India's literacy level increases

Sopan Correspondent / New Delhi

India's literacy level has increased by 9.21% in the past 10 years to reach 74.04%, according to provisional data of the 2011 census released in New Delhi late last month.

According to the data, literates constitute 74% of the total population aged seven and above and illiterates form 26%. The literacy rate went up from 64.83% in 2001 to 74.04% in 2011 showing an increase of 9.21%.

Interestingly, females literacy level saw a significant jump as compared to males between 2001-2011. While female literacy in 2001 stood at 53.67%, it has gone up to 65.46% in 2011. The male literacy in comparison rose from 75.26 to 82.14%.

Kerala with 93.91% continues to occupy the top position among states in the field of literacy while Mizoram's Serchhip (98.76%) and Aizawl (98.50%) recorded highest literacy rates among districts.

Lakshadweep followed Kerala with a literacy level of 92.28%, while Bihar remained at the bottom of the ladder with a literacy rate of 63.82% followed by Arunachal Pradesh at 66.95%.

Ten states and UTs viz. Kerala, Lakshadweep, Mizoram, Tripura, Goa, Daman and Diu, Puducherry, Chandigarh, NCT of Delhi and Andaman and Nicobar Islands achieved literacy rate of above 85%, the target set by the Planning Commission to be achieved by 2011-12.

The gap of 21.59 percentage points recorded between male and female literacy rates in 2001 census has reduced to 16.68 percentage points in 2011. Planning Commission has set up target of reducing this gap to 10 percentage points by 2011-12.

The other highlights of the Census 2011 (Provisional figures):

* The population of India has increased by more than 181 million during the decade 2001-2011.

*2001-2011 is the first decade (with the exception of 1911-1921) which has actually added lesser population compared to the previous decade.

*Uttar Pradesh (199.5 million) is the most populous State in the country followed by Maharashtra with 112 million.

*The proportion of Child Population in the age group of 0-6 years to total population is 13.1 percent while the corresponding figure in 2001 was 15.9 percent. The decline has been to the extent of 2.8 points.

*Overall sex ratio at the national level has increased by 7 points to reach 940 at Census 2011 as against 933 in Census 2001.

Trivialisation of Planning process

COVER STORY

Social networking site is being used for feedback on the plan process. Will the elite decide what the poor in the country need?

Sopan Correspondent / New Delhi


There seems to be a deliberate attempt to trivialise the planning process of the country. Highflier Montek Singh Ahluwalia-led planning commission got itself registered on social networking website Facebook to enlist the opinion and ideas of people at large on the 12th plan period, stirring a debate whether this was necessary when planning for the poor was being done and poverty eradication remains the biggest challenge.

It seems, the plan panel is oblivious of its priorities and the nation’s desperate needs to ameliorate millions of people from the curse of poverty, who do not have access to computer, what to talk about internet. A soul searching is required as those who are on facebook do not look to the plan panel for solutions. However, there is a general perception that government’s planning should focus on poor and even UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi’s main focus remain around people, who are have-nots in India’s socio-economic strata.

While launching the Facebook page of the plan panel in January, Ahluwalia said, “We will make the detailed 12th Plan around this time next year. We are seeking public comments and decided to adopt a web-based approach.”

This has also been announced at the function that the Plan panel became the second government organisation after Census Commission to take to a social networking site, which will help get feedback on a regular basis. As of now, most of the government websites are static, where one can only post or mail comments but cannot get any response.

Asked if the website would help public fight corruption, Ahluwalia said, “I am expecting people to give their views on inflation and corruption. I find a lot of people have views on corruption. The issue of corruption becomes very relevant. We would like to see what they have to say.”

But still there was no talk of plan panel’s core competence – planning and monitoring of schemes and programmes implemented by central and state governments. At the planning level a web-based exercise may give the panel the opportunity to have opinion of people. But those, who would be forwarding their opinion, would not be of representative nature. If the elite suggest anti-poverty ideas and schemes, then why can’t experts sitting in the plan panel think of such ideas and formulate schemes themselves. Where is the involvement of the poor and have-nots for whom the plan process is in place?

Ironically only 100 netizens have liked the page so far. Some, however have commented. One said, “We will hear people rather than just suits.” Another said “at least people’s voice would be heard.” Ahluwalia’s take on the launch day was interesting as he said, “We can’t have people like Bill Gates in all our committees. But, he can be out there among million Indians and we don’t want to miss his suggestion.” But the moot question is that do we need to have Bill Gates to plan for our poor.

India has limited resources, so the country needs planning for effective use of scanty wealth and resources, while keeping in mind our own priorities. The priorities can not be suggested by people like Bill Gates, who may not have the experience of Indian realities.

If at all planning commission wants to engage people at large in the planning process, then it needs to physically reach out to the masses through elected representatives, who work with the people in their respective constituency. If they do not do so, then they should continue with what has been happening for last 63 years of Independent India. One of the lower level officials in the planning commission, once said, “In India the plan document was prepared only once in 1951 and since then every time same document was carried forward with 10 percent hike in allocation.” Continue with that Ahluwalia, there is nothing wrong in it, as sky will not fall on earth. Only the process involved in planning gets exposed.

Indifference towards development strategy

COVER STORY

The 12th Plan process has been set rolling. However, there is criminal indifference to the process as those at the helm have hardly shown any seriousness in the process


Shruti Kaul / New Delhi

Four years ago, the country was having a meeting of the national development council called to approve development programme for five years and all Chief Ministers, Union Ministers and senior Government officials from State and Centre were participating in the day long conference chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

It was a most satisfying day for all of them and late in the evening the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia came out a proud man to have got the approval of the highest body in carrying on with the five year plan which was based on the ideology of the new group of enthusiastic economists headed by the Prime Minister himself.

After a good night sleep, they woke up to a big surprise which should have shattered their belief. Some of mainstream newspapers carried photographs of sleeping participants amongst them some chief ministers including the high profile chief minister of Delhi Sheila Dikshit - a simple three column photograph had shattered them all.

Since then the planners of the country have been trying to find out where they have gone wrong. Is it that planning is irrelevant for both state and central administrators? This is in spite of the fact that the country has been having good growth for last six years and it is being made as if world is looking towards India and China for ensuring a bright and happy future.

But why are these leaders of national stature so indifferent to a meeting which has to decide on development strategy of the country, bread and butter for every politician worth his name?

Reason is that for almost sixty years, the country has been indulging itself in the so called nationally important exercise of planning but the number of poor which was around 420 million in 1961 when the country had first reliable estimate of below poverty line persons and as per the latest estimates of poverty the number of poor according to Dr Medullar model is still more than 400 million.

The single comparison clears most of the mist around developmental efforts of the country. According to Dr Tendulkar recommendation, number of poor in rural India is 418 million while in urban India the number is 257 million. What this means is that the inclusiveness of the plan process has only benefited urban middle and rich class.

There is no effective attempt by the State to reduce the rich-poor gap between rural and urban India. No doubt the country has been spending more than 70 per cent of its expenditure on the welfare schemes targeted to benefit poor but nothing substantial has been done to give rural India a sustainable high growth economic model.

Counter argument is that a number of big ticket programmes like MNREGA, Rajiv Gandhi Rural Roads Programme and Indira Awas Yojana are being implemented with full force. But all these schemes are not targeted to give rural India a sustainable growth model. They are only aiming at survival. After all 100 days of employment at a rate of 100-125 a day in no way is a way forward to eradicating poverty, hunger and frustration.

After 60 years of independence and even after States’ dismal performance in eradicating poverty, there continues to be a firm political resistance to improving profitability of the major economic activity of more than 60 per cent of India population - farming. The government is keen to give subsidy to food grains, allow free power or fertilisers but does not allow creation of the environment which permits supply shortage so that prices could go to a level that make farming a respectable and profitable venture. The land mass available for farming has reduced considerably since independence and the number of people depending for survival on agriculture has at least grown by 20 million since then. There has to be a national policy to encourage shift of rural masses to urban so as to reduce pressure on agriculture but the country has been witnessing continuous demand for reverse migration. This sounds anything but sound economics.

The State has put every possible obstacle in the way of improving the profitability of the farming sector. It only wants to ensure that there is no shortage of food grains and thus assure that ruling party is not put in disadvantageous position. A simple glance at the price chart of food items for three decades will make it clear that not even inflation has been neutralized. Yes , it is true that more than 1,00,000, crore goes into food related subsidy but the entire subsidy is linked to political compulsion and has never been directed to improve well-being of the farmers.

The rise of naxalism is yet another glaring example of non-inclusive nature of development process. Why is it that no metro city or big township has been affected? It is primarily spread over to the areas which are normally outside the radar of the developing agencies and with the result people in these far-flung areas feel ignored and become ready client for anti-national elements.

It won’t be improper for the country to have a fresh look at the development strategy and bring out a model which ensures that benefits of development are passed equally to all sections of society and no one feels deprived. Moreover, those who have been ignored so far should get first right to such policies.

Poverty of ideas hurting India's planning process

COVER STORY

Poverty eradication remains on top of agenda even after 63 years of Independence


Sopan Correspondent / New Delhi

Planning Commission will have a formidable task to prepare the blue print for development for the five-year period ending March 2017 in view of the host of problems and challenges being faced by the country - some of its own making and others being forced on it on account of external factors.

The major issues that the Twelfth Plan (2012-17) will have to deal with include poverty alleviation, re-distribution of wealth, inflation, economic growth, agriculture sector, industrial production, infrastructure, corruption and governance deficit.

Although the challenges before the nation are many, the Commission under the deputy chairmanship of Montek Singh Ahluwalia, will have to ensure that all efforts are made to address the basic problem - poverty alleviation. It is nothing but a matter of deep concern and regret that even after more than half a century of independence four out of ten Indians are poor. India has more poor than those in whole of Africa.

The face of India cannot change unless appropriate policy initiatives are backed by sincere efforts to eradicate poverty. The Commission, this time again will be needing to focus on eradicating poverty, especially in rural areas where people have yet to taste the fruits of economic reforms initiated by the then Finance Minister and currently Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 1991.

To achieve the broader objective of poverty alleviation, the Commission will have to not only ensure growth but also put in policies that encourage distribution of fruits of development among the neglected sections of society.

The starting point of the exercise will be to raise economic growth to about 10 per cent during the Twelfth Plan period. Prime Minister Singh, who is also the head of the Commission, had already indicated to the Plan panel to contemplate double-digit growth in the next plan.

The Commission had projected an annual growth rate of 9 per cent in the Eleventh Plan (2007-12). Although the initial years of the Plan recorded over nine per cent growth rate, the projections went hay wire following the global financial meltdown triggered by collapse of the America's iconic investment banker Lehman Brothers in September 2008.

The economic growth rate fell to 6.8 per cent in 2008-09 from over nine per cent in the preceding three years. To help the industry combat the impact of the global financial crisis, the government announced several stimulus packages, while the Reserve Bank relaxed the monetary policy.

The growth picked up to 8 per cent in 2009-10. To the comfort of the policy planners, economic recovery was faster than anticipated. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is likely to record a growth rate of 8.6 per cent in the current financial year and 9 per cent during 2011-12, which will be the last year of the Eleventh Plan.

The unanticipated slowdown prompted the Planning Commission to scale down the annual growth target of Eleventh Plan to 8.1 per cent from 9 per cent. These figures, however, will have to be re-worked keeping in view the economic recovery towards the close of the Plan period.

In order to achieve this growth, the focus will have to be mainly on industry, agriculture, services and export sectors. Besides, special efforts would have to made to improve infrastructure to sustain high growth rate of 10 per cent in the medium to long term.

Singh had already indicated that investment target for infrastructure sector will be doubled to USD 1 trillion from USD 500 billion in the Eleventh Plan period. The funding for infrastructure sector, which will broadly include roads, power, airports, port etc, will come from government, private and foreign sources. The contribution of the private sector for development of infrastructure will increase as the government will be expected to earmark more funds towards social sector programmes like MGNREGA, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, proposed food security law etc.

In infrastructure sector too the focus of development must be rural areas rather than building more fly-overs and metro trains in cities which are more developed. The rural focus is essential not only to root out poverty but also to fight the menace of inflation which has become a major economic problem impacting the lives of everyone. According to a World Bank report, released ahead of the G-20 meeting of the Finance Ministers and the Central Bank Governors at Paris in February, rising global commodity prices have pushed 44 million people into poverty. Inflation is the worst kind of tax which eats the purchasing power.

The food inflation crossed 20 per cent mark during the last financial year, while the headline inflation remained above 10 per cent. Towards the close of 2010, there have been some moderation in the food as well as headline inflation rates, but there is no room for complacency as the political crisis in the Middle-East and rising global commodity prices will impact the rate of price rise in the coming months.

Although the reasons for rising inflation are many, in the Indian context two are important – rising purchasing power and supply constraints. The government has no control over the global developments, but it can definitely put in place a strategy to minimize the impact of such developments on domestic economy.

The challenge before the Planning Commission is to suggest a credible and appropriate strategy to effectively deal with the menace of inflation and also check inflationary expectations. The focus of the strategy should obviously be to increase farm productivity. Allowing duty free import of essential goods and tightening of monetary policies will not provide any long-term solution to the problem of inflation.

At the same time, it needs to be emphasized that the scope for increasing farm productivity is enormous considering the fact that in India per acre output of foodgrain, vegetables and fruits is very low as compared to even developing nations. This can be done by increasing rural infrastructure and making available to farmers inputs like good seeds, fertilizers etc.

Besides, the government should ensure time availability of credit, crop insurance at reasonable cost, transport and marketing support facilities for the farm sector. In addition to the economic side, the Planning Commission will have to lay special focus on law and order problem and the governance deficit which has been adversely impacting the performance of the government schemes and programmes.

Focus on law and order is needed to deal with problem of naxalism and development of the backward regions of the country. However, both will have to go together to prevent the problem from deteriorating further. The other big problem that the Commission must deal with squarely is the governance deficit. The series of scams that have come to light during the past two years, suggest that there is something seriously wrong with the way the government is conducting its business. If things continue like this, people will lose faith in the government and its ability to deal with the problems of the country. It is essential that the problem is addressed without delay.

Corruption is not something that can be checked by policing alone. The Commission must find out the reasons for growing corruption, much of which can be attributed to the wrong and misplaced policies of the government. Although a group of minister under Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee was set up to suggest legislative and administrative measures to check corruption, the Planning Commission can contribute its might in fighting the menace by recommending changes in the policies that promote corrupt practices..

The tasks before the Commission, which has to prepare the blue print for development during 2012-17 are many and varied. The priority should be given to the rural sector to decisively fight poverty and combat the impact of global crisis, may it be rising commodity prices or slowdown of exports. These national objectives, however, will not be achieved unless sincere efforts are made to bridge governance deficit and check corruption.
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