Taking Education to the Masses

Although there is greater than fivefold improvement in the literacy rate of India from independence, the level is well below the world average literacy rate of 84%. India is still one amongst the largest illiterate population of any nation on earth.

In recent times, several major announcements were made for developing the poor conditions in Education Sector in India, the most notable ones being the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. The initiatives are as follows:

a. To increase expenditure progressively on education to around 6 percent of GDP

b. To support this increase in expenditure on education, and to increase the quality of education, there would be an imposition of an education cess over all central government taxes

c. To ensure that no one is denied of elementary education due to economic backwardness and poverty

d. To make right to school education a fundamental right for all children in the age group 6–14 years

e. To universalize education through its flagship programmes such as Sarva Siksha Abhiyan and Mid Day Meal.

The right to education is a fundamental human right, and UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) aims at education for all by 2015.

Schemes by Government:

Asha for Education: Asha for education was founded by Sandeep Pandey with an aim of empowering and transformation of India’s marginalized poor. It is a secular organization dedicated to change in India by focusing on basic education with the belief that education is a critical requisite for socio-economic change. While pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, he co-founded Asha for Education to support education for poor children in India by tapping the resources of Overseas Indians, raising ten thousand dollars in the first year. The organization has since expanded to 36 North-American chapters and disbursed nearly one million dollars for programs in India. 

While working with impoverished low caste families and dalits in Ballia district of Uttar Pradesh, Pandey discovered that few children went to school and those that did remained unemployed and hence the idea of providing education to underprivileged children in India.

Mamidipudi Venkatarangaiya Foundation: This is an initiative by Shantha Sinha, started with the aim of guiding the people of Andhra Pradesh to end the scourge of child labour and send their children to school. As head of an extension program at the University of Hyderabad in 1987, she organized a three-month-long camp to prepare children rescued from bonded labour to attend school. Later, in 1991, this idea became a part of the overriding mission of literary in Andhra Pradesh. The foundation’s aim is to create a social climate hostile to child labour, child marriage and other practices that deny children the right to a normal childhood.  

Mid-day Meal Scheme: With a goal to serve over 5,00,000 children per day by 2009 Mid-day meal project believes in success by irradiating two of the most pressing problems of India -Hunger & Education. The high drop-out rate in schools has been a matter of major concern. One of the most popular schemes adopted to attract children to schools is the Mid-day Meal Scheme, launched in 1995.  

National Literacy Mission: The National Literacy Mission, launched in 1988, aimed at attaining a literacy rate of 75 per cent by 2007. It imparts functional literacy to non-literates in the age group of 15–35 years. The Total Literacy Campaign is its principal strategy for eradication of illiteracy.

Sarva Siksha Abhiyan: The Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (Total Literacy Campaign) was launched in 2001 to ensure that all children in the 6–14 year age-group attend school and complete eight years of schooling by 2010. An important component of the scheme is the Education Guarantee Scheme and Alternative and Innovative Education, meant primarily for children in areas with no formal school within a one kilometer radius. This district primary education programme launched in 1994, has now opened more than 160,000 new schools and almost 84,000 alternative schools.

There is an increased need for more and more such initiatives to float up, which means other Non-Government efforts to take education to the weaker society. The bulk of Indian illiterates live in the country’s rural areas, where social and economic barriers play an important role in keeping those at the bottom of the pyramid, of society, illiterate. Government programmes alone, although well executed, may not be adequate to dismantle barriers built over centuries. Major social improvement efforts are sometimes required to bring about a change in the rural scenario.