replacing f i rewood and kerosene

even in rural areas, localized LPG

shortages can give rise to civil unrest.

LPG shortages and protests by con-

sumers in October of 2005 should be

viewed as a wakeup call. Although it

d id no t result in any suc h unrest, a ll the

commercial organizations involved in

LPG supply cha in should have c ontin-

gency plans to meet the demand in

any eventua lity.

Mega oil compa ny throughmerger?The Pet roleum Ministry see ms to ha ve

a plan to merge some of the

Navaratna oil companies to form a

mega company supposedly to face

global competition. From the energy

security angle, a decision to form

such a gigantic company may turn

out to b e a strate gic b lunde r.

Already Indian Oil has more than

half the market share. Even with the

entry of private companies l ike

Relianc e, Essar, She ll, BP et a l, Ind ian

Oil will continue to have a high mar-

ket sha re. We should learn from c oun-

tries such as Mexico and Indonesia

where they had just one national oil

company each and the employee

unions of those companies were the

cause of major disruptions in oil pro-

duc tion. In our c ase, labo r unions of amega oil company could even start

dic tating o ur energy p olic ies and dis-

rupt o il supp lies so a s to force the g ov-

ernment into accepting their wants.

What we need is not less number of

companies, but more.

The g ov ernm en t sho uld seriously

c onsider forming at lea st three or four

independent oil companies by split-

ting Indian Oil so tha t ea c h suc h c om-

pany will not have more than 10%

ma rket sha re. This be c ause hea lthy

c omp etit ion be tween a number of oil

companies will ensure greater energy

security.

STRATEGIES TO ENSURE

TIGHTER ENERGY SECURITY

FOR INDIA ARE;

1. Building up sufficient amount ofinventory of crude oil or crude oil

products for meeting import needs

for at least ninety days like IEA

countries;

2. Exploring the possibility of joining

IEA as a member-c ountry;

3. Encouraging ma rketing compa-

nies to have a minimum inventory

of products like gasoline, diesel

and LPG in 30 different parts of

India to meet at least 15 days of

that region's product require-

ments. We can consider this as

part of the strategic petroleum

reserves;

4. Acc ording highest priority to

strengthening of our railway trans-

port system to reduce use of

trucking;

5. Adopting a plan to improve public

transportation in all urba n areas on

a war-footing so as to reduce

depe ndence on private vehicles;

6. Slashing direc t subsidies on ener-

gy sources like electricity, petrole-um products and natural gas in a

phased manner and developing

more transparent and non-corrupt

ways of helping those in need of

energy;

7. Encouraging competition in down-

stream operations by promoting

more marketing companies. No

marketing company should have

more than 15% market share;

8. Eliminating government interfer-

ence in fixing petroleum product

prices;9. Boosting developme nt of bio-

diesel as a mission;

10.Promoting energy research in

leading R&D institutes, especially

in IITs and regional engineering

colleges on such topics as

advanced coal power plants, gas

hydrates, coal bed methane,

advanced exploration and pro-

duction technology, safer ways of

generating nuclear power, solar

energy, wind energy, bio gas etc;

11. Encouraging competition in gas

industry by promoting more com-

pa nies. Toda y we have just one

company, GAIL;

12.Putting greater emphasis on LNG

imports instead of gas imports

through pipelines;

13. An integrated strategy to collect

and disseminate information on

energy consumption, imports,exports, inventory etc. Accurate

Information gathering on petrole-

um products on a timely basis is of

great importance. We need to

learn from the experience of the

USA, Japan and Europe in this

regard to a dopt a sound system to

meet our requirements;

14.Gove rnment should rene w its

efforts to deve lop renewable ener-

gy sources like biogas, solar, wind

etc;

15.Lastly, the government may pro-

mote the use of nuclear energy.

Conclusion

There is nothing new ab out t he strate -

gies suggested above to ensure

Ind ia's ene rgy sec urity. It c an eve n be

c laimed that mo st of them are imple-

me nted . The o bvious question is doe s

any one feel confident that w e have

solved the problems of energy securi-

ty. In reality we have paid leastattention to most of the strategies. In

the case of strategies dealing with

demand management, we have a

long wa y to go. There is still no w ell

thought out plan to implement vari-

ous strateg ies to improve Ind ia's ene r-

gy security. It is here that we need

strong NGOs with expertise to put

pressure o n the go vernment to de vel-

op such strategic plans and imple-

ment them.I

23


Energy


24/60

OF the six billion people inhabiting

the planet over two-thirds live inrural areas. In India alone, nearly 700

million oc cupy villages. The rural p op u-

lation is increasing at a faster pace

than their urba n c ounterpa rt, mostly as

a result of illiteracy, lack of access to

birth control measures, and poverty.

The ove rall de velop ment in most co un-

tries does not keep pace with the

needs of this increase. Moreover, urba n

industrial development does not trickle

do wn fa st enough to the rural areas.

Ac cording to the U.N. and the World

Bank, over one-third of the wo rld po pu-

lation subsists on less tha n o ne-d ollar-a-

da y income pe r head . Half of them sur-

vive on under $2 per day. Depending

on which of these two yardsticks is used

for measuring pove rty, there a re 2-3 bil-

lion poor people in the world - a stag-

gering number by any account. While

these poverty definitions have been

suggested by international agencies,

they do not c orrespo nd w ith the defini-

tions tha t individua l go vernments mightfollow . The o ffic ial count of p ove rty in

India closely reflects these world statis-

tics, but the real number of poor peo-

ple is muc h higher.

For example, at the higher end, the

U.S. Ce nsus Bureau has set the poverty

line for an individual at $9,500 per

annum (which works out to $26 per

day). For a family of four (with children

be low 16 yea rs of age ), the poverty line

is set at $18,800 or $51 per day. At the

other end of the spectrum, the Indian

government chose to define caloric

intake and its correspond ing c ost as the

measures by which poverty is to be

defined. It has adopted the ICMR

(Indian Council of Medical Research)

spe c ifica tion o f 2,400 K-ca lories per day

for an individua l living in rural areas, and

2,100 K-calories for an urban individual.

The p rob lem with the Indian go vern-

ment's ap proac h is in the de termina-


24

Poverty

Addressing Rural Poverty in IndiaDR. ABRAHAM M. GEORGE

8/9/2019 2005 Catalys

2005 catalyst magazine

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