ELEMENTARY EDUCATION

Instead of wasting the resources in educating all up to the elementary level, the country should aim at providing higher and technical education to those who have the right aptitude, as there would be no gains by educating millions of people only up to the elementary level. Give arguments For and Against this view. One of the areas in which the performance of India has been below expectations is literacy. Even after more than five decades of economic planning in the post independence era, about 35 per cent of the total population in India is still illiterate. The performance in the field of female literacy, in particular, has been dismal, with over 45 per cent of them still being unable to read and write. But at the same time, India has the distinction of having the largest scientific manpower in the world. The country also has the largest number of graduates, as well as software professionals. It is mainly this section of the educated and technically and professionally qualified manpower which has contributed towards rapid economic growth of Indian economy in the recent years. With a view to improve its record in the field of literacy, the country launched an ambitious campaign called Sarv Siksha Abhiyan, which aims at providing at least elementary education (8th Standard) to all. Emphasis are also on checking the drop outs from the primary and elementary schools. But many feel that such a campaign is a national waste and the country should concentrate only on providing technical and professional education to those who have the required aptitude and the intellect. Arguments For the View (a) Majority of the children to be covered in the campaign for

universalisation of elementary education would be those who would leave studies after 8th standard. Such limited education would neither be of any use to the individual nor to the country. (b) A person with 8th pass qualification has no technical or employable skills and would remain an unskilled worker. It would be appropriate to concentrate on improving the vocational as well as technical education so that the students have some employable skills. (c) India is a developing economy and the economic resources are limited. Available resources must be utilised optimally in such a manner as to have the maximum benefit for the economy. Hence, it would be better to improve the higher education, particularly the technical and professional education. (d) Higher education has been the strength of Indian economy in the recent past. Rather than wasting resources on elementary education, India must consolidate its gains in this regard, lest the other developing countries like China and South Korea overtake it. Arguments Against the View (a) Most of the developed countries in the world have literacy rate of over 90 per cent. Most of the developing countries also have better literacy rate than India. It is thus imperative that the literacy rate is pushed up to near 90 per cent level in India also. (b) India is the largest democracy in the world and the Indian Constitution has enshrined several novel features like the Fundamental Right, Fundamental Duties and the Directive Principles of the State Policy. These provisions would be fruitful only when the Indian citizens are able to understand them. This would come only with at least elementary education.

(c)?No society can be considered socially developed if 35 per cent of its population cannot read or write. For proper growth of Indian society, it is important that all its citizens have education at least up to the elementary level. (d) Elementary education lays the foundation for good higher, technical and professional education. Hence, without undermining the importance of higher education, good elementary education is a must.

Primary sector is of prime importance to the Indian economy and without rapid growth of this sector the impending targets of higher growth rate of the economy cannot be achieved. Give arguments For and Against this view. With a growth rate of less than 2 per cent during 2008-09, the agriculture sector neither offers any cheers to the farmers nor to the economy as a whole. With the target for growth rate during Eleventh Five Year Plan being fixed 8 per cent, the below par achievements in the primary sector are apprehended to act as dampeners. Many believe that without rapid growth in primary sector it may not be possible to achieve the hyper growth targets in the coming years. Arguments For the View (a) Indian economy has been growing rapidly in the post reforms era. But except for a few exceptionally good years like 2000-01 and 2003-04, the growth rate of the agricultural sector has been very low, at around 2 to 3 per cent per annum. To

hike the overall growth rate of the economy, the primary sector has to improve its performance. (b) More than 60 per cent of the total labour force in the country is engaged in the farm sector operations. With such a huge proportion of population experiencing increase of just around three per cent in their income levels, the overall growth rate of the economy also tends to get suppressed. (c) It is well-known that the farm productivity in the country is among the lowest in the world and there is a vast scope for increasing the same. Any substantial increase in the productivity of this vital sector would result in overall high growth rate of the economy. (d) The years in which the agricultural sector has not performed well have witnessed lower growth rate of the economy. Hence, it is imperative that the primary sector does well. Arguments Against the View (a) In India, agriculture is largely dependent on monsoons. Under such a scenario, it is wrong to expect the farm sector to grow at par with the industries or the services sectors. The government knows this reality well and has been focusing on rapid growth of those sectors which have high growth potential. (b) Indian agriculture is primitive in nature and employs old technology and lesser capital. With these features, the agricultural sector is likely to continue with its current low growth rate trend and the attempts to boost up the growth rate of the economy have to be without the agriculture sector changing much. (c) With services contributing half of the national income at present, it is better to rely on this sector for sustaining the higher growth of the economy, rather than putting efforts in the primary sector without results.

SOCIETY AND MODERNISATION

The diverse social structure in India is getting weakened with increasing modernisation. Give arguments For and Against this view. Indian society is unique in many ways. It has several races, religions and cultural amalgamations. That is why it is said that India has unity in diversity. In addition to people from different castes living peacefully in this country, people belonging to three great religions of the world, the Hinduism, Christianity and Islam, are found in large numbers in India. Indian society, traditionally, follows a caste system under which the profession of a person was guided by the caste in which he was born. Caste system to a significant extent was also found among Indian Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and Bodhs. In addition, Indian society and culture have been greatly enriched by various immigrants and invaders over the centuries. Besides, religions like Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism originated from India. The framers of Indian Constitution upheld the unique diversity of Indian society by opting for a secular State where all the religions are equally important and the citizens are free to practice any religion of their choice, without any interference from any quarter. It is said that the social structure in India is under the influence of modernisation, which is being experienced by the Indian society and economy. Arguments For the View (a) One of the causes of modernisation is globalisation. With more frequent global contact and communication, Indian values and culture are getting greatly influenced by the West. (b) Electronic media has come up in a big way during the past about a decade. Satellite Television channels have unleashed a host of western programmes and serials, themes of which are alien to composite Indian society. The social, moral and ethical values are also undergoing change, which has threatened the very composition of Indian society. (c) As compared to western and Islamic societies, Indian society is far more tolerant. Racist western societies and fundamentalist Islamic countries have also influenced Indian society and if increasing fundamentalist incidents in India in the recent years are any indication, India is also getting influenced to a great extent.

(d) One of the latest vehicles of modernisation is the Information Technology (IT). As IT was first perfected in the USA and the West, most of the IT tools have the western bias which is influencing the impressionable minds of Indian youth. (e) Among important fallouts of modernisation are industrialisation and urbanisation. These two have already influenced the tradition of joint family in India and the social changes may influence the traditional social fibre of Indian society in the coming years. Arguments Against the View (a) Indian Constitution is the highest law of the land. It outlines various social strengths of India, including the abolition of untouchability, equality before law, reservation for women in thePanchayati Raj Institutions, freedom of religion, protection for weaker sections and minorities, etc. These basic strengths of Indian socio-political system have been institutionalised and cannot be taken away by any amount of modernisation. (b) Indian society and culture have the strength to enrich themselves with various other cultures that they encounter. Considering this, modernisation is no threat to Indian culture. It may rather benefit the Indian culture. (c) Indian society is too diverse and broad to be affected by modernisation. It has deep roots in the minds of people. Western influence on a handful of people living in the urban areas does not mean that urbanisation has affected the entire Indian society. (d) India lives in villages, with almost two-third of her population residing in rural areas. Economic and cultural influence of modernisation is limited to big cities. Hence, it would be wrong to say that Indian society as a whole has been affected by modernisation. (e) Even people living in urban areas are Indians at heart. Deep-rooted social values of Indian society are not easy to shun. Modernisation is an ongoing process and Indian society has coped up with it. There is nothing that has altered the position significantly in the recent years.

REDUCING UNEMPLOYMENT Rather than aiming at increasing the growth rate, the government must specifically aim at reducing the unemployment level in the country. Give arguments For andAgainst this view. Though unemployment has been one of the major socio-economic problems in the country since long, yet during the past about a decade unemployment has been increasing rather rapidly. It is ironical that while the average annual growth rate of the economy during the last one decade has been close to 7 per cent, there has not been any corresponding reduction in the unemployment rate and its incidence has in fact increased. Even in case of those who are employed in the rural and urban areas, there is a wide gap in the wages earned by them for the same job. In successive Budgets and Plans, the policy makers talk of high growth rate, but no specific and effective schemes have been unveiled for reducing the scourge of unemployment. Many feel that it is high time that the government comes out with a specific scheme for substantially reducing the incidence of unemployment in India. Arguments For the View (a) During the past about 15 years the average annual growth rate has been high at more than 6.5 per cent. But that notwithstanding, the incidence of poverty in the country has not reduced proportionately, and even today the percentage of people living below poverty line is about 25 per cent. It implies that while the income levels have gone up, only the well to do people have largely been benefited. This trend can only be reversed if more employment more opportunities are generated, particularly in the rural areas. (b) India is endowed with a large number of trained and skilled human

resources and most of the developed countries are scarce in this regard. The country must take advantage of this situation by utilising its human resources to the optimum. This would not only provide opportunity to most of the labour force to contribute to the nationbuilding, but would also remove economic disparities and poverty. (c) The surge in IT and Telecom sector has resulted in a digital divide in India, between the urban and educated people, on the one hand, and the rural and the illiterates, on the other. The only way to bridge this gap is to generate more employment opportunities, particularly in the rural areas. (d) India cannot achieve hyper growth rate on sustainable basis without providing fruitful employment opportunities to its unemployed. Hence, rather than concentrating on high growth rate, more employment generation must be targeted. Arguments Against the View (a) It is well-known that as a result of trickle down effect, high growth rate automatically takes care of all the problems of the economy, including that of unemployment. (b) Labour intensive methods of production are generally less productive. That is why even more populous country like China has followed the capital intensive technologies for mass production. The resultant benefit of industrialisation is more employment opportunities in future. (c) While following the policy of achieving high growth rate of the economy, the country is also taking care of the needs of those who desperately need employment to meet both ends. The recent Employment Guarantee Schemes are an example.

(d) Employment opportunities can only be created by rapid growth of the industries and the services sectors. This is exactly what is being done, and the employment generation is going to follow soon.