The Hindu Business Line : Plan for human development

It is time the concept of public-private partnership is tried at primary and secondary education levels, with social empowerment and equality as the guiding principles.

As work on the Approach Paper to the Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-12) gets underway, intense internal discussions have started on the issues that may dominate the preliminary document.

Initial signs from the highest policy forum, however, do not indicate any dramatic shift in strategy or approach. With the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government at the helm with the support of the Left parties, the discourse on development naturally includes bringing the hitherto neglected segments from different castes and communities into the mainstream of nation-building. Small wonder that the Congress President, Ms Sonia Gandhi, inaugurating the India Islamic Cultural Centre in the Capital on June 12, stated that the Eleventh Plan proposals would "identify areas of special inputs" for the betterment of Muslims.

Barely a couple of months earlier, the Union Human Resource Development Minister, Mr Arjun Singh, had stirred a hornet's nest when he talked about the Government's intention to increase reservations for other backward classes (OBCs) in medical and engineering colleges.

No place for merit

Even as this controversy was raging, the Social Welfare and Empowerment Minister, Ms Meira Kumar, sought more reservations for Scheduled Caste/Tribe candidates, leaving the other economically disadvantaged segments — belonging to various castes — wondering about the kind of justice they can expect from a system that does not recognise merit as the criterion for selection.

It seems these potentially divisive issues are being used for narrow, partisan ends and are perhaps diversionary ploys to keep the people from demanding basic amenities for a decent standard of living with enough public goods to make day-to-day existence a little easier.

It is in this backdrop that the Plan panel has called for a strategy of inclusiveness and broad-based participation in the development process which, in turn, demands due emphasis on education, health and other public facilities.

It argues, justifiably, that inadequate access to these essential services not only directly limits the welfare of large sections but also denies them the opportunity to share fully in the benefits of growth. By limiting the quality of human resource development, it curtails the growth process itself, it says.

It all starts at school

Even as access to quality institutions is vital to social equity as they offer opportunities for the socially disadvantaged to advance themselves, the Plan panel is of the view that the ability to benefit from higher education is effectively determined at the school level. "Unless the access of all groups to high quality schooling is improved, they will remain at a disadvantage even if they get access to higher education, because they will not be able to do well at later educational stages," the Plan panel emphasises.

This cannot be overemphasised as there are several entry barriers to quality education at the primary level, which is often prohibitively expensive in the so-called public schools, while government-aided schools simply do not attract teachers of the calibre required.

Education is undoubtedly a passport to success and if the state is unable to ensure universal education for all, it is time the concept of public-private partnership was tried at primary and secondary education levels, with social empowerment and equality as the guiding principles.

As the UPA Government keeps stressing Bharat Nirman (Build India) for rural regeneration, a different kind of Bharat Nirman, which places emphasis on primary education, primary health and welfare of all, is the need of the hour.

It is hoped the Plan panel will recognise this and root for fundamental reforms in the human resource domain.

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